In a response to Biggar in another issue of Studies in Christian Ethics , Hays claims that “Jesus never told stories in which the good guys kill the bad guys.”
Really? What will the owner of the vineyard do to the vine-growers, Jesus asks, and they say, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers” (Matthew 12:40-41). Jesus doesn’t disagree. In Luke’s account, Jesus Himself is the one who says “He will come and destroy the vine-growers” (Luke 20:16).
The unforgiving servant doesn’t get killed, but he’s handed “to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him” (Matthew 18:34).
Those who murder the slaves who invite them to the wedding feast are destroyed and their city is set on fire (Matthew 22:7), and the poor fellow who doesn’t have the wedding garment gets tossed into the outer darkness (v. 13).
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