We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.
Violence: What Did Jesus Do?
Here’s a spot-on reflection on what Jesus taught us about responding to violence. Whatever you think about the justification of violence in particular situations, as Christians we simply cannot escape the fact that Jesus demonstrated another way.
From the reflection:
And though he had access to unlimited power to have himself released from the post on which they had nailed him and had hoisted him up high from the ground … he did not exercise that power at all, choosing instead to voluntarily die with a prayer on his lips for his murders’ forgiveness.
Two questions come to my mind:
(1) How did I miss all of this for most of my life as a Christian?
(2) Is the record of my Lord behaving so merely a record of his unique life and experienceor were they recorded and intended to teach all who would follow Jesus as to how we can follow him in the face of violence?
Category: General
Tags: Cruciform Theology, Jesus, Non-Violence, Suffering, The Way of the Cross, Upside-Down Kingdom
Related Reading
Sermon Clip: Does Romans 9 predestine you to Hell?
Did God predestine you to Hell? Can he even do that? In this short sermon clip, Greg Boyd talks about his own struggles when trying to understand Romans 9 which on the surface seems to imply that God determines who goes to heaven and hell. In the full sermon, Greg takes a deep look at…
Don’t all religions believe in the same God?
http://youtu.be/BKmSr6lKWsk Bruxy Cavey takes a swing at this question and scores a home run.
Podcast: Is the Cruciform Hermeneutic a Little Too New?
Greg looks at the history of the Cruciform Hermeneutic. http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0446.mp3
Isn’t the Resurrection the Ultimate Revelation of God? (podcast)
Greg considers the relationship between Christ’s death and resurrection. http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0744.mp3
Will Violence against ISIS Root Out Evil?
Image by arbyreed via Flickr Fallen humans tend to identify their own group as righteous and any group that opposes them as evil. If they were not evil, we tend to believe, no conflict would exist. Hence, the only way to end the conflict is to rid the world of this evil. This is the age-old “myth…
Why Did Jesus Curse a Barren Fig Tree?
While no one argues that the NT advocates violence explicitly, many allege that some passages reflect violent attitudes toward outsiders, and especially toward non-believing Jews, while others detect an element of violence in some of Jesus’ teachings and behavior. Some scholars argue that this violent aspect of the NT laid the groundwork for later Christian…