On Jesus & Execution

If God is revealed in Jesus, then execution stands condemned in the resurrection.

The State of Missouri killed Marcellus "Khaliifah" Williams last night. 

I am not here to debate Williams’ guilt or religion or anything of the sort.

I am here to loudly and unequivocally declare the barbarity of execution.

I’m not ignorant to the presence of the death penalty in the Bible. I’m aware of the command to issue the death penalty in certain situations. 

But I am also one who holds the theological conviction that the entirety of God’s very intention—the Logos, if you will—is fulfilled in Jesus. The clearest picture we have of God’s character, desire, and essence in human form is carried in the body of Jesus. 

And, in the crucifixion of Jesus, God loudly declares solidarity with the executed. 

Have you ever noticed that literally every single time Jesus of Nazareth is confronted with the death penalty, he says stuff like “let he who is without sin cast the first stone” (John 8:7) or “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34) to those who have either accepted or are wrestling with the reality of execution?

But also, how he says things like “today, you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43) to those who suffer execution? Even if/when they are guilty?

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Jesus’ story could’ve gone another way. We could have learned about a law abiding citizen who went around performing wonders and healing the infirm and teaching about a new way of life well into his old age before peacefully being gathered to the ancestors. 

But that’s not how the gospel goes. 

Instead, we meet a man who is regarded with skepticism at every turn. We see someone who belongs to a mocked people. We find someone who is aware that he will be “counted among the rebels,” regardless of how he conducts himself. (Luke 22:37) We encounter a Jesus who silently stands trial, knowing that his fate is already sealed. (Matthew 27:14) We receive a Jesus whose purported innocence is even questioned by some of the people he suffers execution alongside. (Luke 23:39)

We see a Jesus who fully recognizes the barbarity of his fate, but chose to live the life that would lead to it anyway. Because the barbarity was the point. It is the very existence of crucifixion that shows us the depth of the depravity of the world the people of Jesus’ time inherited.

Jesus’ innocence only accentuates the depravity of the system. It shows us that we have not proven sufficiently righteous nor just enough to condemn anyone’s body & lifeblood to the ground. 

Which is why Jesus’ story does not end with his execution. 

The Christian testimony of faith centers God’s victory over the depraved logic that yields rotten, sinful fruit like state-sanctioned execution. 

That is the essence of the resurrection. 

In the resurrection of Jesus, the idea that justice can be fulfilled through slaughter & execution is turned on its head. 

The one who pled for the forgiveness of his own executioners and audience—even as he endured that execution—was vindicated in the resurrection.

The one who offered a place in paradise to the guilty, “rightfully” executed rescinded the finality of the cross.

In every way, Jesus’s resurrection condemns the logic of crucifixion. 

I am aware that a great deal of Christian language is predicated on transforming the cross from an instrument of bodily torture and execution into a spiritual totem of salvation.

But the cross is a reminder of the life that Jesus chose to live.

The cross is Jesus’ declaration that the Reign of God begins with those who are subject to the powers of execution.

And the resurrection mocks the very idea that there is justice or righteousness to be found in that execution.