UMR Communications is offering the latest headlines in the RSS format.
Commentary
COMMENTARY: The poisonous work of fear Adam Hamilton, Feb 10, 2010
Adam Hamilton
By Adam Hamilton Special Contributor
Editor’s note: This is the third of a four-part series.
We all are born afraid. Part of that is a mechanism God has given us to protect ourselves; we call it the self-preservation instinct.
That mechanism can be helpful in dangerous situations. There are times when we have to fight, to work, to exert energy in order to save ourselves; and there also are times when we need to run from a situation.
Unfortunately, our self-preservation instinct is coupled with our sin instinct. There is something in all of us that is broken. We have a propensity to do the wrong thing, to twist what was meant to be good, to misuse and distort it. You know this, and I know it.
As we look at the Sanhedrin and their treatment of Jesus, I would ask you to consider the ways the story relates to you. Fear performs its poisonous work within all of us. How often are we still motivated by it? In what ways does our fear lead us, individually and as a nation, to do what is wrong—at times unthinkable—while justifying our actions as necessary?
How was fear a part of the Salem witch trials in 1692, or Joseph McCarthy’s “Red Scare” in 1952? What role did fear play in the apartheid laws of South Africa or the Jim Crow laws of the United States? How did fear shape U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War and after 9/11? How has your fear led you to do things you later regretted?
When I read the story of Jesus’ trial before the Sanhedrin, I am left wondering, “Would I have been among those who out of fear and insecurity and the hate those feelings breed found Jesus guilty of crimes worthy of death?” I recognize myself in the Sanhedrin. I fear I would have made the same decision.
Preachers know about fear. It is easy to use fear to motivate people in the church, and that is something we have to be careful about. Politicians do it, also—just watch the ads they run. Unfortunately, those tactics too often work.
Love conquers fear
The question we must ask in our personal and public lives is not “What is the thing that will make me feel most secure?” but “What is the most loving thing for me to do?” In the end, love conquers in ways that fear, hate and violence simply cannot. That is what the Scriptures teach us about the ways of God. I am reminded of 1John 4:
“God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear . . . We love because he first loved us. Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.”
I am certain that at least a few of those 71 Sanhedrin members must have questioned whether putting Jesus to death was the right thing to do. Some had to wonder whether this man might not truly be the Messiah. But there is nothing in any of the Gospel accounts to indicate that a single one of them, other than Joseph of Arimathea, disagreed when it came to the death sentence they sought from Pilate.
That points to another fact of human existence: Resisting those in leadership or in the majority, even when we believe they are doing wrong, is exceedingly difficult. When the tide is moving, we tend to be afraid to stand up and resist.
I have seen this in myself from time to time. There have been occasions when people in authority said, “This is the way we ought to go,” and I did not speak out for fear that doing so would make me look foolish.
Martin Niemöeller, a Lutheran pastor in Nazi Germany during World War II, saw the sins being committed against the Jewish people and at first decided not to object. Only later did he begin to speak out against what he had seen.
Words attributed to Niemöeller movingly express his analysis of the situation: “First they came for the Communists and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me and by that time there was no one left to speak up anymore.”
Afraid to speak up
No one spoke up in the Sanhedrin. No one asked, “Is this really in keeping with our faith?” How many times in recent history has the same thing happened—during the Holocaust, in Jim Crow America, in South Africa, at Abu Ghraib, and in your life and mine. How many times have we known something was wrong but were afraid to speak up?
I am not talking about simply pointing out other people’s sins. I am talking about those times when you are part of a group about to do something that is clearly wrong or when you see injustice being done to someone, and all it would take would be one person speaking up, but everyone remains silent.
What would have happened if one or two or three of those Sanhedrin members had simply said, “This isn’t right, regardless of what we think about this man. It’s not in keeping with what God teaches us.”
In our own situations we must be able to say, with great humility and despite our fear, “You know, this just doesn’t feel right.” In that pivotal moment when “Say something” and “You dare not say anything” are both pounding in your head, say something.
The Rev. Hamilton is pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kan. This is an excerpt from his new book, 24 Hours that Changed the World (Abingdon). Also available are a DVD, leader guide and Lenten devotional.
Adam Hamilton
Love conquers fear 
