Today's Scripture Reading (October 29, 2023): Esther 2
Warning: Sensitive Content
I am not a
supporter of capital punishment. On the logical front, there are just too many
problems with the process of putting someone to death. We aren't independent
judges that can make a dispassionate decision about who to kill. And that fact
is apparent in the racial, religious, economic, and gender differences in who
we choose to kill. If you are poor or from a visible minority, your chances of
being put to death are much higher than if you are rich and white. And this
doesn't even begin to examine the number of people who found themselves on
death row who have been declared innocent. For me, and I recognize that this is
just me, the sanctioned state killing of even one innocent person is too high a
risk.
But this is
on what I am calling the logical front. There is also an emotional part of me
that reacts to execution. No matter how it comes, the end of life significantly
impacts me. And every time there is an execution, I have to admit that it is
not retribution and a feeling that someone is getting what they deserve that is
at the forefront of my mind. It is the idea that someone whose life began with
such promise and potential is about to die. All of the promise is wasted as
life ends on a gurney, with a state-sanctioned bullet, or at the end of a government
rope. There is no chance for repentance, change, or make amends for their crimes.
The whole process makes me sad.
I can't begin
to imagine the death penalty in ancient times. Not only did it face the same
logical problems as we face today, but it was also designed to be gruesome and
painful. On top of all of this, it had also become a spectator sport. Criminals
didn't die in a room with just a few people witnessing the event for the human
community. Executions brought crowds who would stand to watch the convicted
person die.
As
Christians, we are used to the awful descriptions of the process of
crucifixion. People who were crucified often took days to die. The cause of
death was not blood loss or injury; people died of suffocation. They lived
until they just didn't have the strength to pull in one more much-needed breath.
Another
ancient way of killing someone was impalement. And it might have been an even
more gruesome way to die, although it might have been a little quicker than
crucifixion. When someone was impaled, they were placed on a stick at the
bottom of the torso, and then two people grabbed a leg of the convicted person
and proceeded to pull them down on the pole until the sharp end emerged higher
up on the body. They had perfected the process so that the person could live in
agony for a time after the impalement was completed. Then, the convicted person
was left on the stick so that the people could come and see the dead criminal
hanging on the pole.
Of course,
all of this was an attempt to discourage others from following in the footsteps
of those whom the state had killed. In the case of these two men who are
executed at the beginning of the story of Esther, these executions were
intended to discourage people who might want to consider assassinating the
king. Ultimately, the purpose failed because we know that Xerxes, Esther's
King, was assassinated in August 465 B.C.E.
Tomorrow's
Scripture Reading: Esther 3
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