Taboo | Wayfarer

I will throw you on the land
and hurl you on the open field.
I will let all the birds of the sky settle on you
and all the animals of the wild gorge themselves on you.
Ezekiel 32:4 (NIV)

A number of years ago I read a fascinating book that has become one of my favorite all-time reads. The book is called Holy Sh*t by Melissa Mohr, and it’s subtitled “A Brief History of Swearing.” I have always been fascinated by words and phrases and their histories along with culture’s mores and taboos regarding what is acceptable and unacceptable to say.

In her book, Mohr explains that there are basically two categories of swear words in the history of English. There are swear words that have to do with that which is sacred (e.g. “Holy”) and then there are swear words that have to do with body parts, bodily acts (especially sex), and excrements (e.g. “Shit”). Mohr goes on to explain that through history these two categories waxed and waned with regard to which was more prominent and fashionable.

I thought of Mohr’s book this morning as I read today’s chapter which contains the final two of Ezekiel’s seven prophetic messages regarding ancient Israel’s former enslaver and millennial nemesis, Pharaoh and his Egyptian empire.

In the first of the final two, Ezekiel writes another song of lament, a funeral dirge, in which God tells Pharaoh that He:

will throw [Pharaoh] on the land
and hurl you on the open field.
I will let all the birds of the sky settle on you
and all the animals of the wild gorge themselves on you.

What is easily lost on casual modern readers is the fact that the Egyptians, especially the Pharaohs, had an entire religious belief system around death and the afterlife. All those Egyptian mummies we see in museums come from a highly orchestrated process that was rooted in Egyptian religion. The Egyptians preserved the bodies, the organs, and then buried the Pharaoh with all of his treasures, worldly goods, and sometimes even with dead and mummified servants because they believed that Pharaoh would need all of those things in the ancient Egyptian version of the heavenly afterlife.

When God through Ezekiel proclaims that Pharaoh’s dead body will be thrown into an open field where all of the carrion fowl and wild beasts can feast on his flesh, it means there is nothing to preserve and mummify. God is going to rob Pharaoh of the heavenly afterlife he believes he’s going to have according to his own faith system.

The second and final message to Pharaoh is addressed to both Pharaoh and “his hoards.” God through Ezekiel tells the Egyptian king that he will be drug down to “the pit, the realm of the dead.” When he gets there, he’ll find out that he is joining the leaders and military hoards of a bunch of regional nations like Assyria, Elam, Meshek, Tubal, Edom, and the Sidonians. All of these kingdoms were devastated and destroyed. Pharaoh would have known this.

Instead of ascending to a cushy afterlife with all of his servants and treasures, Zeke’s prophetic messages are telling Pharaoh that just the opposite is going to happen. He will find himself in a very different afterlife with all of the other fallen kings and their empires who had gone before. He’s headed down to the pit. The realm of the dead.

In short, Zeke’s prophetic message is really an ancient form of the same colloquialism that we still use interpersonally today with enemies or individuals with whom we’re angry. . He’s telling Pharaoh “Go to hell” in a much more creative way. I would argue, however, that it would have been just as blunt in Pharaoh’s mind when he received the message.

In the quiet this morning, I’m reminded that history teaches us lessons about evil and about tyrants and dictators and emperors bent on conquest and power. They don’t respond to polite requests to be nicer. Any offer of a joint counseling session to work out the issues and find reconciliation will be rejected, mocked, and laughed at. Those who try the appeasement approach quickly find themselves the next victim. Evil only responds to direct force, and God through Zeke is delivering a direct, forceful message. One of the things that I have learned through the study of both theatre and mass communication is that in certain human situations the use of a well-timed, well-turned expletive is a powerful tool in getting through thick heads and hard hearts.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

"Crossing Cultures of Masks" source: Novica — “Crossing Cultures of Masks” source: Novica

Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. Colossians 3:11 (NIV)

One of the things that is largely forgotten today is just how socially radical the followers of Jesus were in the socio-economic Roman world of the first century. The lines of culture and society, of “haves” and “have nots” in their day and age were clearly drawn. Ethnicities, genders, and nationalities were deeply divided. As deeply divided as we see our own current culture, I have a hard time believing that it wasn’t exponentially worse in the first century Roman world.

Then Jesus came. And His followers saw in Jesus a different example:

Jesus spoke with women, and honored them as they supported His work. He spoke with a Samaritan woman with whom it was socially taboo to speak. He spoke with a woman condemned by her adultery, he touched her, covered her nakedness and forgave her.

Jesus was willing to go to the house of a Roman, whom it was socially and politically unacceptable by many in His culture to do.

Jesus accepted dinner invitations from those who were of the right wing, conservative political party that wanted Him dead.

Jesus dined with left wing, liberal Roman sympathizers considered traitors among His people. These hated turncoats and Bernie Madoff type con-men had worked the Roman system to get personally rich by extorting money from their good neighbors.

Jesus touched and healed people who were poor, who were social outcasts, and those whom His society deemed wholly unacceptable.

Among Jesus’ circle of 12 disciples were educated and uneducated, a right wing extremist and a left wing extremist, rich and poor, blue collar and white collar.

After Jesus ascension, His followers continued His example. When Jesus’ followers gathered together they welcomed everyone to the table. Slaves were welcome at the table with their own slave owners (imagine how uncomfortable that must have been). Men and women were both welcomed. People of all colors and nations were welcomed at the same table whether a respected Greek academic or a brutal Scythian barbarian. In Christ everyone who followed Jesus was welcome at the table. This simple, radical, counter cultural act would slowly rock the Roman Empire.

Today I’m asking myself, “How far has the pendulum sung back among those of us who claim to be Jesus’ followers today? Who would I honestly not want to welcome at the table with me? Who would make me really uncomfortable if they walked into my Sunday’s worship service and sat down?”

Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner.

I’ve just identified the very place I need spiritual heart surgery. STAT.