Jesus and the ways of peace

When Jesus was coming into the city of Jerusalem at the beginning of the week when he was crucified, he paused and cried. According to the report in the Luke Gospel, he looked over the city with tears in his eyes and said, “Would that you knew the ways of peace.”

New Testament scholars refer to this short statement as an aphorism. An aphorism is defined as a short, easily remembered statement of a universal statement. The lament from Jesus is not a statement that can be applied only to the city of Jerusalem, but a statement that can be asked over and over again in an endless number of settings.

Jesus left us many aphorisms. Alongside the stories he told, aphorisms are a part of the sure teaching legacy of Jesus. Aphorisms, being easily remembered, were passed from person to person as oral tradition for two generations before Luke repeated the words and placed them in the context of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. It is likely Jesus had repeated these words in every village of Northern Palestine in which he taught. Repeating them as he looked over Jerusalem was completely understandable.

When recognized as a universal statement in Christian faith, the aphorism is valid in the entire history of the western world. No generation can escape the observation. That includes 21st century America.

Jesus from Nazareth is still looking at the world and is making the same statement. “Would that you knew the ways of peace.”

Jesus illustrated the ways of peace in the stories he told. His stories told how the ways of peace were to be applied in real life. Jesus also left the specifics of the ways of peace in the form of aphorisms.

In chapters 5, 6 and 7 of the Matthew Gospel, in what is called Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, three aphorisms that speak to the issue are included. With full understanding of what he was doing, the gospel writer presented the Sermon on the Mount as having the same authority as the commandments that were brought down by Moses from Mt. Sinai. These three aphorisms spell out the content of the ways of peace.

• The first is the key. “Love your enemies.”

This is completely counter intuitive. Our natural instincts are to love family and friends and to defeat, even destroy, those we perceive to be our enemies. For the typical Christian loving our neighbors is a tough enough stretch. Neighbors are usually seen as people who are close by and with whom we have common interest. Loving a neighbor can be presented as being in the best interest of all persons involved. But enemies?

Enemies are usually people who want to rob us of our possessions, do us physical harm, and to do the same to our family and friends. On the larger scene, enemies plot to blow up our cities and massively kill our citizens. How are we to take Jesus seriously when he advocates such foolishness?

Jesus simply repeats the aphorism. “Love your enemies.”

• The second seems equally absurd. “Do not resist one who is evil.”

Self-defense is seen as a treasured right in America. We want the right to defend ourselves and our possessions. Jesus not only taught non-resistance to evil, he acted out the principle.

Just now in America one of the growth industries is self-defense. Security is a national obsession. We all have watched Homeland Security in action. We are all aware of the huge fence under construction along our southern border.

And we feel its impact on the local level. The Alaska State Fairground is located in our small town. The state fair event will take place in late August and early September. Our community will be visited by over 300,000 people. I will attend, eat some junky food, and watch some interesting shows. I also will walk among the crowds knowing that thousands of people are carrying concealed weapons that they justify because of their need for self-defense.

And Jesus repeats, “Do not resist evil.”

• The third aphorism is a necessary companion to the first two. “Judge not.”

The Jesus program for peace takes us out of the judgment business. When we place our judgments on others, we are revealing our own insecurities. We make charges and call for penalties. It is not possible to love and to judge at the same time. Judging sets in motion counter judgments and the process goes on and on.

In the Jesus formula for peace, judging has no place and no function. In the settings that Jesus taught, I suspect that he repeated over and over again an aphorism that knew no bounds in it application. “Judge not.”

Paul was the first of the Christian writers. He wrote about the Jesus program for peace with great accuracy. In the 12th chapter of Romans, he lays down his instructions about the path to peace. He wrote, “Do not repay anyone evil for evil … never avenge yourselves … if your enemies are hungry, give them something to eat, if they are thirsty, give them something to drink … do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Now we know the ways of peace. Are we willing to do them?

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in retirement in Palmer. His e-mail address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.