Cain, Jesus, and Immigration

I was listening to a sermon by Brian Zahnd about how Jesus on the cross represents the contrast to Cain from the Book of Genesis. Whether you take the story as literal or not, it is certainly representative of not only two brothers in conflict but about the larger society-and the role of civilization and violence.

As Zahnd highlights, Cain represents those in formal established agriculture where the ownership of land was seen as central in comparison to Abel who was a shepherd and saw the land as one that was more shared. Naturally, conflict arose between the two groups. After Cain kills his brother, the scripture states that he establishes a city. The violence of Cain is representative of many the civilizations in both the ancient and modern world. They run on the basis of absolute power, driven by greed, and are absolutely defensive of the territory, usually taken from a previous tribe, they claim to be “theirs.”

Jesus represents the opposite of Cain, one who lays down his life rather than taking up the sword of violence. He tells Pontius Pilate that his kingdom is not of this world, which is why his followers were not engaged in violence or fighting back. Jesus said when he was lifted up he would draw all men to himself, those borders and divides that had been created by Cain and the builders of civilization no longer had the ultimate say.

It is very easy to fall into the stance of Cain, to cling to our own way, bask in our own pride, and defend with absolute fortitude and if needed violence what we perceive as ours. It is perhaps even easier for powerful and wealthy nation-states to fall into this pattern. Even if we claimed an obscene amount of land and have an amount of resources that would have not even by fathomable throughout world history, even in the wealthiest and powerful of past Empires, we tell the Abels of our day to stay off our land. It does not matter what the situation is. It doesn’t matter what the level of desperation is, our land is ours (regardless of how we obtained it), and we will inflict violence if it is needed.

We have a choice right now as desperate people, largely from Central America, just want to find a place of security in the vast world that belongs to God. We can take the stance of Jesus who draws all to himself or we can take the stance of Cain and delude ourselves that we have an absolute right to this land that our ancestors stole and to do what we want with it. But as the hymn states, this is “Our Father’s World, let us never forget…God is the ruler yet.”