Jesus & Nonviolence: Honest Reflections
2:26:00 PM
To be completely honest, it was not long ago when I would get "amped" up and even excited hearing the political buzz in the air, pundits going back and forth on the TV about who is right and who is wrong, and feeling justified knowing that "the bad people" were getting what they deserved. By "the bad people", I mean those primarily against America and/or Christians. I would never verbalize these thoughts or feelings to people, but in my heart I felt them. I repent. I had been baptized into American Christianity with a heavy dose of nationalism on the side. But something changed a few years ago. God began to expose this on a far deeper level. And this is why it's controversial: I believe to the core of my being that the God of the Bible, revealed in Jesus Christ, calls all of his followers to a life of nonviolence and peace.
Still with me? Sweet.
Why is this controversial? Because this is more deeply rooted for us (Americans or Westerners) than we know, or want to admit. I was one of those people. But as I grew with Jesus, and became more acquainted with the story of God - I started to realize that there was something very unsettling about professing followers of Jesus - using bombs and bullets to kill others and believe they are still following him. Wasn't Jesus the Prince of Peace? What was the Sermon on the Mount all about? How could this really work? How did I justify this?
The truth is - I just didn't use my mind to think about it. It was pumping through my veins, and I didn't even know it. Culture had decided it for me. Something was about to change.
In the beautiful prophecies of Isaiah in the Hebrew Scriptures (the time before Jesus), he prophecies about a coming Messiah. The hope of the world. The Prince of Peace. One of the main passages that struck me was:
He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. (Isaiah 2:4)
What does this mean? To me it means exactly what it says. A Prince of Peace will come and establish a new government, full of beauty, love and peace. Weapons of war will be turned into instruments that bring life.
People have often asked me, "You're not a pacifist are you?". The question is usually asked with a sense of wonder, but also a sense of shock. I think this is because we tend to identify pacifism with being a softie or a push-over. A lot of people I talk to subscribe to what I will call justified violence and making it compatible with Christianity. I don't judge them at all, seriously, I just talk to them honestly about my viewpoint. You can call it pacifism, but I don't tend to think of myself as a "label". I think labels are a way to avoid thinking and usually identify a political party. For example someone might think of me in terms of, "he's one of those". But that's OK. The main point is that this is not a political stance. I am a Christian. And as a Christian, we are free to talk about how Christ calls us to a life of peace without bringing a political viewpoint into the conversation.
This was not always my view. I did not grow up with this type of thinking. In fact I enjoyed violent movies, sometimes spoke violently and occasionally played a violent video game. Hollywood depicts this stuff as "normal" - and that's what I subscribed to. All of that changed when I came into a relationship with Jesus. And it did not happen overnight like, "hey I think I am going to follow a life of non-violence and peace because that seems pretty cool! Wouldn't that be popular!?" Not at all. I knew this would put me on the margins. I'm OK with that.
The biggest question that usually surfaces when I'm in a conversation is "what should we have done about Hitler?" or "what do we do about the terrorists?". The first question I ask in response, who is the "we"? Is it Christians or the military or someone else? The answer to that question elicits very different responses. I also can sympathize because this is not an easy canned response. I still have a hard time with it myself. Because at the core of all of us, we want to know what should we do to protect the innocent. It's tempting to think that there is a greater love than lying down our life for others - and maybe taking the life of someone to protect someone else seems like that heroic love. However, if there was anyone who was justified in picking up the sword in retaliation, it was Peter when he drew his sword to protect Jesus from the Roman soldiers who were coming to kill him (see Matthew 26:51-52). Jesus responds with "those who kill by the sword, die by the sword". This is so powerful. Jesus was not just laying down his life for some of his friends, he was laying down his life for sinners and enemies. He actually died for the very people who wanted to kill him. That is love. Jesus never said, "Greater love has no one than this: to kill those who oppress."
Back to Hitler. I've done some research on Hitler and have found over and over again that obviously - he didn't just appear out of thin air and rise to power. Ironically he came into power on the support of a silent and supportive body of Christians and Church. Hitler believed himself to be a Christian and believed he was fighting for the work of the Lord (see Mein Kampf). Even the KKK calls themselves Christian. Everyone thinks their wars and violence are just, and sadly and sometimes - holy.
In a book I read, Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw, I read this:
People have often asked me, "You're not a pacifist are you?". The question is usually asked with a sense of wonder, but also a sense of shock. I think this is because we tend to identify pacifism with being a softie or a push-over. A lot of people I talk to subscribe to what I will call justified violence and making it compatible with Christianity. I don't judge them at all, seriously, I just talk to them honestly about my viewpoint. You can call it pacifism, but I don't tend to think of myself as a "label". I think labels are a way to avoid thinking and usually identify a political party. For example someone might think of me in terms of, "he's one of those". But that's OK. The main point is that this is not a political stance. I am a Christian. And as a Christian, we are free to talk about how Christ calls us to a life of peace without bringing a political viewpoint into the conversation.
This was not always my view. I did not grow up with this type of thinking. In fact I enjoyed violent movies, sometimes spoke violently and occasionally played a violent video game. Hollywood depicts this stuff as "normal" - and that's what I subscribed to. All of that changed when I came into a relationship with Jesus. And it did not happen overnight like, "hey I think I am going to follow a life of non-violence and peace because that seems pretty cool! Wouldn't that be popular!?" Not at all. I knew this would put me on the margins. I'm OK with that.
The biggest question that usually surfaces when I'm in a conversation is "what should we have done about Hitler?" or "what do we do about the terrorists?". The first question I ask in response, who is the "we"? Is it Christians or the military or someone else? The answer to that question elicits very different responses. I also can sympathize because this is not an easy canned response. I still have a hard time with it myself. Because at the core of all of us, we want to know what should we do to protect the innocent. It's tempting to think that there is a greater love than lying down our life for others - and maybe taking the life of someone to protect someone else seems like that heroic love. However, if there was anyone who was justified in picking up the sword in retaliation, it was Peter when he drew his sword to protect Jesus from the Roman soldiers who were coming to kill him (see Matthew 26:51-52). Jesus responds with "those who kill by the sword, die by the sword". This is so powerful. Jesus was not just laying down his life for some of his friends, he was laying down his life for sinners and enemies. He actually died for the very people who wanted to kill him. That is love. Jesus never said, "Greater love has no one than this: to kill those who oppress."
Back to Hitler. I've done some research on Hitler and have found over and over again that obviously - he didn't just appear out of thin air and rise to power. Ironically he came into power on the support of a silent and supportive body of Christians and Church. Hitler believed himself to be a Christian and believed he was fighting for the work of the Lord (see Mein Kampf). Even the KKK calls themselves Christian. Everyone thinks their wars and violence are just, and sadly and sometimes - holy.
In a book I read, Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw, I read this:
Violence is suicidal. Suicide rates of folks in the military and those working the chambers of death row are astronomical; they kill themselves as they feel the image of God dying in them. CBS News contacted the governments of all 50 states requesting their official records of death by suicide going back 12 years. They heard back from 45 of the 50. What they discovered is that in 2005 alone - (and again in 45 states alone) - there were at least 6,256 veteran suicides, 120 every week for a year and an average of 17 every day.
That hurts. It hurts because it is reality. That was 2005 - ten years ago. Who knows what it is today. I believe the way Jesus shows us is a way that shows us not to battle violence with violence (you can't fight fire with fire), but rather with humility and love and subordination. Violence eventually kills itself.
In the broken world we live in, we see tragedies and death all around us - but thankfully in the end, love wins. Because the life we are given in the image of God is more powerful than death. Even for those who have committed violence (whether physical or verbal) can have the image of God come back to life in them as they begin to experience love again.
"May the whisper of love grow louder than the thunder of violence. May we love loudly." - Shane Claiborne
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” - Jesus
BT
(The artwork is The Beauty of the Cross by Daniel Bonnell.)
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