Posted: 04/04/07

Easter, Kabbalah and Jeffrey Dahmer

By Lael Arrington

Co-host of The Things That Matter Most

Talk Radio KSEV Houston, KVCE Dallas

No one had any idea, really, of the high mystery, the holy scandal unfolding that Friday morning before Passover. Even when we see it written in plain English, “God made him sin who knew no sin,” we shake our heads. Shrug our shoulders. What could that mean? “At the moment Christ took upon himself the sin of the world,” R. C. Sproul writes, “He became the most grotesque, most obscene mass of sin in the history of the world.”

A few weeks ago Rick Davis and I interviewed Roy Cliffton on our radio show, (www.thethingsthatmattermost.org) Roy’s life changed the day he took a phone call from the local prison. “We have a prisoner who wants to be baptized. Would you be willing to talk with him?” “Sure,” Roy had responded.  “The prisoner’s name…is Jeffrey Dahmer.”

Like so many he has talked to, Roy wondered if Jeffrey’s faith in Jesus was sincere. He saw how Jeffrey grieved over his inability to make anything right for the families he wounded so deeply. Jeffrey even agreed with Roy that he deserved death. But Wisconsin has no death penalty. In his brokenness over his sin Jeffrey had nowhere else to turn but to God. Roy saw Jeffrey’s deep reliance on Jesus’ sacrifice as payment for his horrible crimes. He baptized him in the prison whirlpool.

Consider: The Son of God was made the sin of Jeffrey Dahmer—the murder, the dismemberment, the cannibalism, the necrophilia. The wonder of Christ’s sacrifice covers the breadth and depth of unspeakable sin—Jeffrey’s and my own.

In the subsequent months, as Roy discipled Jeffrey and observed his growing faith, he assured him, "When God looks at you now, he says, ‘This is my beloved son, Jeff, in whom I am well pleased.’” It was hard for Jeffrey to believe.

Impossible for others. 

The following week Rick and I interviewed Rabbi Yehuda Berg, a master of Kabbalah, an ancient tradition of Jewish mysticism that incorporates the law of Tikun--each time we react or cause pain out of selfish motives we have to correct that at some point in the future (much like the Hindu concept of karma). I asked Rabbi Berg if someone like Jeffrey Dahmer could ever receive such radical grace and forgiveness and a fresh start in Kabbalah.

“In Kabbalah there is no quick fix to do 1, 2 and 3 and it would be wiped away.” The Rabbi insisted that the only way to pay for inflicting pain is to experience am equivalent amount of pain yourself. “He would have to incarnate into I-don't-know-what to feel all that pain. A person like that would have to go through a lot more pain to even have a remote possibility be forgiven by the universe. 

“To really connect to God, you have to understand all of your past (and) really truly feel all that pain. There is no way a person like that could connect to God in 30 seconds. It would take lifetimes for that person to really truly connect.

“You need to be able to have a total oneness with Christ, if you're a Christian…to have your sins taken away. Without that oneness it can't happen.  And I can have complete certainty that Jeffrey Dahmer didn't have complete oneness.”

What a paradox. We live in a culture that celebrates tolerance. Grace and mercy for everyone. Except Jeffrey Dahmer. On the day Jeffrey was murdered in prison, Dave Letterman glanced at his watch and quipped, “Well Jeffrey Dahmer ought to be arriving in hell about now.”

But Jeffrey is the beneficiary of God’s scandalous Good Friday grace.  A supremely precious act that guarantees we are indeed “one with Christ” and receive “no condemnation.” And the scandal extends not just to murderers like Jeffrey, but to people like you and me who, unlike Jeffrey Dahmer,  profess to love God and then give ourselves to another, bringing forth his fruit into the world. Every angry word or greedy thought a great betrayal. 

I wonder how many people hurried past Golgatha that day completely unaware of the story behind the man on the middle cross.  Even those who looked on with red eyes and broken hearts could not see the plan of God laid down from the foundation of the world unfolding right before their eyes—the blood of Jesus Christ being shed for them. For Jeffrey Dahmer. For you. For me. God poured out the curse we deserve on one who deserved nothing but our profoundest thanks and unwavering loyalty in proportion to what was given us that day. So we might become children who please our Father. Friends of God.

We have much to celebrate.

Who can you invite to join in?

By Lael Arrington Click here for bio and archived articles