Jesus’ Nonviolent Political Theory

I’ve had a mixture of emotions since Saturday’s assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

I feel sadness that the hostility of our culture and political climate has fostered violence and death. I feel anxiety that there will be retaliation. I fear cycles of violence.

Despite the fact hat Jesus told his followers to put their swords down because “all who take the sword will perish by the sword,” it seems as though many Christians in the United States believe in the gun more than they believe in Jesus’ teachings. While the majority of Americans want more gun legislation, Christians on the right have worked with the gun lobby to make any gun legislation nearly impossible to accomplish.

This is a recipe for violence. But there are other recipes, too. Recipes of hope. Recipes of love. Recipes of peace.

Being Peacemakers

Jesus says in Matthew 5 verse 9, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

Unfortunately, there is an idea that the way to be peacemakers is to defeat our enemies, through violence if necessary. But that’s not the way to be peacemakers, for violence begets violence.

But Jesus calls us to follow him, which means dedicating ourselves to nonviolence. As Rene Girard states in his book Battling to the End, “We can all participate in the divinity of Christ so long as we renounce our own violence.”

Jesus doesn’t make peace by using violence. He makes peace through nonviolent love.

Peacemaking is central to the Christian faith, or at least it should be. Notice that Jesus doesn’t say that we are to be peace-wishers. We are to be peace-makers.

I have made the mistake in my life of believing that peacemaking means avoiding conflict. I hate conflict. But peacemaking isn’t the avoidance of conflict. Peacemaking is often conflictual. Peacemaking in a violent world demands confronting the systems of violence and oppression in our world, in our nation, in our communities, and in ourselves.

But what might this look like?

It doesn’t look like assassinating our political opponents.

Rather, it looks like attempting to change the political and economic systems that lead to oppression. This is the way to Christian peacemaking.

Jesus’ Political Theory

You may be surprised to learn that Jesus had a political theory. In Matthew 25, Jesus says that the nations will be judged by how they treat the marginalized in their midst. Jesus says that he will say this to the nations who cared for the most vulnerable:

“Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; ³⁵for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ³⁶I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” ³⁷Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? ³⁸And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? ³⁹And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” ⁴⁰And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”

This passage is the heart of Jesus’ political theory. It says nothing about defeating political opponents with violence. It only mentions caring for the vulnerable in our midst.

But there is a translation problem that I’d like to point out. When Jesus “All the *nations* will be gathered before him, and he will separate *people* one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.”

The word for “people” is a mistranslation of a Greek word that just means “them.” To translate that word as “people” makes this passage sound like it’s merely about individuals and not the nations. But this judgment is about national systems that either advocate for the marginalized or that don’t.

In the Bible, the term “nations” refers to political systems. And the nations will be judged by if they gave the thirsty something to drink. They will be judged by if they gave the thirsty something to drink. They will be judged by if they welcomed the stranger. They will be judged by how well they cared for the sick. They will be judged by how they cared for those in prison. The nations will be judged by how well they cared for those on the margins.

But throughout history, nations and economic systems don’t tend to care for those on the margins.

Christian tradition tells us that Jesus is the full representation of God. If that’s true, then God cares for everyone, but especially the most vulnerable and marginalized in our nations and in our world.

If Christians want to  be peacemakers, then we need to follow Jesus’s teachings. Not only does he warn that “those who live by the sword will die by the sword,” he gives the principles for peace and justice. It is up to Christians to renounce violence and live by these principles. We are at the point where human survival depends upon us renouncing violence. As Martin Luther King Jr put it, “the choice today is no longer between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence.”