Violence is the Physical Step of Angry Rhetoric

If you live by the sword you will die from the sword.

As we look back to Tucson Arizona and the rhetoric that has been discussed, we all took a step backwards and contemplated what it all meant. Lives were taken, was there more than just one person to blame. Had it been the climate of discontent and the angry rhetoric that has been tossed about in the past few decades? Is all this a precursor to worse days ahead? We should reread Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter from the Birmingham Jail. This should be required reading by everyone once a year. It is rich with ideas of non-violence and using rhetoric that lifts up and not tears down. It is full of profound, inherent, and equal dignity of every human being as a creature fashioned in the very image of God, possessing inherent rights of equal dignity and life.

Broadly speaking, non-violence has meant not relying on arms and weapons of struggle. It has meant direct participation of masses in protest, rather than reliance on indirect methods which frequently do not involve masses in action at all. This letter defends positions vigorously and with conviction, but with civility. Scripture tells us to always be ready to make a defense for the hope we have in Christ, which leads to the convictions we carry and yet to “do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame” (1 Peter 3:15-16 ESV).

That is why our nation more than ever needs the spirit contained in Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” That is why more than ever, we should reread it. We Christians should take another cue from Dr. King: “Love even for our enemies,” he said in a sermon, “is the key to the solution of problems of our world.” To speak the truth in love may entail, as it did for Dr. King, long-suffering as well as courage on our part. But love does not retaliate. Real love follows the example of Jesus, who “when He was reviled, He did not revile in return, when He suffered, He did not threaten,” but entrusted Himself to His heavenly Father (1 Peter 2:23 ESV).

Violence as a way of achieving justice is impractical and immoral, but also mindful of the fact that violence often brings about momentary results. Our nation has frequently won their independence in battle. But in spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones. Violence is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding: it seeks to annihilate rather than convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends up defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. As Dr. King said “the ends don’t justify the means, for the means represents the seed and the ends represent the tree.”

Dr. King has been the moral guide of our time, if there was a prophet ever sent to our nation he was the man. But where did Dr. King learn this from, did he just snatch this out of thin air? Dr. King was also a Baptist Minister, he had studied, learned, and preached from the Bible. I believe it was his encounter with God that made him into what he eventually became. He felt after his release from the Birmingham jail that God had knocked on his door, which God was showing that non-violence and the direction that he was taking was a path that God wanted him to take. Dr. King describes this encounter in the book “A testament of hope: the essential writings and speeches of Martin Luther King Jr.”.

Even though the Bible does not directly say to not use violence, it does so indirectly. In the sermon on the mount in Matthew chapter five Jesus says “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Contrary to many people's understanding, the Law wasn't given so that we could keep it and earn relationship with God.

The Law was given to show us that it was impossible to have relationship with God by our good acts. The Law showed us how sinful we were so that we would quit trying to earn God's favor and call out to Him for mercy.

In these verses, Jesus was simply amplifying the impact of the Law by going beyond actions to the thoughts and intents of the heart. The Old Testament law had said not to do these things. Here, Jesus was saying that if we have embraced them in our hearts, we are guilty of the same transgression as if we had done them. God looks on the heart and not just the actions. In Matthew chapter twelve Jesus further reveals for out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. That is where we are with rhetoric, it starts in the heart and will eventually work its way to our actions. Our actions will follow our heart.

In Luke chapter nine Jesus directs His disciples to go out and preach the kingdom of God, heal the sick, and bless whatever home they stay in. Jesus told them not to take a staff, bag, bread, money, or extra coat. He was trying to show the disciples how to trust and rely on God and that He would take care of all their needs. In Luke chapter ten Jesus then appoints seventy two others to go out and do the same. He directed them the same way He told the twelve disciples. When the seventy two returned they announced how powerful that God worked through them that even evil fell like lightning from heaven.

If we depend on God, He will provide all that we need. In Second Corinthians chapter ten, the apostle Paul says “Though we walk in the flesh, we don’t war in the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. But mighty through God.” In Ephesians chapter six Paul iterates “the war is not against flesh and blood”, if we are coming against the flesh it is the wrong war. Non-violence fits perfectly here.

Jesus continued to show the disciples in a very real manner all that He was trying to teach them, and in this way He showed them the path to non-violence. In Luke chapter twenty two it looks like Jesus was giving the disciples a contradiction in what He told them in chapter nine and ten of Luke. “Then Jesus asked them, "When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?" "Nothing," they answered. He said to them, "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. It is written: 'And he was numbered with the transgressors'; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment." The disciples said, "See, Lord, here are two swords." "That is enough," he replied.”

This was not a contradiction but Jesus showing the disciples in a very real manner that the consequences of following Jesus, depending upon Him, that all their needs were going to be taken care of. Using the world’s ways and using violence was going to cause more violence to come. In Matthew twenty six the guards, Judas, and a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people had come for Jesus and violence was taken up. “With that, one of Jesus' companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear”. "Put your sword back in its place," Jesus said to him, "for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.”

Jesus was teaching that violence begets violence. In contrast Jesus who used no violence, showed that depending upon Him that everything was going to be taken care of. All of this starts in our hearts. The vitriolic rhetoric that has been used the last few decades has invaded every aspect of our life here in these United States. This rhetoric has laid seeds that we are experiencing today and seeing the fruit of the tree in our government, schools, churches, and in all aspects of our lives. We need to quit planting those seeds, it starts in our hearts. Non-violence does not seek to humiliate or defeat but to win friendship and understanding. The aftermath of violence is bitterness, anger and in the end death, the aftermath of non-violence is reconciliation, peace and in the end redemption.