Matthew 26: 48-54
When you
hear the scripture today it will be familiar one to you but it will seem just a
bit out of place. You see the context for this scripture is the Passion of
Christ and it would be one of the stories that you would hear on Maundy
Thursday of Holy Week. The beauty
of hearing it now out of context is that we can focus on other insights that
this piece provides for us. Let’s
get to it….
Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I
will kiss is the man; arrest him.” At once he came up to Jesus and said,
“Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him. Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you are
here to do.” Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and arrested him. Suddenly,
one of those with Jesus put his hand on his sword, drew it, and struck the
slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, “Put
your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the
sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send
me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the scriptures be
fulfilled, which say it must happen in this way?”
The usual spin on this passage is the betrayal of Jesus by
Judas, the indicting kiss that lets the arresting officers of the Roman army
know just who their man was. The
theological spin we put on it is that Jesus is complacent because he has to do
what he has to do. He’s on this
earth for a specific reason and it will, by whatever means, be accomplished. And the whole cutting of the ear part
sure adds a bit of drama to the situation. One of those with him acts out his anger. And Jesus doesn’t like it.
But since we are now heading into the third week of the
sermon series, The Genius or Way of Jesus, we are going to focus on the
character of Jesus. We’ve already
looked at Jesus as encourager of Peter to fish deeper into the waters of life
to seek abundance, and then last week we saw Jesus lay out a very strong
message, that is to make wise choices in life keeping power in balance. The
part of Jesus character that we will look at today is how he resists the human
tendency for violence and shows us another way to live that promotes peace.
I think that Jesus, as embodiment of the human spirit, would
have, just like one of us, wanted to lash out. Let’s face it, he would have wanted to get angry and maybe
he even did, but what sets him apart is that he doesn’t act as humans act. We
know that he got angry, he wept, he felt emotions, which is what makes him very
real.
But in this scene he does not act like we might have acted,
he shows the way of non-violence and acts as peacemaker for those around
him. Yes he was still arrested but
through his actions he diffused his very angry followers from endangering those
around him and inciting even more violence and rioting. Violent behavior only fuels hatred and
recrimination, it’s a foil for the fear that lurks within. You can’t fight
violence with violence and expect peaceful, peace filled outcomes, it just
doesn’t work that way.
Nagasaki Mary*
You may know that the 70th anniversary of the
bombing of Hiroshima was on August 6, just a few days ago. As you remember the US dropped the
atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan and then only three days later we dropped a
second bomb on Nagasaki. It was
not one of our finest moments in time.
More than 100,000 people were killed and another 150,000 were affected
by related radiation illness and injuries.[i] Sure, the Allies won the war, but are
we, as a world, any safer because of their deaths? Can we say that this brought
us any closer to world peace and security?
No. I don’t
think so. We still live in the
face and fear of violence and in particular nuclear violence as evidenced by
the recent Iran nuclear deal. If
we were free now of nuclear threat then perhaps Hiroshima would not have been
in vain. But that isn’t the
case. Now I know that there are
many more complicating factors today with the very real threat of terrorism but
fighting violence with violence is not the answer to everlasting peace. Well thought out intentional
non-violent resistance is. So what
does that look like?
I want to share with you a bit about my niece. She is an extraordinary woman who has,
in her lifetime accomplished much in the non-profit world. I am so proud of her. Today she works for an organization
call Ploughshares Fund.
Ploughshares works to reduce nuclear stockpiles, prevent nuclear states
and increase global security. She
actively works towards world peace with Ploughshares. And how do they do it?
They advocate peace by supporting experts and advocates who implement
strategies to secure a peaceful world without nuclear weapons.
They work towards global, read me GLOBAL security. A world where all people - me, you, and
the people around the world will be safe and secure from nuclear threat which,
as we know can destroy communities like Hiroshima and Nagasaki and worse yet,
the soul and spirit of our fellow human beings. We all have the right to live
without the threat of deadly nuclear warfare.
Thank goodness for Ploughshares and organizations like them
because non-violent resistance is how Jesus responds in the text today. We see how his active love responds to
violence. He shows us the way, it
is the way of love, the way of the kingdom of God. It is the way of non-violent
resistance. It is the way of
Nelson Mandela, of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., of Mahatma Gandhi. It is the baseline for ethical and
decent living.
It is not doing nothing. It is not sitting in a field of poppies with our arms raised
and our fingers formed in the international sign of peace. It is working towards cultural and
intellectual transformation that defy the ‘industry standard’, the status quo. It is seeking new horizons, thinking
outside the box, dreaming of a world that is beyond human belief. It is believing in Jesus’ way because it is our way
too.
This, my friends, is what Jesus shows us in this text
today. “All who live by the sword
will perish by the sword” so you can bet your booty that there are other ways
to behave and to live abundantly and with dignity. And we need to find those ways.
I want to close
with the often quoted prayer of St Francis of Assisi”…
“Lord, make me an
instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there
is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master, grant that I may not
so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning
that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.”
Amen.
[i] Information
gathered from an article by Elizabeth Warner Rogers of Ploughshares Fund. www.ploughshares.org
*Nagasaki Mary is what is leftover from the Urakami Catholic Church from the bombing of 1945. The church has been rebuilt and the bust of a statue of Mary has been preserved.
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