1/8/2024 0 Comments Jesus eye for an eye![]() In Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know and Doesn’t, Stephen Prothero shares the story of a 1995 Colorado murder trial. Instead we need to be open to the Holy Spirit’s empowerment to witness to God reconciling the world to Godself through the nonviolent Messiah, Jesus. We don’t need to reconcile vengeance or violence with loving our enemies. To turn the other cheek is to practice the provocative peace that embodies the healing justice of the Kingdom that exposing injustice with the presence of Love (Col.2:15). There is nothing passive about Jesus turning the other cheek in the face of injustice (John 18:23). On the cross God does not overcome evil with evil but with good (Rom. In Christ, violence is not only restrained but transformed. “Eye for an eye” is not about vengeance but the limitation of retaliation. Grace is both how God has saved us and the pattern of kingdom living the Holy Spirit empowers us for. Fierce Calvary-shaped love is how God has saved us and its how we are to witness to our salvation. Why is it that people can’t find the hope of the world in our churches? I think it’s directly connected to the lack of schooling in letting God’s love through us by “loving our enemies.” To be merciful as The Triune God is merciful. ![]() This question goes to the heart of the Gospel. Afterwards a well-respected activist approached me away from others and asked with tears in their eyes, “Why was this Jesus not found in my experience of church?” I had just finished running a workshop for Greenpeace, The Wilderness Society and an anti-nuclear organization on the history and power of nonviolent direct action where I had explored and trained people in the transformative nonviolence of Gandhi, MLK and to the surprise of many gathered, Jesus. It did not seek to dominate the political establishment or maintain the status quo rather its goal was to spread the universal love of Christ. The early Christian church cut across the various hierarchical lines that divided people. His disciples were required to obey the Greatest Commandment by showing His love and kindness to all people, because everyone was their “neighbor.” When Jesus commanded His followers to “go and do likewise” by following the example of the Good Samaritan, he challenged the early church to look beyond its comfort zone. At the time when Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37), the concept of a Samaritan coming to the rescue of a Jew would have been considered just as incongruous as if, say, a Focus on the Family follower marched in the New York City LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) Pride Parade today.īut as the parable made clear, the Samaritan was considered the Jewish man’s “neighbor.” By implication, that means the definition of “neighbor” has to be expanded to include all of God’s children, including those of different social classes, races, creeds and political affiliations. At the time of Jesus’ birth, the Samaritans and the Jews had been at each other’s throats for literally hundreds of years. Our hatred of the “other” is nothing new.
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