|
|
|
|
After
16 years of Catholic school, and 60 years practicing it, I wasn’t certain that
Jesus had said, “Love your enemies.” Call it the fate of old age, but I
couldn't recall any teaching or a sermon about it either. A little research
showed it was a quote of Jesus in three places in the gospel and a theme throughout
Jesus' life starting
with angels announcing peace during his birth to his salutation to his disciples
after his resurrection. Rather
than portraying and claiming Jesus is God, because it is not important to our
argument, this book takes the approach that Jesus was at least a very wise man
of history who taught, demonstrated, and sacrificed his life in nonviolence.
Regardless of the accuracy of the gospels as we consider accuracy in journalism
today, his story is the most influential one in history, but it has not been
understood as a call to nonviolence and pacifism. Three
chapters go through many of his quotes and actions in the gospels relating to
peace, war, violence, forgiveness, and nationhood that show he taught pacifism
to his followers. The most important and focused of his moral
teachings is his great Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5) and Sermon on the Plain
(Luke 6), which include his “Love your enemy” discourse. This is his new, original, great
commandment that go beyond the two great
commandments he quoted from Leviticus and Deuteronomy to the Jewish leaders.
These sermons are the most important and focused moral teachings of Jesus,
and they take on new relevance as society, technology, and war advance into the
21st century. His
willing sacrifice of crucifixion on a Roman cross with words of forgiveness
among the last on his lips was the greatest, most courageous, pacifist
demonstration in history. Jesus could have avoided the cross in several
ways. He could have simply fled. He could have stopped challenging
the Pharisees or begged Pilate for mercy. He could have asked his Father
to send twelve legions of angels to
his defense (Mt 26:53 as he admonished a follower for
cutting the ear of the High Priest’s servant who came to arrest him.
Then he
healed him as he warned the onlookers, "All those who take up the sword will
perish by the sword." The
most obvious objection to Jesus' pacifism is the story where Jesus drives out the money changer’s
animals from the temple and upsets their tables. This and several other
false arguments are addressed. Subsequent
chapters explain that most early followers were pacifists because of Jesus'
teaching, but the practice got distorted when
Constantine
brought Christians into mainstream citizenry in 340AD, and
ultimately Jesus’ teaching on nonviolence has been rationalized into
nonexistence as churches point to Augustine’s “Just War” principles that
he adapted from Cicero as the Vandals got ready to invade his city. Pacifism
isn’t weakness; it is wisdom and requires risk and courage. War does not
bring peace; its products are hate and fear along with its destruction,
injury, and death. Humans now have the power to
destroy all life on earth, yet engage in military much quicker than showing
charity and grace in peace efforts. If heaven is a place of peace, it
could have no place for people who solve their disagreements by violence. With
Jesus’ omniscience, as the major churches say, wouldn’t he have seen that we
would develop the power to destroy all life and tried to teach us to end our
violence? Finally, sorry Star Trek fans-- science fiction is a fun fantasy, but warriors in space are illogical. If they had the power for space travel, they would know the science of physics to make a bomb and other massively destructive weapons. It was the first, virtually primitive use of nuclear power on earth. But could peaceful space travelers be the angels in his story? --ask the innocent children that Jesus loved.
|
|
Send mail to
jesuswasapacifist@yahoo.com with questions or comments about this web site.
|
![[Under Construction]](images/loveyoudad.jpg)
