Maybe it’s the two-year war in Ukraine. Maybe it’s the massacre of October seventh, or the civilian death toll in Gaza. Whatever the reason, the power of violence is much on my mind.
Death is, after all, the world’s ultimate power. Taking the life of another human is the ultimate act of finality. It can only be done to each person once. Once it’s done to someone, it cannot be undone.
But I remember a line from the movie Paul: Apostle of Christ.* The Christian community in Rome is suffering under Nero’s persecution. Christians are being burnt alive as human torches, or thrown to wild beasts in the Colosseum. Paul is held in the notorious Mamertine prison, in a cold, dark, wet cell, awaiting his beheading. The Roman Christians are wrestling with how to respond to all this, in light of the death of Tarquin, a beloved twelve-year-old member of the community.
One of their number, Cassius, demands to know why they don’t just respond in kind: “We do what they do to us. Murder them in the cover of darkness! Set fire and burn them in their homes while they sleep!”
Many members of the community agree with him. Aquila, however, rebukes Cassius: “You speak as though you had never heard the words of Christ!” The physician Luke then points to the example of Paul:
I have watched him be beaten; I have watched him be stoned, and flogged, and never once did he lift a finger against his oppressors. Let peace be with you. We live in the world, but we do not wage war as the world does. Peace begins with you, Cassius. Love is the only way.
The first time I watched the film, I burst into tears when he said that last part. I’m near tears just thinking about it.
Love. Is the only way.
We forget this too easily as Christians. We allow ourselves to love our friends, but hate our enemies. We give in to hatred, malice, and wrath. We cheer the violence on, against the backdrop of a waving flag, and declare the sound of explosions to be “the sound of freedom.”
But love is the only way. Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God, and to love our neighbor as ourself. He said that the world would we’re his disciples by our love for each other. In 1 John love of the Christian brothers is commanded over and over, and even used as a litmus test for determining who is a true Christian. Jesus said that we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. James calls love “the royal law.” Paul, a former Pharisee and student of the Jewish law said that love is the fulfillment of the law.
Love is the only way.
We modern (Protestant) Christians (rightly) emphasize faith. Paul does, too. When all things pass away, he says, “These three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
Love is the only way.
Love, agapē, in Greek, isn’t affection, friendly feelings, warm fuzzies, or whatever the heck the hippies were talking about in the ’60s. Agapē is more radical. It is self-sacrificial love. It is the love that gives oneself away in the service of others. It is the love that prioritizes the good of the other over one’s own good. Agapē is what makes soldiers jump on hand grenades to save their buddies, and what makes mothers throw themselves between their child and danger. Love never fails.
The world wages war with violence. The Palestinians are angry with the Israelis, the Israelis are angry with Hamas, and everybody is trying to kill their way out of the problem. But that’s not possible. There is no way back from killing. The person isn’t reformed; they’re not convinced, they’re not persuaded that we’re right and they’re wrong. They’re simply obliterated.
Everyone is trying to kill their way out of the problem.
But violence isn’t our weapon, because our fight isn’t again flesh and blood. Our fight is against the dark powers standing behind Rome, behind the violence. Our fight is with the dark power of sin that has enslaved humanity, not only those we love, but those we hate. And unlike the power of death, that can be visited upon its victim only once, love never ends.
Imagine if we actually took Jesus seriously. Imagine if we believed as James, and Peter, and John, and Paul believed, that it is love that is all-powerful. It is love that is the irresistible force. Love is the thing that defines the true believer in Jesus. Love is the sum total of all commands. Love is the way we should treat not just friend and neighbor, but persecutor and enemy! How different would we be?
Imagine if we took Jesus seriously.
The economy of love is unending. If I love my brothers, there is no limit to the number of times or ways that that self-sacrificial love can be expressed. If everyone practiced agapē, prioritizing the needs of the other over their own, then everyone’s needs would be met, and there would be no greed, coveting, or jealousy. The world would look on us and say, “Why are they like that? Why don’t they fight back? Why don’t they just curse us and die?”
And in the face of that question, we give the only answer that really matters: because Jesus has shown us the way.
Love is the only way.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*If you haven’t seen it, seek it out. I cried so much watching it that I had salt caked on the inside of my glasses.