Did Jesus really support the death penalty for cursing a parent?

⮜ Answered Questions

The "hard sayings" of scripture are often the ones that we learn the most from. They break us out of our cultural preconceptions. They cause us to see the world through a different value-system. Since Biblical law is the written reflection of YHWH's nature, "hard sayings in Biblical law" are the ones that can teach us the most about what he values. It is YHWH's value-system that we must internalize, throwing out anything in our own value-system which conflicts.

We begin with Matthew 15, where the scribes (who were the "law-experts" of the first century) had traveled from Jerusalem to Gennesaret (a region near Galilee). This shows how significantly they treated Jesus. No scribe is going to leave Jerusalem to go nit-pick your average street-preacher. This would be like a New York Constitutional law professor traveling to the Second Baptist Church of Smalltown, USA because they heard him saying something "subversive." The scribes obviously considered Jesus a threat.

Of course Jesus and his disciples were aware of them (big-city lawyers do not sneak around in a place like Gennesaret). As usual, Jesus was doing things that would deliberately provoke a confrontation with the religious leaders. Previously, it was picking grain (Matt. 12:2), and healing (Matt. 12:13), on the Sabbath(!). Now, these troublemakers were defying the "tradition of the elders":

2 “Why do your disciples disobey the tradition of the elders? For they don’t wash their hands when they eat bread.” Matthew 15:2WEB

Of course, there is no Biblical law which requires a person to wash their hands before eating. This was a rule made up by the Pharisees, and Jesus was intentionally allowing his disciples to break it. Jesus answered:

3 He answered them, “Why do you also disobey the commandment of God because of your tradition? 4 For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death.’ Matthew 15:3-4WEB

Notice how Jesus rebuked the Pharisees using Biblical law. He quoted two commands from the Hebrew Scriptures: the Fifth commandment (Exodus 20:12) and another commandment from the law which mandates the civil death penalty for breaking the fifth commandment in a particularly heinous way (cursing one's father or mother, Leviticus 20:9).

Who's the hypocrite?

Let's just bracket out what Jesus says next about "Corban." You can read about this in any commentary and get a good explanation. Basically, Jesus is pointing out a tradition which the Pharisees teach, that allows people to dishonor their parents. Next, Jesus says:

7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, Matthew 15:7WEB

Jesus had already, multiple times, referred to the Pharisees as "hypocrites": Matt. 6:2, 6:5, 6:16. Remember what Jesus had already proclaimed publicly:

17 “Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill. 18 For most certainly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not even one smallest letter or one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass away from the law, until all things are accomplished. 19 Therefore, whoever shall break one of these least commandments and teach others to do so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever shall do and teach them shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. Matthew 5:17-19WEB

In the current exchange with the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus had just quoted from God's commandments (including the death penalty commandment) in order to show that they were "making void" God's command by their tradition.

So here's the question:

If Jesus actually came to abolish the death penalty for cursing one's parents, wouldn't Jesus be the real hypocrite, and not the Pharisees?

A sermon which you will (probably) never hear

You may never in your lifetime hear a sermon on this exchange that Jesus had with the scribes and Pharisees, which talks about Jesus supporting this death penalty. You might hear plenty of sermons on Jesus and the woman taken in adultery (from John 8), because that passage is easier for antinomians to pervert. But you cannot treat Matt. 15:3-5 that way, you can only gloss over it.

God gave us the Fifth commandment ("honor your father and mother") to uphold the institution of the family, which is the foundational cultural institution of human civilization. As Paul says, it is the first (though not the last) commandment with a promise: 3 “that it may be well with you, and you may live long on the earth.” Ephesians 6:3WEB.

God gave us the Eighth commandment ("thou shalt not commit adultery") to uphold the marriage covenant, which is the covenant that forms the family. It isn't surprising that he also attached a mandatory death penalty to it: Leviticus 20:18.

God gave us the Ninth commandment ("thou shalt not bear false witness") to uphold the integrity of the Biblical justice system, which is founded upon witness testimony. Again, we find a death penalty required for bearing false witness in capital cases: Deut. 19:18-21.

God attaches civil penalties to only a small number of his commandments. A civil death penalty, tied to a commandment, shows how important it is not to break it. For example, in Biblical law, if you accidentally (or even on purpose, because you were starving) ate an animal that was ceremonially "unclean," you would have to wash your clothes, and you would be ceremonially "unclean" until evening (Leviticus 11:40). That's all. And there was no civil enforcement of this penalty.

If you stole someone's sheep, and were caught, you would have to pay them back two sheep (Exodus 22:4). Compare this with British common law, for example, under which stealing a sheep (classified as "felony theft") got you the death penalty. In Biblical law, there is never a death penalty for property crime. They are always dealt with by restitution to the injured party (not restitution to the civil government).

Then there is a category of crimes which are so threatening to social order and civilization that God ordered humans to deal with them using the ultimate penalty, death. Murder, rape, adultery, kidnapping, bearing false witness in a capital trial, and others. One of these others was cursing one's father or mother. Another was striking one's father or mother.

God values the integrity of the family and respect for parental authority so much that He made these violations of the family equivalent to murder. If you think that the death penalty for striking or cursing one's parents is "too harsh," then you are showing that your value system is not like YHWH's value system. Nor is it like Jesus' value system, because he is YHWH and he quoted this command with approval.

And that's the sermon on Matthew 15 which you will probably never hear any modern Christian pastor give.