Isn’t it interesting that the first murder and the first show of religion are found in the same Bible story? By no means is this a coincidence!
God knew the end from the beginning. He foresaw all of the injustices would be committed in the name of religion. This is why, right away, we encounter a dark foreshadowing: two brothers come together to please God and offer their service to Him. One gets angry at the other and turns against him in a burst of betrayal. What began with well intentioned service to God ends in the death of a brotherhood.
The events in Genesis 4 go to show that religion can be a dangerous thing. In fact, some are surprised to learn that religion scores a lousy grade in the Bible. The tendency is to assume the Bible praises religion, when often the Bible is its loudest critic. After all, the Bible is clear: it was the religious leaders who prosecuted the prophets. It was the religious leaders who executed the Son of God Himself! Exasperated after all of this, the Bible finally shakes it head and says, Alright, you want to be religious? Then look after widows and orphans and keep yourself from being polluted by the world. Because that’s pure and faultless religion, the kind that God our Father accepts (James 1:27).
I heard a teacher once say: God does not give us a religion. He gives us a Book. He gives us a Savior. He gives us Salvation. He redeems us and says, “Now live for Me! And your love your neighbor as yourself. No, even more––love your neighbor as I have loved you! Here’s how.”
With that said, organized religion is necessary! Without organization, no good can be done for our communities and for ourselves. God calls us to be in community with one another. He wants us to organize our efforts and to submit to His delegated authority. This is very important and cannot be neglected. A Christian without a community is an ember outside a fire. But the warning of Genesis 4 still stands: as we organize, as we come together to serve God, we may be confronted with jealousy, anger, pride, and envy.
Case in point: the Immovable Ladder. This small, seemingly insignificant wooden ladder leans against a window facade at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City. And to understand the Immovable Ladder, we have to understand a little something about this church.
The events in Genesis 4 go to show that religion can be a dangerous thing. In fact, some are surprised to learn that religion scores a lousy grade in the Bible. The tendency is to assume the Bible praises religion, when often the Bible is its loudest critic. After all, the Bible is clear: it was the religious leaders who prosecuted the prophets. It was the religious leaders who executed the Son of God Himself! Exasperated after all of this, the Bible finally shakes it head and says, Alright, you want to be religious? Then look after widows and orphans and keep yourself from being polluted by the world. Because that’s pure and faultless religion, the kind that God our Father accepts (James 1:27).
I heard a teacher once say: God does not give us a religion. He gives us a Book. He gives us a Savior. He gives us Salvation. He redeems us and says, “Now live for Me! And your love your neighbor as yourself. No, even more––love your neighbor as I have loved you! Here’s how.”
With that said, organized religion is necessary! Without organization, no good can be done for our communities and for ourselves. God calls us to be in community with one another. He wants us to organize our efforts and to submit to His delegated authority. This is very important and cannot be neglected. A Christian without a community is an ember outside a fire. But the warning of Genesis 4 still stands: as we organize, as we come together to serve God, we may be confronted with jealousy, anger, pride, and envy.
The 1700 year old church was supposedly built on the holy site where Jesus died and resurrected. It is now under the care of no less than six Christian denominations: Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Armenian Apostolic, Coptic, Ethiopian, and Syriac Orthodox.
“The whole church is carefully parceled into sections, some sections being commonly shared with others belonging strictly to a particular sect. A set of complicated rules governs the transit rights of each group through each particular section on any given day, and especially during the holidays.
“Arguments and violent clashes are not uncommon. In November 2008 the internet was flooded with videos of a fistfight between Armenian and Greek monks in one such dispute. A small section of the roof of the church is disputed between the Copts and Ethiopians. At least one Coptic monk at any given time sits on a chair placed on the particular spot to express this claim. On a hot summer day he moved his chair some 20cm more into the shade. This was interpreted to be a hostile act and a violation of the status quo. Eleven were hospitalized after a fight resulting from this provocation.
“This state of affairs makes any agreement about renovations or repairs on the edifice impossible. The church is in a state of decay as a result.
“The famous immovable ladder is a bizarre outcome of this religious stubbornness pushed to extremes. Some time in the first half of the 19th century, someone placed a ladder up against the wall of the church. No one is sure who he was, or more importantly, to which sect he belonged. The ladder remains there to this day. No one dares touch it, lest they disturb the status quo, and provoke the wrath of others. The exact date when ladder was placed is not known but the first evidence of it comes from 1852. The ladder hasn’t moved since” (Source).
The story seems right out of Genesis 4: brothers coming together to serve God, each in their own way, but they dare not move a ladder in case the wrath of one group would overtake the other. And keep in mind, these are the folks who quote 1 John 13:25: “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.” How can such a thing be possible? Well, as one teacher put it, the people you get most angry at are the members of your own family––even though they are your own family.
“Arguments and violent clashes are not uncommon. In November 2008 the internet was flooded with videos of a fistfight between Armenian and Greek monks in one such dispute. A small section of the roof of the church is disputed between the Copts and Ethiopians. At least one Coptic monk at any given time sits on a chair placed on the particular spot to express this claim. On a hot summer day he moved his chair some 20cm more into the shade. This was interpreted to be a hostile act and a violation of the status quo. Eleven were hospitalized after a fight resulting from this provocation.
“This state of affairs makes any agreement about renovations or repairs on the edifice impossible. The church is in a state of decay as a result.
The story seems right out of Genesis 4: brothers coming together to serve God, each in their own way, but they dare not move a ladder in case the wrath of one group would overtake the other. And keep in mind, these are the folks who quote 1 John 13:25: “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.” How can such a thing be possible? Well, as one teacher put it, the people you get most angry at are the members of your own family––even though they are your own family.
