The Dark Side of Potential


It's clear, when looking at the scene of Jesus on the cross, that we as humans have the capacity to hurt each other, deliberately.  We have it in us to inflict pain.  What Jesus underwent at the cross was no mere accident.  He was not inadvertently run over by a horse or struck down by random lightning.  He died as the result of premeditated strategy.  Human beings, knowing precisely what they were doing, planned out every detail of this process of torture and execution as a deliberate means to an end. 

Crucifixion was the strategy the Roman Empire had devised to keep occupied people under control.  The Romans had successfully extended their domination over the whole of the Mediterranean Basin, and as a way of maintaining that control, the process of crucifixion had proven exceedingly useful.  It served two purposes.  It not only eliminated troublemakers from occupied lands, but it also served as an example to any other would-be rebels who might have contemplated lifting their hand against the authorities.  It was as calculating a way as you could find for one set of human beings to destroy and control other human beings, and this is part of what we see when you come into the event of the cross – human beings deliberately inflicting pain on other human beings for purposes of their own.

And when asked about the mystery of human potential, room has to made for this sort of thing.  It is not a subject we like to dwell upon, but neither can it be denied: we humans have it in us to hurt other human beings.  We are willing to dominate and destroy. The savage impulse to taunt and to torture and to kill is a real part of the human story.  All you have to do is read the accounts of life in a concentration camp or walk the streets of some of our cities to have this fact underlined.  You could even look internally to the people in your life that you exclude, hate, or wish didn’t exist.

We usually try to ignore the presence of such darkness in our “culture of niceness” but that does not eliminate the reality of it.  Hard as it is to admit, we who were given power and the possibility of being creative are capable of turning things upside down and using that power to hurt and destroy. 

I’m convinced that nothing is more dangerous than trying to ignore or deny this aspect of ourselves.  It’s rooted, according to John Claypool, in a basic despising of self and is a poison that moves outward from thinking, “I’m not ok” to “You’re not ok” to “It’s not ok.”  And when one operates out of this negative feeling base, the impulse to hurt comes rather naturally. 

And make no mistake, this darkness is present in each of us in a very real way.  The form it usually takes is hostility for the people who are different from us.  They may have different ideas, different skin tone, or different life-styles, and we get terribly enraged in their presence.  And the weapons of choice are not guns or knives but rather words. 

I for one have never been overly tempted to be brutal with my fists, but my tongue – that’s another matter.  I have said some terribly cutting things in my time, and the hurt this inflicts on others is very real. 

We, therefore, would do well not to be naïve here.  The ones who think they are without destructive tendencies are out of touch with all that is within them.   My prayer this Lenten season is that we will come to grips with the negative, dark side of our humanity, confess it, turn from it, and start living our lives out of love and not fear (or hate).[1]

[1] Thoughts from this blog were taken and adapted from a 1978 sermon by John R. Claypool on 1 Corinthians 1.18

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