I thought, "Are you kidding me? The Jesus prophesied in Isaiah 9:6?"
"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."
'Turn the other cheek' Jesus? The Son of God, the Jesus that voluntarily let himself be crucified
though he could've obliterated everyone at a blink of an eye? The Jesus that would eventually bring about a peace where:
"They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. (Isaiah 2:4)
The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." (Isaiah 11:6-9)
NOT a pacifist? Every time I tried to think about these widely different views, I would begin to get a tremendous headache. So I sat on it, so-to-speak, which is always a wise thing to do when you know something's not right.
Then I began to attempt some honest research, and by that I mean NOT reflective of a bias to any 'side' and NOT seeking a compromise between sides (though compromise is many times a worthy step), but to seek out what the Bible says or doesn't say about it. Here are my findings.
The first complication is that the word 'pacifist' doesn't occur in the Bible.
The second complication is that the modern word 'pacifist' means many things to many different
people. For some it means no force of any kind, and some even are against any form of government. For others, a pacifist is one who uses passive activism in peaceful demonstrations. Then there are others that think the civil disobedience of pacifists can include varying degrees of sabotage or vandalism to get the point (peace) across.
The word 'pacifism' or 'pacifist' is evidently just another word that has been stretched out and
over-used.
However, 'peace' is a recurring element throughout the Bible, from beginning to end, and no one can dispute that.
In Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, he says:
"Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God." (Mat 5:9 NKJV)
As Jesus was the son of God, you can probably infer that he thought of himself as a peacemaker.
But then the question that comes to me is, 'What is a peacemaker? Perhaps a weapon can bring peace, but isn't it also said that those who live by the sword, die by the sword?
Here's what I think is a parallel concept to violence (lack of peace). God anticipated man's sin. Did God create sin? No. We are responsible for sin in the world, not God. And God provides the cure for sin.
Similarly, God anticipates our violence. Does he create the violence? I don't believe so (though I don't honestly know what to make of some Old Testament texts...). I strongly feel that we humans are responsible for the violence in the world, not God. The violence is not God's plan, as
the passage I quoted above from Isaiah 11, and many other passages make plain. God's plan eventually results in peace.
Obviously this is not a 'peace at any cost' type of compromise. There have been, and will be, huge costs. As human individuals we cannot even comprehend the total cost. Like the saying goes, "If you have to ask, you can't afford it!"
There are so many passages that can be used to support various shades of pacifism or activism. It seems like to me, now, that stating a case only for one 'side' is necessarily one-sided, biased, and lacking of God's scope. Should we try to see things God's way? Of course! God's way is always the wisest way.
There are way too many passages for me to quote them all here. But I don't need to be comprehensive in my presentation either. So just let me get to the nitty-gritty of what I think perhaps Jesus was trying to teach, which is often mistaken for pacifism. In general, and of greatest importance, Jesus was teaching a new way of life, following him, worshipping God. These passages that seem to be promoting peace are actually speaking out against vengeance, or revenge. See for yourself:
"You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.” (Matthew 5:38-41, NIV)
"If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.” (Luke 17:4, NIV)
"Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’says the Lord.” (Rom 12:14-19)
"Do not say, ‘I will do to him as he has done to me. I will pay the man back for what he has done.’” (Prov 24:29)
Now with that understanding, here are some parallel quotes from modern day Christians:
"To our most bitter opponents we say: ‘We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you.’" —Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)
"The followers of Christ have been called to peace. . . . And they must not only have peace but also make it. And to that end they renounce all violence and tumult. In the cause of Christ nothing is to be gained by such methods. . . . His disciples keep the peace by choosing to endure suffering themselves rather than inflict it on others. They maintain fellowship where others would break it off. They renounce hatred and wrong. In so doing they over-come evil with good, and establish the peace of God in the midst of a world of war and hate." —Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) 'The Cost of Discipleship'
"Consider whether we should make the patient an extreme patriot or an extreme pacifist. All extremes are to be encouraged. Not always, of course, but at this period. Some ages are lukewarm and complacent, and then it is our business to soothe them fast asleep. Other ages such as the present one are unbalanced and prone to faction, and it is our business to inflame them... Whichever side he adopts, your main task will be the same. Let him begin by treating the Patriotism or the Pacifism as a part of his religion. Then let him, under the influence of the partisan spirit, come to regard it as the most important part. Then quietly and gradually nurse him into the stage at which religion becomes merely part of the "cause" and his [faith] is valued chiefly for the excellent arguments it can produce in favour of the British war effort or of Pacifism. Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes, and crusades mean more to him than prayer and and sacraments and charity, he is ours--and the more "religious" on those terms the more securely ours. I could show you a pretty cageful down here." —C.S. Lewis 'Screwtape Letters'
As that last quote illustrates, to be caught up in well intended religious activism can be dangerous, whether it be patriotic activism or pacifistic activism.
But how do we think of or categorize Jesus' example?
"...and by him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of his blood on the cross."(Col 1:20 NLT)
It looks like to me that Jesus demonstrated a more perfect way, an activism of non-action, endurance of suffering, of non-retaliation.
I think it is true to say that Jesus was not a pacifist, because a pacifist has the specific and limited goal of peace. Jesus wanted to take us further than mere peace.
It is equally true to say that Jesus was not an activist, because an activist has a cause, and that too is limited in scope. Jesus wanted to take us further than any temporary goal or cause.
In Jesus was the fullness of a complete existence, the perfect example.
