01 - The Myth Of Christian Pacifism By Pastor Jeff Wickwire Notes

Matthew 5:39-41 "Do not resist him who is evil; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone wants to sue you, and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. And whoever shall force you to go one mile, go with him two."

As we begin this series on Christian myths, I want to begin with the myth of Christian pacifism.

I could have replaced “pacifism” with “wimpism” which could have worked as well.

I believe that the myth of Christian pacifism has played a part in stripping the church of a big slice of its influence and power.

When we ought to be on the front lines confronting our sinful culture in power, boldness, and truth, we feel our job is to “not be involved,” or “just bless them,” or “show them the love of Christ,” or “not judge them.”

Let me be clear—I believe in showing the love of Christ, but love doesn’t always manifest itself in “pacifism,” or “non-assertiveness.”

One way the myth of Christian pacifism has gained ground in the church is by misinterpreting the words of Jesus in the text we just read.

“Don’t resist evil,” “turn the other cheek,” and so forth.

We have interpreted His words to mean that the Christian should be a sort of wimpy, passive, weak, non-forceful individual who just kind of lets people walk all over them by “turning the other cheek.”

One person writes, “Years ago, I thought this passage was pretty clear: if someone wants to insult you, attack you, or murder you, your job as a Christian was simply to take it.”

Now first, this view of the church’s response to adversity has come through:

The way we’ve been taught to look at the Person of Jesus Christ

We are taught early on that Jesus was the ultimate “nice guy.”

We love the scenes of Him blessing the children, crying over Jerusalem, forgiving the adulterous woman, of John leaning his head on Jesus’ chest at the first Lord’s Supper.

We view Him as the “gentle Jesus,” the Jesus that blessed, the Jesus that taught on love, forgiveness, and peace.

We like to sing “What A Friend We Have in Jesus.”

That’s the nice Jesus—He’s our Friend, our buddy.

We want the nice Jesus.

We believe in a nice Jesus.

But that’s not the “whole Jesus,” the “complete Jesus” found in scripture.

What about the Jesus that walked into the temple with a whip and drove out the money changers with such ferocity they fled in fear?

John 2: 15-17 “Jesus put together a whip out of strips of leather and chased them out of the Temple, stampeding the sheep and cattle, turning the tables over, spilling coins left and right. He told the dove merchants, "Get your things out of here! Stop turning my Father's house into a shopping mall!"

Gentle Jesus? Nice guy?

What about the Jesus that regularly made scathing, difficult, harsh statements to His listeners, like…

“You people of this day have no faith. How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you?” (Mark 9:19)

“Jesus often reprimanded the disciples: "Why are you such cowards? Don't you have any faith at all?" (Mark 4:40)

Contrary to the current teaching of Political Correctness that says Christians should never judge others, Jesus thoroughly judged and criticized the religious leaders of his day.

Here’s a sample:

"…be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don't live it. They don't take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It's all spit-and-polish veneer.

4-7"Instead of giving you God's Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn't think of lifting a finger to help.

Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called 'Doctor' and 'Reverend.'

Nice guy? Gentle Jesus?

And to the Pharisees themselves who would one day help orchestrate His crucifixion, Jesus said,

“I've had it with you! You're hopeless, you religion scholars, you Pharisees! Frauds! Your lives are roadblocks to God's kingdom. You refuse to enter, and won't let anyone else in either.

15"You're hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You go halfway around the world to make a convert, but once you get him you make him into a replica of yourselves, double-damned. 16-22"You're hopeless! What arrogant stupidity!”

Nice guy? Gentle Jesus?

If you don’t like this side of Jesus, you’ll have to go through the Bible with scissors, cutting out the parts you don’t like.

The danger in going down this path, though, is that our image of Jesus may be altered to the church’s loss.

It might be easier to cleave to our squeaky-clean image of Jesus, the meek and mild man who healed and said comforting things and taught important lessons and selflessly died, the guy with perfect teeth and flowing blond locks, the Jesus who turned the other cheek and forgave even as they were driving nails through is hands.

But there’s a problem with that Jesus.

Andrew Greeley says it this way: “Once you domesticate Jesus, he isn’t there anymore.

The domestic Jesus may be an interesting guy, a good friend, a loyal companion, a helpful business associate...

But one thing he certainly is not: He’s not the Jesus of the New Testament.”

Now, here’s the rub.

If you domesticate Jesus and turn Him into the quintessential “nice guy,” this is exactly what His followers will become—sickeningly, over the top “nice.”

But…

This is not what we see portrayed in the disciples of the early church

The early disciples fearlessly confronted kings with the gospel, denounced witches and mediums, set cities on holy fire, faced down devils, wore boldness like a coat, and took the world by storm.

They came to be known as “those that had turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6).

I assure you, they didn’t do this by being “nice guys.”

When commanded by the Sanhedrin not to preach any more in Jesus’ name they countered with, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

When Paul was slapped for rebuking the High Priest, he shot back with “God will slap you down! What a fake you are! You sit there and judge me by the Law and then break the Law by ordering me slapped around!" (Acts 23:3)

So much for Mr. Nice Guy!

So, how do we contrast these things with Jesus’ command to “resist not evil,” and “turn the other cheek?”

What did He mean?

First, Jesus is not telling us to never respond to evil with force (such as in self-defense).

Nor was He teaching us to literally “turn our other cheek” to someone who may very well take advantage of our gesture, any more than his command later in the Sermon on the Mount to “gouge out our eyes” or “cut off our hands” in order to deal with a sin problem.

Jesus is using hyperbole (exaggeration) to illustrate what our attitude should be.

He’s not saying that we should literally “give in” to every attempt to do evil against us.

So, Jesus is not teaching Christian pacifism against evil.

He’s not turning men into wimps.

He’s not emasculating His followers.

Then what did He mean by these sayings of His?

First, in these passages from the Sermon on the Mount,

Jesus is dealing with some common misunderstandings about the old Law of Moses.

Remember that the Jews in Jesus' day only had the books we call the 'Old Testament.'

And they also had a very strong tradition of teaching by their priests and rabbis which supplemented the Mosaic law.

Over the years, the religious traditions and extra teachings had become to them almost as important as the Bible itself.

And there were errors in many of these extra teachings.

So, one of the things that Jesus was doing in the Sermon on the Mount was correcting those errors.

Each error He corrected was prefaced by the saying, "You have heard that it was said by them of old time…”

Followed by His correction, "But I say to you ..."

One of these corrections involved the passage on “an eye for an eye.”

Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,'"

He was referring not just to the Mosaic law itself (see Exodus 21:24), but also to the erroneous teaching surrounding that law.

The error that Jesus was correcting was that people were treating the "eye for an eye" as if it were a personal command to each one of them…

If someone hits you, you should personally avenge it by hitting them back.

Vengeance was yours to take.

It was a type of vigilantism that they taught.

But the original command from Moses was given so that they would let their courts handle serious grievances, not they themselves.

The courts were supposed to assure that the punishment of the criminal be in proportion with the damage done to the victim.

That is what it meant when the old law commanded "an eye for an eye."

So, Jesus was pointing out that the individual was never commanded to seek his own vengeance.

In serious grievances, the wronged person should let the courts handle it.

In lesser grievances, Christ’s followers were to choose to forgive rather than to seek vengeance.

Second, when Jesus said, “If someone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other cheek,” he was referring to low-level insults, not serious attacks.

He was talking about a back-handed slap, not someone beating you up with a baseball bat!

A slap on the cheek was not a deadly force assault.

In the culture of Jesus’ day, a back-handed slap on the face was simply an insult.

So, put another way, if someone insults you, the Christian should “turn the other cheek” by letting it go.

An insult, says Jesus, isn't worth fighting, killing or getting killed over.

Paul discusses this in Ro.12:17-19,

“Do not repay anyone evil for evil. (When struck), don't hit back; Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do. “I'll do the judging," says God. "I'll take care of it."

In another place, Paul wrote, “not [to] be overcome by evil, but [to] overcome evil with good" (Romans 12:21).

If someone says a mean word, it is far more effective to respond with kindness than with another mean word in return.

If someone tries wrongly to cut you off on the freeway, it is usually best just to let them do it.

So, in teaching us to “turn the other cheek,” Jesus is not telling us to lie down and let evil overtake us.

This is where the myth of Christian passivism gets a foothold!

God did not raise up the church to be passive about evil; to allow evil to beat us around.

We are to be “the light of the world,” the “salt of the earth.”

We are to confront evil in boldness, truth, and in the power of the Holy Spirit:

Paul told the church, “Don't waste your time on…the barren pursuits of darkness. Expose these things for the sham they are” (Eph.5:11-16).

In minor issues, “turn the other cheek” by forgiving and giving the offense to God.

In major issues, fight the good fight, expose the enemy, battle the unseen forces of darkness, and hold high the banner of Jesus Christ!

Away with the myth of Christian Pacifism!

NEXT TIME: For our Independence Day weekend, we will speak on:

“The Myth of Separation of Church and State”

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