Wisdom 2:17-24: a reflection

17Let’s see if his words are true. Let’s test what will happen at the end of his life. 18For if the righteous man is God’s son, he will uphold him, and he will deliver him out of the hand of his adversaries. 19Let’s test him with insult and torture, that we may find out how gentle he is, and test his patience. 20Let’s condemn him to a shameful death, for he will be protected, according to his words.” 21Thus they reasoned, and they were led astray; for their wickedness blinded them, 22and they didn’t know the mysteries of God, neither did they hope for wages of holiness, nor did they discern that there is a prize for blameless souls. 23Because God created man for incorruption, and made him an image of his own everlastingness; 24but death entered into the world by the envy of the devil, and those who belong to him experience it.

This passage from Wisdom is startling to read after the Gospels, because it describes, centuries early, exactly the pattern of Christ's passion. The wicked plot against the righteous man: let us test him with insult and torture, let us condemn him to a shameful death, for if he is God's son, God will protect him and deliver him. It is almost word for word the mockery that would later ring out at the foot of the cross.

Notice what the author says was really going on in those who reasoned this way: they were led astray, for their wickedness blinded them. They did not know the hidden purposes of God. The mockers thought they were exposing a fraud; in truth they were blind to what God was doing through the very suffering they inflicted. Malice made them certain, and certainty made them blind.

And notice the deeper truth the passage reaches: God created us for incorruption, in the image of his own eternity, and death entered the world by the devil's envy, not by God's design. Death was never what God intended for you. The righteous sufferer, mocked and condemned, is the one through whom God undoes exactly that. When the innocent suffer and the malicious seem certain they have won, remember this passage: God made us for life, the mockers are blind to his purposes, and through a righteous one's shameful death, death itself is being overturned.

Lord, you made me for life, not death, and through the mocked and condemned righteous One you overturn death itself. When malice seems certain and the innocent suffer, keep me trusting your hidden purposes, and thank you that you made me for incorruption in your image.