Part 5 (2/2)
Violent att.i.tudes are also reflected in violent speech, which is also inappropriate for followers of Jesus. So Jesus adds, ”Anyone who says to a brother or sister, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. 2 2 And anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of h.e.l.l” (v. 22, and Matthew 12:36). And anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of h.e.l.l” (v. 22, and Matthew 12:36).
Jesus is saying that anyone who harbors anger toward another or makes a slanderous comment stands under the judgment of G.o.d as much as if they had actually committed murder. For such thoughts, emotions, and words violate the intrinsic unsurpa.s.sable worth of people and are inconsistent with the reign of G.o.d.
If we are going to live in the peace-loving way of Jesus, the place for us to start is by ”taking every thought captive to Christ” and purging all violence from our minds.
TURNING THE OTHER CHEEK.
But Jesus had a good deal to say about purging violence from our behavior as well. He said, ”You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also” (Matthew 5:38 39).
The Old Testament taught that retaliation against an offending party is justified as long as the retaliation is proportional to the offense. If someone pokes your eye out, for example, you have the right to take out one (but not both) of theirs. This quid pro quo quid pro quo mindset is foundational to the ethics of the Old Testament, as evidenced by how much the Old Testament concerns itself with precise reparations to be paid to people who have been wronged in various ways. Amazingly, in the pa.s.sage we are discussing Jesus announced that this mindset is foundational to the ethics of the Old Testament, as evidenced by how much the Old Testament concerns itself with precise reparations to be paid to people who have been wronged in various ways. Amazingly, in the pa.s.sage we are discussing Jesus announced that this quid pro quo quid pro quo has been abolished in the Kingdom he brings. has been abolished in the Kingdom he brings.
In sharp contrast to the Old Testament, Jesus teaches that his followers should not ”resist an evil person.” He then ill.u.s.trates what he means by telling his disciples to ”turn to them the other cheek also” when struck.
Although it might appear that Jesus is telling his followers to be pa.s.sive, m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.tic doormats in the face of evil, that is not what he's suggesting. The word translated ”resist” (antistenai) doesn't necessarily suggest pa.s.sivity. Rather, it connotes responding to a violent action with a similar violent action. We aren't to pa.s.sively let evil have its way, but neither are we to sink to the level of the evil being perpetrated against us by responding in kind. Our response is rather to be consistent with loving the offender. doesn't necessarily suggest pa.s.sivity. Rather, it connotes responding to a violent action with a similar violent action. We aren't to pa.s.sively let evil have its way, but neither are we to sink to the level of the evil being perpetrated against us by responding in kind. Our response is rather to be consistent with loving the offender.
This sheds light on why Jesus said, ”If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.” He was most likely referring to the practice of Roman guards using the back of their right hand to slap the right cheek of Jewish subjects. This was an insulting slap, used to demean subjects and keep them in their place. Responding to such a strike by offering the left cheek was a way of defiantly rising above the intended humiliation. 3 3 The thrust of Jesus' teaching in this pa.s.sage, then, is that Kingdom people are to respond to evil in a way that doesn't allow the evil they're confronting to define them. We are n't to be pa.s.sive, and we aren't to be doormats. But because we aren't to be defined by the evil we confront, neither are we to become violent. As we noted above, the quid pro quo quid pro quo mindset has been entirely abolished in the Kingdom Jesus brings. mindset has been entirely abolished in the Kingdom Jesus brings.
Paul makes the same point: ”Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21). When we respond to hostility by becoming hostile, we allow the evil in the heart of the enemy to define us. We are ”overcome by evil.” But when we resist the urge to retaliate and instead respond to an enemy with love-feeding them if they're hungry and giving them something to drink if they're thirsty (v. 20)-we allow love to define us and open up the possibility that the enemy will be transformed into a friend. We are overcoming evil with good.
Though refusing to respond to enemies with force may look weak to the ”normal” way of thinking, the truth is that the love that refuses to retaliate is the most powerful force in the universe. Laws may control behavior and violence may annihilate enemies, but only this kind of love has the power to transform the heart of an enemy. It's the only response to evil that doesn't perpetuate evil.
LOVING AND SERVING ENEMIES.
Not only are Kingdom people forbidden to respond in kind to their aggressors, we're commanded to love and serve them. In contrast to the ”holy war” tradition of the Old Testament, in which Israelites were at times commanded to kill enemies, Jesus taught, ”Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27 28). 4 4 Note that loving our enemies, according to Jesus, entails doing them good. It is important that we understand this because there's a long and sad Church tradition, dating back to Augustine, that divorces one's loving disposition toward an enemy from one's actions. This allowed Christians to torture and kill their enemies while claiming to love them.
In reality, Jesus doesn't leave open this possibility. Just as G.o.d demonstrates his love toward us by acting in self-sacrificial ways to bless us, so we are to demonstrate our love toward even our enemies by acting in self-sacrificial ways toward them-to ”bless them.” By ”love your enemies,” Jesus means we must do good to them.
For the first three centuries of Church history Christians followed the example of Jesus and refused to respond to their enemies with violence. Sadly, this was the first thing to go when the Church acquired political power in the fourth century. Because many leaders viewed this political power as a blessing from G.o.d rather than a temptation from the enemy (see Luke 4:5 7), Jesus' example of voluntary suffering on behalf of his enemies had to be radically rethought.
Augustine speculated that Jesus' decision to suffer unjustly rather than use coercive force was not intended to be a permanent example for all Christians to follow. Rather, he reasoned, Jesus had to suffer and die unjustly because he was the Savior, and his suffering and death were necessary for us to be freed from the devil and reconciled to G.o.d. Now that this has been accomplished, thought Augustine, and now that G.o.d (allegedly) had given Christians the power of the sword, it was not only permissible for Christians to use violence when the cause was ”just,” they had a responsibility before G.o.d to do so.
This was the beginning of what's called the ”just war” tradition within Christendom.
Whatever one thinks of the just war theory as applied to secular governments, it has no place in the life of Jesus' followers. For, contrary to Augustine, the New Testament is as clear as it can be that Kingdom people are called to follow Jesus' example of suffering unjustly rather than resorting to violence.
Paul commands us to ”follow G.o.d's example ” and to ”walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us”-while we were yet enemies of G.o.d. Peter encourages us to be willing to suffer injustice out of ”reverent fear of G.o.d,” for ”it is commendable if you bear up under the pain of unjust suffering because you are conscious of G.o.d.” And our model in this is Jesus himself. When people ”hurled their insults at him,” Peter continues, ”he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats.” Instead, Peter says, ”He entrusted himself to him who judges justly.”
Peter further encourages people facing persecution to ”revere Christ as Lord” in ”their hearts” by responding to their persecutors with ”gentleness and respect.” Following the example of Christ who ”suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring [them] to G.o.d,” followers of Jesus are to maintain a gentle, loving att.i.tude so that ”those who speak maliciously against [their] good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” Our willingness to suffer serves our enemies, for, as we saw above, it opens the door that they will be convicted and change their ways.
Surely, some would argue, the use of violence must be justified when people are being persecuted for doing good. Yet this is precisely what followers of Jesus are forbidden to do. Instead-contrary to Augustine-we are called to follow the example of Jesus.
THE DISTINCTIVE MARK OF THE KINGDOM.
Jesus' teaching to love our enemies was understandably shocking to his original audience-just as it is to us today. Jesus expected as much, which is why, after telling his audience to love their enemies he added that if we only love those who love us and do good to those who do good to us, we're doing nothing more than what everyone naturally does (Luke 6:32 33). But his followers are to be set apart by the radically different way they love. The distinct mark of the reign of G.o.d is that G.o.d's people love and do good to people who don't don't love them and love them and don't don't treat them well-indeed, to people who hate them, mistreat them, and even threaten to kill them and their loved ones. treat them well-indeed, to people who hate them, mistreat them, and even threaten to kill them and their loved ones.
To drive home the importance of this, Jesus says that if we love even our enemies, ”then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.” The parallel in Matthew has Jesus saying, ”Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
Just as G.o.d is indiscriminately kind to the ungrateful and the wicked, and just as the Father causes the sun to s.h.i.+ne and the rain to fall indiscriminately on the evil and the good, so followers of Jesus are to be distinguished by our ability to love indiscriminately. It makes no difference whether the person is a friend or a foe. And this, Jesus emphasizes, is the condition for our receiving a Kingdom reward and for our becoming ”children of your Father in Heaven.” Our willingness to go against our fallen nature and love and serve enemies rather than resort to violence against them is the telltale sign that we are partic.i.p.ants in the Kingdom of G.o.d.
NO EXCEPTIONS!.
Notice this: there are no no exception clauses found anywhere in the New Testament's teaching about loving and doing good to enemies. Indeed, Jesus' emphasis on the indiscriminate nature of the love rules out any possible exceptions. The sun doesn't decide on whom it will and will not s.h.i.+ne. The rain doesn't decide on whom it will and will not fall. So too, Kingdom people are forbidden to decide who will and will not receive the love and good deeds we're commanded to give. exception clauses found anywhere in the New Testament's teaching about loving and doing good to enemies. Indeed, Jesus' emphasis on the indiscriminate nature of the love rules out any possible exceptions. The sun doesn't decide on whom it will and will not s.h.i.+ne. The rain doesn't decide on whom it will and will not fall. So too, Kingdom people are forbidden to decide who will and will not receive the love and good deeds we're commanded to give.
It's also important to notice that both Jesus and Paul were speaking to people who lived under an often unjust and oppressive Roman rule. Such oppressors were among the ”enemies” Jesus commanded his followers to love. Some of his followers would, before long, actually watch their children and spouses being put to death before being executed themselves. The ”enemies” Jesus and Paul were talking about, therefore, included unjust, nationalistic, life-threatening enemies. Followers of Jesus are to love and seek to do good to even these sorts of enemies.
FAITHFULNESS AND EFFECTIVENESS.
This teaching strikes many as ludicrous, impractical, unpatriotic, irresponsible, and possibly even immoral. ”Surely Jesus expects us to take up arms against Muslim extremists to protect our country and families!” If I had a dollar for every time I've heard something like that response, I'd be a fairly wealthy man.
The objection that the teaching on nonviolence is ludicrous, if not immoral, is nothing new. The nonviolent stance of the earliest Christians invited many of these same objections, as it has whenever Christians throughout history have embraced it.
The New Testament's teaching on nonviolence strikes many of us this way because we are so conditioned by our violent culture that we have trouble imagining any other response to a life-threatening enemy. We are blinded by the pervasive, long-standing a.s.sumption that violence is both ”normal” and ”necessary” to promote good and minimize evil.
In reality, the belief that violence is ”normal” and ”necessary” is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It confirms itself by bringing about the very violence it expects and deems necessary. If the practice of refusing violence and loving enemies was consistently put into practice, we'd learn that, over the long haul (and with great sacrifice), the nonviolent way of Jesus is far more effective in combating evil than the way of violence. For while the way of violence may appear to curb evil in the short run, it always-always-produces more violence in the long run. It's self-perpetuating.
But all of this is really beside the point, for Kingdom people are called to walk in obedience to the example and teachings of Jesus even when it seems to make no sense to do so.
We're called to be faithful to Jesus, not effective at protecting our lives or ridding the world of evil.
To the world's ”normal” way of thinking, Jesus' radical posture is indeed ludicrous, impractical, unpatriotic, irresponsible, and even immoral. And it may, in the short run, look like our refusal to partic.i.p.ate in the merry-go-round of violence allows evil to win.
We need to remember that this is exactly how matters looked on Good Friday, when the omnipotent G.o.d suffered at the hands of evil rather than use coercive force to extinguish it. But under the reign of the sovereign G.o.d, Good Friday never has the last word.
Easter is coming.
Our call is to trust that the foolishness of self-sacrificial love will overcome evil in the end. Our call is to manifest the beauty of a Savior who loves indiscriminately while revolting against all hatred and violence. This is the humble mustard seed revolution that will in the end transform the world.
Viva la revolution!
CHAPTER 9.
THE REVOLT REVOLT.
AGAINST SOCIAL OPPRESSION SOCIAL OPPRESSION.
Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our cla.s.s, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective.
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
TALKING TO A QUEEN.
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