April 10, 2009
Let
us think together on this Good Friday about human dignity. You know the phrase well from the Baptismal Covenant. “Will you respect the dignity of every
human being?” “I will with God’s
help.” This is a continuation of
what we began on Palm Sunday where we saw that sin is like a spiritual virus
that can go epidemic, destroying human dignity. We saw that Jesus can only reverse the epidemic—the one in
the virus of sin cannot get a hold.
This is also a continuation of our thinking last night at Maundy
Thursday, in which we saw that the ability to love and respect others is
grounded in the dignity conferred upon us as wonderfully made in God’s image,
and more wonderfully redeemed in Christ Jesus.
On
this Good Friday, I especially want to hone in the connection between truth and human dignity. While interrogating Jesus, Pilate asked him if he was a
king. Jesus said, “For this I was
born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth
listens to my voice.” And Pilate
replied, “What is truth?” It seems
to me that Pilate’s agnosticism
about truth is his permit to desecrate the dignity of Jesus. I imagine him smirking, in a kind of
world-weary, seen it all, self-congratulatory boredom. “What is truth?”
Pilate
may just be a man of our times! In
our times truth has no transcendent source. Truth is feeling something about yourself very strongly, so
strongly that your emotion should be protected by law. Without a firm conviction that God is
the source of human dignity, our discussions devolve into proceduralism,
utilitarianism, and emotivism.
What
do I mean? Right now, the United
States is country in which we cannot legally tell the difference free speech
and pornography. (Stanley Fish: The Trouble with Principle) Why—because we’re loosing the God-given
source of dignity, which says that, the body is sacred, holy, and good. So, the law won’t get into truth—only,
is the procedure established by the first amendment, a human law, being
followed. Thank God we still get
that protecting children somehow transcends human law. But as you know, that is being attacked
at this very time. There are
people who feel very strongly that this is who they are, and who are you to
judge someone else’s truth?
The
question is, is there something essential in human nature that calls us to
respect life? The rubber meets the
road when we consider the value of the old, the infirm, the damaged, and the
mentally ill. Without a deep
conviction that human dignity is a truth that transcends culture, will, or utility, then human beings are
nothing more than bipedal meat with opposable thumbs that can be used by whoever
holds the reigns of power.
Pilate
knew what truth is. He knew the law was more transcendent
that mob’s bloodlust. He knew that
law transcended the sectarian jealousy of the priests. He knew, there on the Gabbatha, the
Judgment Seat, that he stood for more than Rome, but for truth. But he pretended he didn’t know the
truth, his agnosticism stinks of cowardice. If he had acted upon the truth he knew, he would have paid a
high price. But, what’s more
expensive—loosing you power and position, or loosing your soul? Who lost his dignity at Gabbatha? Jesus or Pilate?
So,
you who believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth, you
who believe in Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, you who believe in the Holy
Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, I ask you: “Will you respect the dignity of every human being?”
“I
will, with God’s help.”
Thanks are
due for the basic idea of this sermon to Jean Bethke Elshtain, from, “While
Europe Slept,” in First Things, March 2009, Number 191. And of course to Alasdair MacIntyre for
After Virtue.
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