“Guilt by blood.”
Think about that for a little bit. It is both true and not true. If you consider that you yourself are guilty by virtue of blood, you are well on the way to wisdom. If, however, you find yourself thinking that there are some who are guilty by virtue of their blood, but, certainly, not you, then you are primed to become something you cannot imagine yourself to be. You are the very thing Hannah Arendt pointed to when she coined the phrase, “The banality of evil.”
If certain Germans, related to the Goerings, Hoess’, Goeths, Franks, and who-knows-who-else’s of this world, are guilty by virtue of blood relation, how different is that from the Nazis’ own accusation of guilt by blood association of the Jews? This is just one group blaming another for all the world’s problems. But the problem is deeper than that, far deeper, more personal than that, far more intimate than that. The problem touches each of us.
The world cares little for what the Bible - God’s Word! - says about sin and guilt and evil. But it is so right. It is so perceptive and true. Which is, probably, why most of the world dismisses it. It is too uncomfortably on point.
Evil is a condition in which we find ourselves immersed. Some give evidence of the reality of evil in obvious, plainly seen ways, others in subtle, easily shrugged off ways. But we all swim in it, breathe it in, and walk through it.
As we enter once more into the season of Advent, the season of preparing ourselves for why - why! - the eternal Son of God became man and came into the world, it would be well worth our while, each of us, to consider the banality of evil and what the phrase “blood guilt” means and does not mean.
Christmas will be much more meaningful for us if we do.
well said...