J4P – Security, Terror and PR Policies

Guest Blogger: Daniel Farrell

After covering Jesus’ economic policy (Jubilee) in the last section they move on to his security, terrorism and PR policies in this section. For his security policy they reference the Sermon on the Mount(Matthew 5-7) and specifically focus on Matthew 5:38-42 where Jesus talks about turning the other cheek, going the extra mile and surrendering your undergarments when someone sues you for your clothes. This is a radical passage when put into it’s context which the authors do. They then share Walter Wink’s interpretations of what those mean. For those not familiar with Wink his interpretation is that these were not passive, let yourself be taken advantage of, teachings. That in context they illustrate a 3rd way to respond to oppression outside of violent resistance and passive acceptance of abuse. The 3rd way is creative nonviolence resistance. It’s doing something to put the oppressor in an awkward situation and forcing them to either back off or shaming themselves/getting in trouble. That is what Gandhi saw in Jesus and tried to emulate in his context. Obviously those actions must be culturally relevant so as to actually fulfill the intended purpose. What do you think those types of actions would be in our society?

Following from there they dealt with the parable of the wheat and tares(Matthew 13:24-30) as Jesus’ ideas for how to handle evil, his terrorism policy if you will. It’s pretty much the opposite of the “kill them all and let God sort them out” that was coined by Arnaud-Armaury (the Abbot of Citeaux) during the crusades. Jesus was saying “let them all live and let God sort them out.” The 2 points they take away from the parable are:

1. You cannot easily distinguish the weeds from the wheat. (It’s not so easy to say, “We are all good and they are all evil.” Sometimes only God can distinguish.)

2. Destroying evil might destroy good.

How do you feel about the idea of just letting evil be? Does it rub you the wrong way?

From security and terrorism policies they move onto PR and expansion. Obviously Jesus didn’t have access to the type or propaganda available now, but from what we do see it doesn’t seem like he would have taken advantage of it anyways. Here they look at the parable of the seed sower (Matthew 13:3-8). The kingdom message is put out through people spreading it all around. It’s thrown out like seed and left to grow. They contrast it to revolutionaries like Che Guevara and Karl Marx whose message was more “this revolution needs to have now.” Compare that to the farmer who plants for next year and constantly is taking care of the land so that in the future things will grow more. The point? It takes time.

To expand on that a little they look mustard seed and yeast passage in Luke 13:18-21. Both of those examples are something that seems small, but give it some time and it will take over. Mustard plants spread like a weed. Think of that plant in your garden that is always trying to take over everything. For us it’s Canna Lilies that just keep growing and spreading. That’s how yeast works too. Mix a little into some dough and let it work. A friend of mine used to always saw the kingdom spread “like a virus” and it fits well here. A virus won’t infect everyone all at once… but is passed on person to person and can cause an epidemic if it gets to enough people. That is how the kingdom spreads.

Does it frustrate you to be a part of something that could take years to have an effect? In our culture of instant results do you think that approach is even possible?

Daniel Farrell is a follower of Jesus, a husband to Alicia and owner/operator of Farrell IT. He lives, works and plays in Richmond, VA. You can follow along the Pilgrimage that Daniel finds himself on here.