Dr. John Tamilio III, Pastor
© 2020, Dr. Tamilio
Ezekiel 18:25: “The way of the Lord is unfair.” This sounds like last week’s sermon, doesn’t it? Last week I preached on the parable of the workers in the vineyard and claimed that, when it comes to God’s grace, God is unfair. Ezekiel (speaking the word of God here) is posing a rhetorical question, for the Lord’s response is, “O house of Israel: Is my way unfair? Is it not your ways that are unfair?”
The passage begins with God saying that consequences of the sins of the father shall no longer be visited upon the son. This was a long-held belief in ancient Israel. Now, the wicked will be punished for their sins. If the wicked repent and turn from their evil ways, and, according to the prophet, they “do what is lawful and right, [then] they shall save their [lives].” Likewise, if the righteous turn from their ways, they will be punished like the unrepentant.
Are we hearing the lessons here? Is it coming through? Do you get it? Ezekiel is saying that we will get our just deserts. The righteous will be rewarded; the wicked will be punished. Now we know that this does not always happen. We often scratch our heads and wonder why the righteous suffer and the wicked reap the benefits of the sins. That is another sermon for another time. Let’s take Ezekiel at his word for a moment. If not Ezekiel, then listen to Isaiah:
Those who walk righteously
and speak what is right,
who reject gain from extortion
and keep their hands from accepting bribes,
who stop their ears against plots of murder
and shut their eyes against contemplating evil—
they are the ones who will dwell on the heights,
whose refuge will be the mountain fortress.
Their bread will be supplied,
and water will not fail them.[1]
Are we hearing the lessons here? Is it coming through? A response to my sermon last week, in-light of what Ezekiel teaches us today, may very well be: it isn’t that God is unfair; we are unfair.
Granted, part of what we are reading in Ezekiel is a common theme in the Old Testament: after entering the Promised Land (long after their exile in Egypt and the Exodus saga), there is a covenant to which Israel is a party and to which they must abide: as long as they keep and honor the Lord’s commands, they shall live in the land and prosper. If they disobey those commands — especially if they bow down and worship other gods — then they will suffer the consequences. Enemies will take their land and they will go into exile. Ezekiel includes a conversation between Yahweh and Israel.
Yet the house of Israel says, “The way of the Lord is unfair.” O house of Israel, are my ways unfair? Is it not your ways that are unfair? Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, all of you according to your ways, says the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions; otherwise iniquity will be your ruin.
Many of us fear being judged by God, and maybe we should. Maybe if more of us thought that God was looking down on us taking notes on the bad that we do, we’d be less likely to engage in such acts. The unconditional love of God is not a license for us to do as we please. Think about it this way for a second — all religions have two things in common: they try to explain who God is and they teach their followers how they should live their lives. In other words, religions provide a list of do’s and don’ts. Christians and Jews often think of the Ten Commands as our list of do’s and don’ts, but it goes beyond the decalogue. Jesus himself said that he did not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets (meaning the Hebrew Bible), but to fulfill them. He was very clear about how we are to treat one another.[2] “’Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”[3]
And yet, we are quick to throw the blame on God, asking such questions as “Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?” rather than placing the blame where it belongs. We should be asking, “Why do people do horrible things to one another?” Why don’t we ask this? Is it because we think of ourselves as more righteous than we are? We shudder when we hear about horrific crimes: rape, murder, child molestation. We wonder, “Where is God?” when such travesties occur. I am reminded of a poem by Sonia Weitz, a woman who survived the Nazi holocaust as a young girl. I may have shared her poem “Where Was Man” before. In this piece, she wonders “Where was God?” while she and her people faced the horrors of Auschwitz. The poem ends with a powerful realization:
But now I feel God wasn’t dead
And where was man I ask instead[4]
This is Ezekiel’s question as well.
The second to last verse from the passage we read from the prophet today states, “Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit!” We have to look at ourselves. We have to reexamine ourselves. We have to see how we are behaving and whether or not we are being fair to ourselves, to others, and to God. The problem isn’t God. The problem is us.
The passage ends, with the Lord (speaking through Ezekiel) saying, “For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord GOD. Turn, then, and live.” People often think of the God of the Old Testament as a wrathful, violent God, whereas the God of the New Testament (embodied in Christ) is seen as a God of love. If God indeed punishes us — as we see again and again in the Hebrew Bible — it isn’t something God enjoys doing. Personally, I do not think of God as a wrathful, punishing God. That said, when a child is punished it isn’t because of any wrong the parents have done. It is the child’s own doing. The consequences of our actions are from our own doing as well.
So, we’ve gone through today’s Hebrew Bible reading with a fine-tooth comb. Where does that leave us. Maybe it leaves us in many places, but there is a central, theological idea at work here: we need to not blame God. If the wrong is of our own doing, we need to face the music, as they say, and repent. If it is not of our own doing, then we need to see the bad that happens as a learning opportunity. God does not cause the bad that happens, but I think he watches to see what we will do — how we will respond — as a result. Fires, floods, earthquakes, viruses: what do we do to help one another in the wake of such tragedies? Maybe that is the question.
But now I feel God wasn’t dead
And where was man I ask instead
Amen.
[1] Isaiah 33:14-16 (NIV).
[2] See Matthew 5:17.
[3] Matthew 25:40 (NIV).
[4] Sonia Schreiber Weitz, “Where Was Man?” from I Promised I Would Tell (Brookline: Facing History and Ourselves, 1993), 86.