October 2005
Do we really believe we are glorifying Christ by becoming the collective wusses of the Western world?
Was Jesus a Pacifist or Spiritual Masochist?
by Dennis Peacocke
Many have written on the question of Jesus’ teachings and lifestyle regarding the issue of pacifism. "Pacifism," as a concept, actually deals with two related but distinct issues: 1) aggressive or abusive speech, and 2) physical acts of contact and violence. On both counts, Jesus was obviously not a pacifist.
His frequent and scathing indictments of the religious leaders, calling them such things as "snakes," "vipers," "sons of Satan," "whitened graves," and other not-so-kind words settles the first issue of verbal aggression. As for the second, His whipping the moneychangers and smashing their places of business in the temple speaks loudly for itself. Beyond that, His disciples carried weapons, and He didn’t correct them. Peter’s use of his sword in the garden was inappropriate relative to Jesus’ need to fulfill the scripture, rather than attacking Rome’s power per se. Beyond that He tacitly approved of soldiering, and if He had wanted to rebuke the practice, He had a golden opportunity when He encountered the Roman centurion whose servant He healed. His "turn-the-other-cheek issues" are about spiritual responses to slaps and requests for service, not life-threatening attacks or unjust kidnappings of oneself or anyone else. These issues are so obvious to me that no salient arguments have been put forth that would convince me otherwise.
The real question is: If He wasn’t a pacifist, why didn’t He advocate some form of revolution against Rome’s punishing rule over the Israel of His day? To me, the answer is a simple one: Firstly, Israel had already "earned" its occupation through disobedience witnessed to by God’s multiple prophetic warnings; and secondly, Rome wasn't the real problem. The real enemy Jesus properly attacked was the confusion, ignorance, and spiritual bondage which was imprisoning His potential servants who were called to liberate the nations.
Today, we are in the same boat. Physical pacifism is not the real issue. The real issue is the spiritual pacifism of much of God’s people in the Body of Christ. We co-exist so easily with the spiritual forces controlling the modern "Rome" which increasingly is tightening its occupation of our culture. We are turning our cheeks to the Christ-hating worldview and "political correctness" of the Sadducees of our day, and genuflecting to so many of the religious traditions which the Pharisees peddle and which nauseate the unsaved. We do so out of fear of being called a "radical," "hurting our witness with the unsaved," or a host of plausible excuses.
So here’s my question: Has the perverse spirit of masochism taken over large numbers of professing Christians? Do we really believe we are glorifying Christ by becoming the collective wusses of the Western world? If we are carrying the same spirit of Christ and that of His most immediate followers, where is the movement of our day that parallels this description of Paul’s fruit?
"...Paul and Silas have turned the rest of the world upside down, and now they are disturbing our city..." Acts 17:7 LNT (Living New Testament)
Let us not mistake confusion, fear, cowardice, or the desire to politely "get along" for obedience, and that is...
the bottom line.
