Lent
Good Friday
April 3, 2015

Scripture Reading: Acts 10:34-43

…how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; — Acts 10:38-39

How ironic on this Good Friday, I think, as I write this. I am distracted by preparation for the annual meeting of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. We still execute people in Oklahoma.

There are no good rational reasons to continue the use of death penalty. Studies done by other states clearly document the much higher cost of executing the death penalty than sentencing someone to life in prison.  Social scientists have long noted that the use of the death penalty does not serve as a deterrent to crime, one of the reasons often given for supporting it. Perhaps the more chilling fact is that since 1973 when the use of the death penalty was reinstated by a Supreme Court ruling, 150 persons have been exonerated as not being guilty of the crime for which they received the death sentence, ten of those in Oklahoma.  We do not know how many innocent persons have been executed. If the death penalty has no impact on crime and if there is lack of certainty in whether a person is actually guilty of a crime, why is it so important that we spend our limited dollars on maintaining the use of the death penalty?

We humans, as much as we feel we are enlightened with reason and logic, are not. We are afraid—afraid of the evil that surrounds us and afraid of change. We also tend to believe that there is a hierarchy of sin. Surely, if we identify people who have sinned more than us that means something about us. Not true, sin is sin and must be confessed and forgiven.

It is ironic that our salvation came through an innocent man who was executed and because of him we have no reason to fear evil or change for he has conquered the world (John 16:33). We have every reason to trust that if we repent and confess our sins we will be forgiven. We have every reason to work toward every human, even the criminal, knowing the love of God through Christ.

Prayer: Lord, you commanded us to care about prisoners. Help us open our hearts to them and to restore them to wholeness. Amen.

 All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved