Do I Need to Appease God
Why does God seem angry and ready to punish sinners in the Old Testament? If God is so angry and vengeful in the Old Testament, did He change in the New Testament once Jesus took flesh? I offer you this: it is not that God changed. Instead, it is that our understanding of God has developed and deepened. As a child, I reached for the hot pot of boiling mashed potatoes on the stove, and my mom hit me with a wooden spoon to stop me from grabbing the pot. I thought she was so cruel and evil for hitting me. She was not being cruel; she was saving me from becoming severely injured. Throughout the Old Testament, we read stories of how God corrected and punished His people: the great flood of Noah, the slaughtering of the prophets of Baal, the command to kill Isaac in sacrifice, the taking of the land of the Canaanites, the plagues of Egypt, et cetera. With naïveté, we can look at those stories and think God was evil, cruel, jealous, and vicious. Or, with the Wisdom of the Gospel, we can engage those stories and see a God who loves and is preventing His beloved from even greater harm, hell. Morality is not meant to be doing enough good to keep God happy and satisfied. Morality is about our conversion and softening of our hearts.
Jesus, in His Sermon on the Mount, makes this clear. “You have heard that it was said... but I say to you...” He takes the Commandments and explains that they go deeper than surface-level fulfillment. You shall not kill is not just about ending an innocent life but includes harm, gossip, and endangerment. Adultery is not just about an affair but is about lust and custody of the eyes. Justice is not just about retribution but finds its perfection in expressing mercy. Morality is not about adherence to the Law but about changing my heart. We are not simply called to strictly adhere to the Law of God and the letter of that Law. We are called to change in life and to conform to God's will and mind.
Through this Lent, let us together seek the Lord’s Will that we become more than rule followers, but that we become Holy.