Just a Thought - November 2012

The following is an article I wrote for the Waimea Weeky Newspaper "Just a thought" column. It was printed during November.
God Bless,
Jon

Just a Thought

One news item today sadly tells us a boy only 13 years old may be NZ's youngest murderer. Could it be that our acceptance of violence has increased and its time we pushed back hard against accepting violence as a necessary evil? In Richmond a high percentage of youth report involvement in peer related violence, saying it’s normal, natural and a morally acceptable part of their world including its use in defence. Violence seen as a necessary evil.

So what is God’s view on violence? A scary question for Christianity because looking at Church history there have been times when political power plays became more important than following Christ, resulting in terrible violence committed in the name of God (even though the violence was really in the name of power plays).

So what is God’s view on violence? Read the Bible and notice that God is not violent. King David was not permitted to build the new temple – his life had been too violent – his son Solomon would build it. The Bible makes it clear that Jesus Christ is God become human. His life showed us what God is like. Was Jesus violent? No.

Author Brian McLaren reminds us that “Jesus Christ didn’t kill anybody - something that can't be said about Abraham, Moses, David, Paul, or Mohammed (no disrespect intended to any of them) ... Jesus didn't hit anybody. He didn't hate anybody. He practiced as he preached: Reconciliation, not retaliation. Kindness, not cruelty. A willingness to be violated, not violation. Creative conflict transformation through love, not decisive conflict termination through superior weapons. Courageous and compassionate resistance, not violence. Outstretched arms on a cross, not stockpiles of arms, nuclear or otherwise...”

God is not violent and Jesus’ response to violence when he died on the cross is an example of this. Think to the Crucifixion of Christ. A violent action yes, but it was God who was being crucified – not doing the crucifying. God the Son, the all-powerful one, God who could call down legions of angels did not fight back, did not resort to violence, showed no aggressive self-defence.

When Jesus was bullied, he didn’t bully back. Jesus’ message is that to win is to lose and to lose is to win. It is to hand over the shirt as well as the jacket. It is to not retaliate. It is to hunger for and purse ways of peace. It is to teach our children creative, non violent ways of self defence. It is to teach self control of anger and the ability to walk way. Jesus’ message is there are creative alternatives to violence, and that violence is evil and repulsive to God.