the moral perfection of Jesus

Yesterday I listened to Peter Singer, a well known ethicist, make some comments about the flaws he perceives in Jesus' morality. He mentioned three difficulties that he has:

1) Jesus curses a fig tree (Mark 11:12-25)

2) Jesus sends evil spirits into a herd of pigs and sends them over the edge of a cliff (Mark 5:1-20)

3) Jesus' ethic of not resisting evil isn't workable in today's society because people will simply take advantage of each other (Matt 5:38-42).

He had misunderstood the import of the first two passages that he used. The cursing of the fig tree was not a childish outburst of anger, but an enacted parable against God's people who were not bearing fruit as they ought. In sending the pigs over the cliff Jesus showed his authority over all creation, including evil spirits and animals that were considered unclean. For the Christian who believes that Jesus is co-author of creation, it is not a huge problem to see that he has absolute authority over all of it, including pigs. The tender-hearted among us may feel temporarily a little sorry for the pigs (after all I am the owner of two fluffy pet rabbits) but I can't see that drowning them is morally wrong. Not to mention that, unlike Singer, I eat bacon!

Finally, upholding an ethical standard that doesn't work because people don't or can't keep it is not a sign of moral imperfection. Just because I can't stick to a particular standard, doesn't mean that the standard is wrong. Also, in telling us to love our enemies, Jesus is not condoning their behaviour. God hates exploitation and demands love for him and for others (Matt 22:36-40, or see the book of Amos for an extended examination of God's views about people exploiting one another).

It's encouraging that Singer, with his formidable intellect, was not able to find flaws in Jesus that I thought had any substance.