Jesus is a dangerous religious figure. His message has been distorted so often into something that he would not recognize or he would be horrified that those in his name would claim as the inspiration of violence. We have Mennonites a Christian sec who have rejected violence of all sorts, and on the other hand, we have violent fundamentalist Christians who believe in the wholesale slaughter of non-Christians such as Muslims or the wrong kind of Christians such as ourselves. There is a Orange County lawyer trying to place a measure on the California ballot the execution of anyone who marries another person of the same-gender. This position, he claims, is biblically based on the Leviticus verse: “If a man sleeps with a man like a woman, it is abomination, and they should be put to death. In Terrence McNally’s play Corpus Christi, when Bartholomew and Matthew tell Jesus/Joshua that the priests will not marry them citing the Leviticus verse, Jesus/ Joshua says to them with some appropriate humor, “Why would memorize such a horrible verse?”
Jesus was dangerous man to the Romans. A second century theologian and clergy, Origen wrote extensively a number of works. He quoted a saying of Jesus that came down outside of the gospels. Listen to the saying: “Who is close to me is close to the fire, who is far from me is far from the kingdom.” It is dangerous to be with Jesus and to follow Jesus—to risk catching fire. One of favorite theologian Johan Baptist Metz describes following Jesus and living his message as the “dangerous memories of Jesus.”
Jesus rejected disciples who wanted to steer his movement towards violence. His priority was the love of God but he yoked this love of God to unconditional love for fellow human beings. We Christian call this the “Golden Rule” because it is the core of Jesus’ ministry. In his sermon on the mount, Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” (Mt. 5:9) Later he preaches,
You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist one who is evil. But if any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if anyone would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well; and if any one forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to him who begs from you, and do not refuse him who would borrow from you. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (Mt. 5:38-44).
Jesus remained an example of non-violence to his disciples and future disciples. I will name a few who followed Jesus the peacemaker in early Christianity and later a few contemporary followers of peace-making. Jesus was dangerous because he modeled the non-violence of God to the fullest. He live, taught, and died non-violence. He demonstrates to us what it means to be non-violent even to death on the cross. To the Romans, Jesus’ rejection of war and violence were threatening because Roman authority was based on the threat of military force, terror, and crucifixion. Jesus was building a movement based on love and non-violent resistance to coercive and military authority. He was considered a trouble-maker, a religious fanatic. The Romans cruelly tortured him, humiliated him, mocked him, paraded him a sign of masculine weakness before Roman power, and then crucified him on the cross. This was to break Jesus kingdom movement, dishearten and break the spirit of following Jesus in this dangerous movement.
John Yoder, a Mennonite theologians writes.
The cross of Jesus is the extreme demonstration that agape seeks neither effectiveness nor justice, and is willing to suffer any loss or seeming defeat for the sake of obedience. In short, Christians are to live and love like Jesus, (and) know that in spite of the way things appear, God’s purposes will prevail with the coming of God’s kingdom: the resurrection of Jesus is proof that love cannot be conquered even if evil does its worst. With this assurance, Christians do not need to seek control, to make things come out right.
Yoder believed in radical love and forgiveness that Jesus lived, preached, and died for. He was one of the great Christian activist for non-violence in the 20th century.
Jesus’ disciples and later generations of Christians did not use the cross as a symbol of their faith; it was a symbol of Roman violence and the horrible death of Jesus the Christ. They adopted the symbol of the fish, the memory of his multiplying the fish for people to eat together and his meals that celebrated forgiveness, unconditional love, and non-violence.
The followers of Christ in the first three hundred years renounced war and violence in all their forms. Origen, a 2nd century Christian theologian wrote, “We Christians do not become fellow soldiers with the Emperor, even if he presses for this.” Christians were menace to the Roman state. Tertullian, a Roman centurion in North Africa, converted to Christianity and publicly promoted the conversion of Roman legionnaires to Christians so that they would not fight.
Another Christian theologian and clergy, Hippolytus of Rome promoted a subversive Christian discipleship of non-violence, “A soldier of the civil authority must be taught not to kill men and to refuse to do so if he is commanded, and to refuse to take an oath. If he is unwilling to comply, he must be rejected for baptism. A military commander or civic magistrate must resign or be rejected. If a believer seeks to become a soldier, he must be rejected, for he has despised God.”
The Roman Empire was maintained by the force and threat of its military. Christians in their pacifism threatened the very power and existence of the Empire whose Pax Romana or peace was based on constant war and cruel violence, enslaving women and children and crucifying the men. Christian provided a subversive theology that threatened the strength of the Roman Empire. In 274 CE, there was a Roman soldier in Numidia, present day Algeria, who had a son Maximilianus and who was drafted into the military. He told the pro-consul Cassius Dion, that he was a follower of Christ: “I cannot serve as a soldier. I cannot do evil. I am a Christian.” He refused his father’s pleas to serve in the Roman legion and the pro-consul, and Maximilianus is the first conscientious objector martyred in history. (Kurlansky) He was turned into saint by the Church.
The emperor Constantine converted as he was going into battle, and he a vision of Christ’s cross with the words in hoc signo vinces or “in this sign, conquer.” The cross was painted on the shields of Constantine’s troops and they won the battle of the Milvian Bridge, leaving Constantine as the sole Emperor of the Empire. Constantine’s mother St. Helena conveniently found the true cross on which Jesus was crucified buried in the hills where Jesus was supposedly was executed. It was believed to be made of wood from the Garden of Eden. Constantine was later made a saint, and in the Greek Orthodox Church, he is considered a saint equivalent to the apostles. This marks a watershed moment when Christianity moved from a pacifist religion to a violent religion. The lethal instrument of the cross used by Romans to terrified and intimidate conquered populations, used to crucify Jesus, now once again became a symbol of violence.
After Constantine made Christianity the state religion, the Roman Empire changed Christianity from a non-violent religion to religion of violence and using violence and warfare to promote itself. Jesus’ teachings of non-violence, forgiveness, unconditional love, and peace-making were dismantled. Christianity lost its non-violent edge and became violent. Later it would promote crusades, bishops and popes engaged in conquest and persecution. It became the Church waving and carrying the cross, the instrument of death of its founder and God’ child Jesus Christ.
But towards the end of Constantine’s reign, there were others who clung to Jesus’ message of non-violence. There is a story of Martin who served in the Roman legions for two years and converted to Christianity. He refused to take up arms in an impending battle. He said, “I am a soldier of Christ, I cannot fight.” (Kurlansky) Martin was accused of being a coward. He offered to go ahead unarmed of the legion into the battlefield. But the Gauls negotiated a peace.
Two more groups I want to mention because it unmasks the violence on institutional Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant. The first is the Cathars in Southern France in the 12th century. They were an alternative form of Christianity whose members took a vow dedicated to the non-violence of Jesus. They were often vegetarians, because they did not believe in the killing of animals; they refused and did not believe in warfare and capital punishment. Catholic Christianity mounted a crusade to exterminate whole villages of Cathars in Southern France then followed by the Inquisition who tortured and murdered Cathars. You might ask what was their crime? They were exterminated mercilessly because of their commitment to live the non-violence of Christ.
Other Protestant groups such as the Amish, the Quakers, the Mennonites, and the Church of the Brethren who was the Famous Renaissance writer Erasmus were persecuted mainline Protestant denominations in the 17th century, and many of those churches fled to America seeking shelter from persecution and death. There were a number of Christian churches that took up Jesus’ practice of non-violence, and the violent Protestant and Catholic churches attempt to persecute and exterminate them. Their witness to the non-violent Christ became a danger to these churches and still do.
I want to suggest a bold statement: Peacemakers point to the peacemaking ministry of Jesus. Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day, Daniel Berrigan, John Dear, the Buddhst monk Thich Nhat Hanh, Dalai Lama, and Wang Weilen. The last Wang Weilin, the press called him “tank man” and the “unknown rebel.” To this day, the world does not know the name of this Chinese student in Tiananmen Square during 1989 non-violent uprising and protest. He stood in before a column of tanks and refused to meet the Chinese soldiers with non-violence. Every time the lead tank tried to drive around him, he stepped in front of the tank. He brought the column of Chinese tanks to halt, and this was filmed and broadcast all over the world. Two weeks later, the nineteen year old student was arrested and executed. He modeled the non-violent Christ, and he was crucified because his non-violence threatened to topple authority based on military force and violence.
Peace-making and non-violence are dangerous. Jesus embodied the non-violence of God in this world. He was dangerous because his gospel revealed that God “….loves enemies, the ungrateful, and he selfish, the good and the evil, the just and unjust, in all inclusive embrace.” (Walter Wink) God reveals to us an alternative way to violence and war, tried by the God’s incarnation Jesus Christ, disciples in history, non-violent Christian movements and churches only to follow the way of cross, crucified and killed.
I leave with you the most profound depth of our God who exemplifies a community of self-giving and unconditional love, gracious inclusion of us, and models for us a non-violent communion focused on sharing its divine nature of non-violence. I repeat the saying of Jesus preserved by Origen: “Who is close to me is close to the fire, who is far from me is far from the kingdom.” How can Christians be non-violent disciples of the non-violent Jesus Christ within a violent Christianity claiming to follow a violent Christ? This has been a long distortion of the gospel message of Jesus, and those who preserved Jesus’ message of making-making have come to the fire of Jesus and have suffered for their faithfulness to the vision of no-violent love, enemy love, and peace-making.
As we move closer to Easter Sunday, I want to end off with a meaningful idea of Christian peace activist John Dear,
If the God peace raised the revolutionary, peace-making Jesus from the dead, after Jesus had been executed by the state as a criminal, then the God of peace affirmed Jesus’ way of active non-violence and peaceful resistance to systemic injustice. We his followers, then, are called to embark on that same path of non-violence. The gift that the risen Christ gives to his community is the gift of his peace.
The peace of Christ be with you!