It’s hard not to cry out for blood over recent events, with so many atrocities happening it’s difficult to stop myself rooting for vengeance, to refrain from getting behind the cries for war. We tend to, as humans, all band together against a common enemy and so it almost feels right and somewhat natural to join the masses worldwide to annihilate the so-called threat to the Western way of living.
But then there’s Jesus.
Try as I might to justify this bloodlust. There is and always will be another Way. There will always be Jesus. He seems to be in the habit of messing up my well thought out views and conscious. So here’s a few thoughts on whats going on and how I feel Gods leading me to react. I’m not saying this to try and change anybody’s political leanings but I do aim to challenge, what I and I believe others, have found to be a rather natural feeling (but nonetheless unattractive) of bloodlust or vengeance.
It seems that no matter how I try and bend Jesus to fit into my own opinions and views, He remains a grace-shaped character. He still upholds peace, no matter how any of us try and distort Him in relation to whats happening around us. The truth is, we are called to be a peaceful people in a war torn world. While that doesn’t mean we need to be passive, we do need to display the loving, graceful character of Jesus to everyone we meet. Peace sounds like a fluffy, nice and quaint word. I’ve come to feel that it is one of the strongest words in our language, up there with love and hate. It’s overused and understated. Peace is the hardest thing to live out. It’s probably the most difficult thing that God asks of us. It has to filter into every part of our lives, every thought in our head and opinion we form needs to be filtered through peace. It is by no means quaint or easy, it is far more difficult than war or passivity. It involves acknowledging and respecting both the humanity and the divine in every individual we encounter. It is the hardest way and it is the only way.
It’s pretty easy to proclaim peace to those around you. It’s relatively easy to be a peaceful people in our own community and to regard ourselves as Peacemakers. I regard myself as a Peacemaker but have been incredibly challenged recently with my opinions on recent international events. How can I be a Peacemaker and advocate another war? How can I be a Peacemaker and believe that violence sometimes (when not involving me directly) can combat violence?
I think that I’ve come to the conclusion that, quite simply, it can’t. A war to bring peace is impossible. A war on terror is still a war. If I’m to be a person who proclaims peace then I in turn, need to denounce these things. If I cry out for vengeance or human means of justice through bombs, war and conflict then I cannot call myself a peace maker. That doesn’t necessarily mean I know of another strategy or plan to deal with terrorism. The thought of acknowledging and respecting the humanity and the divine in a terrorist makes me feel sick. However, if we think that Jesus does not love these guys just as much as us then we really should just rip out all of Paul’s letters from our bibles. God did quite a lot with that particular ex-terrorist! If Jesus does not love terrorists then our gospel does not exist. I need to ask God every day to let me rejoice in this, rather than recoil with reluctance to share my Saviour.
Our world does not need any more warmongers, or terrorists or bombs dropped. We need to stop viewing people as collateral damage, the enemy or the Other. We need more gentleness, more people willing to take what Jesus said literally and become Peacemakers, even though it is the hardest thing we will ever do.
Stepping out 