His Name is a Punching Bag
Photo by Magda Ehlers from Pexels
When I was a kid one of the worst things you could possibly do was use the Lord’s name in vain. This amounted to substituting God’s name for a swear word, like yelling “Jesus Christ” when you found out the upcoming camping trip had been canceled due to rain.
We had weird workarounds though to ensure our outrage could be expressed without angering the man upstairs. Phrases like “gosh darnit” and “jeez!” got the point across. People nearby knew what we meant without us getting zapped by a lightening bolt.
We understood God to be the the opposite of Destiny’s Child or Walter White – he did not want us to say his name. This cultural phenomenon of not naming the one who shall not be named is perhaps a carry over from our religiously Jewish roots, where they wouldn’t use the name of God but rather euphemisms and codewords.
Nowadays the Christian God just can’t get no respect. You’ll hear his name profanely lobbed around like two contractors choppin it up over lunchtime tallboys. Radio hosts smear his name in reaction to another Lions draft pick being a bust. Random people curse your heavenly father after stubbing their toe or dropping a bag of groceries. Even leaders of certain countries inspire more respect and fear than the creator, you’ll think twice before uttering a foul word against them.
Not him though, poor him, his name is a punching bag.
***
As offensive as that may seem to you, it’s not true blasphemy. A common trap that we fall into is being offended by the appearance of something, while not recognizing the truly offensive manifestation of it.
As an example, these past few years I have most profoundly experienced God’s perspective towards me through interacting with my own son.
There is a certain feeling you get watching your child go through the world. A twisting in your guts when they are in pain or distressed. A delight that comes from watching their wacky mind play and make associations you’ve long since forgotten were possible. You have hopes and aspirations for them. You come to really understand the golden rule and God’s vision for how we should treat people. How will I want my own son to be treated at school, at home, out in the world? If we could have the love for our neighbors (near and far) that we have for our own kids, the world would begin to change very quickly for the better. We would be up all night bothered by our neighbor’s difficulties, and we would spend far more time celebrating our neighbor’s joys and successes.
I have hopes for my child. Not about what he will do, but more about who he will be. Honestly, it doesn’t really matter if he’s a doctor or a lawyer or working at America’s last remaining Blockbuster Video. I want him to be fulfilled, kind, generous, empathetic, and loved by a community around him. Better to have a content and joyous adult son, than a “successful” one who is miserable and struggling.
That is why I discipline him, tell him “no”, put him in timeout, or take things away from him that he loves to play with when he’s losing it. To date, he has never been spanked, but if he goes out in the road unsupervised, he knows one is coming. Better to experience the momentary pain of a spanking as opposed to the possibly catastrophic experience of being hit by a speeding car.
These experiences of being a father are now a filter through which I view God and the Bible. All the crazy parts in the Old Testament, passages about killing every single thing that moves, or fire from heaven, frankly verses that I can’t adequately explain – these are all tempered by the thought that God feels about me roughly the same way I feel about my kids.
And so, blasphemy, rather than a sassy comment, is something far more damaging. It is knowing the Father’s love and saying he is a different way. Misrepresenting his personality and legacy into our surroundings and relationships. It is truly destructive to the body, mind, and soul.
***
There is quote by Jesus in Mark chapter 11: “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
Christians sometimes act like his name is a magic incantation. You’ve seen this before with television preachers shouting, “We declare [fill in the blank], IN JESUS’ NAME!!” There is power in The Name, they say, like God is Alladin’s genie who must fulfill our wishes when we utter the enchanted words.
But there is no power when we do stuff that he would never do. We order up things like fear, hatred, violence, then try to put it on his cosmic bar tab.
Blasphemy is saying that God endorses our actions, or even worse that we are acting on his behalf. Theologian Shane Willard describes blasphemy as “Writing checks that God wouldn’t cash”. In practice it looks like all the crimes and indignities of the Church, both large and small, rubber stamped with God’s seal of approval.
Our childhood idea of using the Lord’s name in vain was disrespectful, whereas real blasphemy ruins lives and communities. It confuses people – they think God must be awful cause his children are all jerks. And oddly enough our actual blasphemy is what enables people’s apparent blasphemy to flourish and proliferate.
How can someone’s word or deed be judged as blasphemous or not?
Look at the outcome of their actions. Is there a resultant increase in fear, violence, hatred, and disconnect? Or are the fruits love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control?
Look hard, look beneath the surface. Remember that Christ’s message of love, forgiveness, and care for others was at the time considered disrespectful enough to warrant a violent murder. Your feeling offense doesn’t necessarily indicate blasphemy.
God is love. But God is also like Disney, he won’t respond well to your brand infringement, your cheap blasphemous knock off of his nature. So, for God’s sake, make sure you’re acting like him or they’ll never stopping smearing his poor name.