Jesus has been affectionately called 'The Prince of Peace'. But he was not always the pacifist he is made out to be.
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace on the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”
Recall the lyrics of the famous Christmas carol borrowed from the Gospel according to Luke where angels heralded Jesus’ birth with “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men," bringing in a new age of peace and love on earth. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus, by his actions, was a rabble rouser, stirring up trouble wherever he went.
When Jesus first appeared on the scene he kicked off his ministry in the Essene, anti-Temple tradition by fashioning a whip, tossing tables and driving out merchants from the Temple of Jerusalem. This proves he had a temper and was not adverse to using violence over diplomacy to promote his philosophy. Recall the bloody genocide of the Crusades which found justification in this example of violence. Jesus said, “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his castle, his property is safe.” (Luke 11:21) Here Jesus seems to teach that war and violence are sometimes justified. These examples may be why many conservative Christians vehemently defend the second amendment of the U.S. Constitution and fill the ranks of our military. As well, this may have given rise to the philosophy of Christian dominionism which eagerly and willingly justifies war, whether to spread Christianity and democracy, or to protect our interests abroad such as the free flow of oil.
It came as a shock to me that Jesus stated that he “did not come to this earth to bring peace, but a sword.” (Matthew 10:34, Luke 12:51-53) In a modern context Jesus would have used the word gun or rifle instead of sword, the military weapon of his day. For a man I had believed to be a pacifist, the irony is exquisite. Can you imagine such words from the mouth of Mahatma Gandhi? Christians have a hard time rounding this square peg and have written volumes trying to wrestle down these and other “difficult” words spoken by this enigmatic preacher.
His metaphorical use of a weapon of war to illustrate his purpose on Earth suggests Jesus may have believed that he was destined to fulfill several Old Testament prophecies, including 2 Samuel 7. This was in keeping with the Essene belief that God had promised a king, a messiah, would arise from the lineage of King David and restore the nation of Israel to “the promised land”.
Considering that this so-called “promised land” where Jesus lived was under the oppressive rule of the Roman emperor Tiberius, such a Jewish king would need to be a most powerful general with a substantial trained army to conduct a successful military coup against the most formidable army in that part of the world. Like the delusional Don Quixote, Jesus must have imagined himself to be the future warrior-savior king, wielding a divine sword against the Roman windmills.
But the reality is that Jesus was from humble roots with no military training. He had an unimpressive, ragtag following of perhaps seventy individuals at the most, among them unemployed fishermen, shop keepers, a tax collector, a doctor, and a handful of single women. Yet, in launching his ministry, Jesus insisted that these followers arm themselves as if preparing for battle! He instructed his recruits to go out and purchase a weapon, a sword. And, if they had not the money, to sell their cloak and buy one (Luke 22:36) after which the disciples boasted, “Look, Lord, here are two swords.” (verse 38) If Jesus had truly been advocating nonviolence surely his disciples would not have weapons of war in their possession.
When Jesus failed to fulfill this Old Testament messianic prophecy, many first century Christians, having felt embarrassed and betrayed, abandoned the movement. Those that remained conveniently shifted their focus from the once prophesied, literal, earthly military victory over their Roman oppressors to an imagined, supernatural victory of good over evil, hence the use of the ambiguous word gospel or “god-spell”.
According to Biblical scholar, educator, historian and ancient languages expert, Joseph Atwill, the Anglo-Saxon word gospel was intentionally, and improperly so, translated from the Greek euangelion, which was used to describe when a messenger, the evangelist, was dispatched from the battlefield to deliver the “good news of military victory” to the king. In Atwill’s opinion, Christians who identify as today's evangelicals are unknowingly claiming to be messengers carrying the good news of a military victory!
Although Jesus was arrested by the Jewish Sanhedrin for the capital crime of blasphemy against God, technically he was executed by the Roman authorities for the crime of sedition against the Roman state. Claiming to be a king planning to overthrow the Roman occupiers would certainly qualify. According to the gospel of Mark, the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, asked Jesus directly if he was really the King of the Jews, to which the Nazarene replied only, “It is as you say.” (Mark 15:2) However, in the Gospel of John (which was written decades later than the Gospel of Mark), the writers cleverly modified Jesus’ response so that he admits only to being a metaphorical king in some vague other-worldly realm. In doing so, early Christian writers managed to obfuscate the literal militaristic interpretation of the Old Testament prophecy. (John 18:36,37)
In his parables, Jesus speaks of war and the use of violence, never condemning such behavior. For instance, he said, “Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand?" (Luke 14:31) As well, Paul of Tarsus, whose letters comprise most of the New Testament, picks up on the Old Testament military theme employing metaphors such as to “put on the whole armor of God.”
Throughout Christian history, military imagery reappears time and again in sermon and song such as in this catchy tune from my youth:
Onward Christian Soldiers, marching as to war
With the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the royal Master,
Leads against the foe;
Forward into battle,
See his banners go!
And none more famously so than the Battle Hymn of the Republic written shortly after the Civil War:
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible, swift sword;
His truth is marching on.
The image of Jesus as a sword-wielding general leading an army, which has been a theme of religious artists throughout history, should create cognitive dissonance in any rational mind. So how did Jesus acquire the dubious reputation as a peacemaker with so much evidence to the contrary? Evidently by ignoring the inconvenient passages and focusing only on the positive ones. For example, the following quote is taken from the famous Sermon on the Mount where Jesus offers a few vague words and a weak reward for those who seek peace: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.” (Matthew 5:9) And then later he says, “But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44) This future tenet of Christianity is considered to be one of the most profound, if not most difficult to follow, statements ever made by Jesus. Once again, this theme is not original as it had been offered by other teachers that lived long, long before Jesus:
“Do not return evil to your adversary; Requite with kindness the one who does evil to you, Maintain justice for your enemy.”
~the Akkadian “Counsels of Wisdom”, circa 2000 BCE
“Return love for hatred. Otherwise, when a great hatred is reconciled, some of it will surely remain. How can this end in goodness?”
~the Taoist “T’ai Shang Kan Ying P’ien”, circa 200 BCE
Although the Sermon on the Mount is just one example, it proves Jesus can change course or hold any view you want him to hold. Just focus on the words that agree with your personal world view, politics or moral compass and simply ignore the rest.
Summary
We have learned that Jesus may have been a disciple of the Essene sect of Judaism which may have informed his moral philosophy. By his own words we learned Jesus did not always present himself as a man of peace, perhaps because for a short time he actually believed he was the prophesied messiah destined to become the “King of the Jews”, leading an armed revolt against the Roman occupiers. And when his attempts to form an army failed, his self-identity quickly shifted from a would-be physical king of Jews on earth to some mysterious, other-worldly, metaphorical king.