WEBVTT 00:00:16.750 --> 00:00:19.769 Welcome to the Nonviolent Jesus Podcast. I'm 00:00:19.769 --> 00:00:23.030 John, Father John Deere, and today I'd like to 00:00:23.030 --> 00:00:26.170 take a deep dive into Jesus' teaching in the 00:00:26.170 --> 00:00:29.469 Sermon on the Mount on non -retaliation. This 00:00:29.469 --> 00:00:32.750 is a project of BeatitudeCenter .org where you 00:00:32.750 --> 00:00:35.329 can find many other podcasts and Zoom programs 00:00:35.329 --> 00:00:39.229 on the nonviolence of Jesus and practicing nonviolence 00:00:39.229 --> 00:00:42.130 and working for a more just, more nonviolent, 00:00:42.130 --> 00:00:44.950 more sustainable world. So let's begin with a 00:00:44.950 --> 00:00:48.030 little prayer. I invite you, wherever you are, 00:00:48.149 --> 00:00:52.929 to just take a deep breath and relax and recenter 00:00:52.929 --> 00:00:56.609 yourself and enter into the presence of the God 00:00:56.609 --> 00:00:59.570 of peace who loves you infinitely and personally. 00:01:00.270 --> 00:01:03.770 And let's welcome the nonviolent Jesus here with 00:01:03.770 --> 00:01:06.269 us and ask for whatever blessings and graces 00:01:06.269 --> 00:01:14.730 we need. God of peace, thank you for all the 00:01:14.730 --> 00:01:17.329 blessings of life, love, and peace that you give 00:01:17.329 --> 00:01:20.930 us. Be with us as we reflect on Jesus' teachings 00:01:20.930 --> 00:01:24.269 in the Sermon on the Mount, and bless us and 00:01:24.269 --> 00:01:27.590 inspire us, disarm us and strengthen us, and 00:01:27.590 --> 00:01:30.530 send us out to live his teachings of love and 00:01:30.530 --> 00:01:32.849 peace and nonviolence, that we might do your 00:01:32.849 --> 00:01:37.030 will and do our part to help end poverty, racism, 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:41.219 corporate greed, systemic injustice, war, nuclear 00:01:41.219 --> 00:01:43.840 weapons, fascism, environmental destruction, 00:01:43.900 --> 00:01:47.780 and all violence, that we might be your holy 00:01:47.780 --> 00:01:50.819 beatitude people of universal love and peace, 00:01:50.980 --> 00:01:54.359 your holy peacemakers. In Jesus' name, amen. 00:01:55.900 --> 00:01:58.459 So today I'd like to speak on one of the most 00:01:58.459 --> 00:02:01.799 important and most neglected sentences in the 00:02:01.799 --> 00:02:05.299 Bible. which has been crucial for all the movements 00:02:05.299 --> 00:02:08.979 of social change throughout history. The verse 00:02:08.979 --> 00:02:11.840 is in the Sermon on the Mount, the Gospel of 00:02:11.840 --> 00:02:17.319 Matthew, chapter 5, verse 39. Here it is. Offer 00:02:17.319 --> 00:02:20.879 no violent resistance to one who does evil. And 00:02:20.879 --> 00:02:24.360 I want to begin with a story. So long ago, the 00:02:24.360 --> 00:02:27.000 abolitionists in England and the United States, 00:02:27.199 --> 00:02:30.439 we're talking in the 1700s, led by the Quakers, 00:02:31.370 --> 00:02:35.490 began their work based on this sentence, which 00:02:35.490 --> 00:02:39.770 they translated incorrectly as non -resistance 00:02:39.770 --> 00:02:44.090 to evil or resist not evil or the phrase you 00:02:44.090 --> 00:02:47.389 might have heard of passive resistance. But they 00:02:47.389 --> 00:02:49.610 knew that the bottom line for Jesus was they 00:02:49.610 --> 00:02:51.949 were forbidden to use violence no matter what. 00:02:53.360 --> 00:02:56.860 The great U .S. abolitionists who I've studied 00:02:56.860 --> 00:03:00.020 a lot of, William Lloyd Garrison, was so committed 00:03:00.020 --> 00:03:03.120 to this sentence in the Gospel of Matthew on 00:03:03.120 --> 00:03:06.099 non -resistance that he organized a national 00:03:06.099 --> 00:03:08.240 peace convention, that's what he called it, in 00:03:08.240 --> 00:03:12.280 1838, which issued a new declaration calling 00:03:12.280 --> 00:03:15.300 for total non -resistance to all evil by all 00:03:15.300 --> 00:03:19.099 Christians, which meant all war. No Christian 00:03:19.099 --> 00:03:22.460 could be part of war again. And then he started 00:03:22.460 --> 00:03:26.740 a magazine called The Non -Resistant. And, you 00:03:26.740 --> 00:03:28.639 know, all of that's forgotten, all the great 00:03:28.639 --> 00:03:32.199 work he did. And pretty much I decided, and from 00:03:32.199 --> 00:03:35.159 what I can gather, because by 1860, the Civil 00:03:35.159 --> 00:03:38.599 War broke out. And the so -called passive resistance 00:03:38.599 --> 00:03:42.120 of the abolitionists was renounced by many who 00:03:42.120 --> 00:03:44.879 went on immediately to support the Northern Army 00:03:44.879 --> 00:03:49.840 and to join the war. So as far as I can tell, 00:03:49.860 --> 00:03:51.680 though, if you're still with me on this, there 00:03:51.680 --> 00:03:56.780 was only one key public abolitionist who refused 00:03:56.780 --> 00:04:00.439 to abandon this gospel sentence, which we now 00:04:00.439 --> 00:04:04.039 call nonviolence. And I want everybody to know 00:04:04.039 --> 00:04:07.219 him. He was a lifelong Christian pastor, minister, 00:04:07.479 --> 00:04:10.939 and he was Garrison's chief lieutenant. He'd 00:04:10.939 --> 00:04:13.819 be like Andrew Young to Martin Luther King, and 00:04:13.819 --> 00:04:18.689 his name was Aidan Below. He wrote 500 articles 00:04:18.689 --> 00:04:22.170 on nonviolent resistance. And before he died 00:04:22.170 --> 00:04:25.990 in 1890, he lived in Connecticut, he sent many 00:04:25.990 --> 00:04:30.509 of his articles to Leo Tolstoy in Moscow, who 00:04:30.509 --> 00:04:33.589 read them all and basically changed his whole 00:04:33.589 --> 00:04:36.850 life because of Aiden Below. And he went on, 00:04:36.889 --> 00:04:39.970 Tolstoy, to spend the next 25 years of his life 00:04:39.970 --> 00:04:43.029 writing only about this one sentence from the 00:04:43.029 --> 00:04:45.779 Sermon on the Mount. Did you, dear listener, 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:49.620 know that? He wrote a huge book about it called, 00:04:49.759 --> 00:04:52.720 and here's the full title, The Kingdom of God 00:04:52.720 --> 00:04:57.620 is Within You, or Christianity Not as a Mystical 00:04:57.620 --> 00:05:01.899 Teaching, but as a New Concept of Life. And on 00:05:01.899 --> 00:05:05.230 page one, I was reading it yesterday. Tolstoy 00:05:05.230 --> 00:05:09.009 says, Christianity has totally failed Christ 00:05:09.009 --> 00:05:12.709 because it totally ignores and disobeys Matthew 00:05:12.709 --> 00:05:16.970 5, 39. And then he asks, did Christ want us to 00:05:16.970 --> 00:05:20.670 put this teaching into practice or not? Then 00:05:20.670 --> 00:05:24.329 Tolstoy goes on about Garrison, whom he read 00:05:24.329 --> 00:05:27.829 and studied. And then he publishes one of Aidan 00:05:27.829 --> 00:05:31.110 Bellow's entire pamphlets in the beginning of 00:05:31.110 --> 00:05:34.860 the book. which basically says that Christianity, 00:05:34.980 --> 00:05:37.959 because of the Sermon on the Mount, forbids all 00:05:37.959 --> 00:05:41.519 violence, all killing, and any participation 00:05:41.519 --> 00:05:47.519 in warfare. Tolstoy worked so hard on this for 00:05:47.519 --> 00:05:50.680 the last 25 years of his life. Why? He wanted 00:05:50.680 --> 00:05:53.920 to convert the Russian Orthodox Church, which 00:05:53.920 --> 00:05:57.120 was basically an instrument of the Tsar, back 00:05:57.120 --> 00:06:03.029 to the gospel, and he totally failed. But his 00:06:03.029 --> 00:06:07.769 book inspired one person to dedicate his entire 00:06:07.769 --> 00:06:11.029 life to this gospel verse. And that was this 00:06:11.029 --> 00:06:14.269 young Indian activist lawyer in South Africa 00:06:14.269 --> 00:06:18.089 who wrote Tolstoy a long letter. And his name 00:06:18.089 --> 00:06:21.790 was Mohandas Gandhi. Tolstoy's book, The Kingdom 00:06:21.790 --> 00:06:24.810 of God is Within You, changed Gandhi's life completely. 00:06:25.410 --> 00:06:28.149 And Gandhi then went on to become the first person 00:06:28.149 --> 00:06:29.810 in history, according to Martin Luther King, 00:06:30.589 --> 00:06:34.850 to show that Jesus' Sermon on the Mount was intended 00:06:34.850 --> 00:06:38.569 not just for individuals, but entire nations 00:06:38.569 --> 00:06:42.089 and the whole world. And he proved it by leading 00:06:42.089 --> 00:06:45.430 the people of India to nonviolently resist Britain 00:06:45.430 --> 00:06:48.870 and then getting Britain to leave India nonviolently. 00:06:49.129 --> 00:06:52.870 So the way I look at it is Aidan Bellow, Tolstoy, 00:06:52.970 --> 00:06:57.290 and Gandhi gave their lives teaching and practicing 00:06:57.290 --> 00:07:02.279 this one sentence. which is at the hallmark, 00:07:02.379 --> 00:07:05.019 it's the bottom line of the nonviolence of Jesus. 00:07:05.259 --> 00:07:08.420 And so I invite us to really think on this and 00:07:08.420 --> 00:07:12.899 consider doing the same. So, as you know, the 00:07:12.899 --> 00:07:15.339 Sermon on the Mount begins in chapter 5 of the 00:07:15.339 --> 00:07:17.959 Gospel of Matthew, verse 1, with the Beatitudes. 00:07:18.439 --> 00:07:21.199 And then they're followed by what the scholars 00:07:21.199 --> 00:07:26.420 call six antitheses. They go like this. You have 00:07:26.420 --> 00:07:30.430 heard it said, but I say to you. So we're going 00:07:30.430 --> 00:07:33.389 to look at the fifth antithesis today. And next 00:07:33.389 --> 00:07:35.529 time, some other day, I'll look at the sixth 00:07:35.529 --> 00:07:38.050 one, love your enemies. But the fifth one, as 00:07:38.050 --> 00:07:41.490 I said, is the fundamental bottom line. I think 00:07:41.490 --> 00:07:43.730 of the four Gospels, I think it's the best way 00:07:43.730 --> 00:07:46.490 to understand Jesus' teachings and his entire 00:07:46.490 --> 00:07:49.709 life. It is a total prohibition on violence, 00:07:49.810 --> 00:07:53.250 vengeance, and retaliation. And if you want to... 00:07:53.560 --> 00:07:55.920 My longer explanation on this, you might get 00:07:55.920 --> 00:07:59.199 my recent book, The Gospel of Peace. So here 00:07:59.199 --> 00:08:03.699 goes. This is how he begins. You have heard it 00:08:03.699 --> 00:08:06.699 said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. 00:08:06.879 --> 00:08:09.100 Okay, right there, Jesus. We know what you're 00:08:09.100 --> 00:08:11.740 talking about. That's the hallmark of the Jewish 00:08:11.740 --> 00:08:18.439 law, the Torah, Moses' way of legislating fair 00:08:18.439 --> 00:08:23.000 punishment and justice. But Gandhi comes along 00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:26.240 2 ,500 years later and says, an eye for an eye 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:28.800 and a tooth for a tooth only make the whole world 00:08:28.800 --> 00:08:34.279 blind and toothless. So Jesus gives us his law, 00:08:34.440 --> 00:08:37.820 his bottom line, a new boundary line, which, 00:08:37.899 --> 00:08:40.600 as I said, I think it's critical to understanding 00:08:40.600 --> 00:08:43.419 him in everything. And the translation that I 00:08:43.419 --> 00:08:46.950 use from the original Greek. is from my friend, 00:08:47.230 --> 00:08:50.389 the great theologian and scholar, Walter Wink, 00:08:50.490 --> 00:08:53.750 in his masterpiece book, Engaging the Powers, 00:08:53.909 --> 00:08:56.149 one of the greatest books ever written about 00:08:56.149 --> 00:09:00.190 Christian nonviolence. And I would like to invite 00:09:00.190 --> 00:09:04.350 you to memorize this verse with me. So here it 00:09:04.350 --> 00:09:06.429 is again from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 00:09:06.429 --> 00:09:13.529 5, verse 39. But I say to you, offer no violent 00:09:13.529 --> 00:09:18.370 resistance. to one who does evil. But I say to 00:09:18.370 --> 00:09:21.350 you, offer no violent resistance to one who does 00:09:21.350 --> 00:09:27.070 evil. So I think these words are what? Pure, 00:09:27.269 --> 00:09:31.769 permanent, total, nonviolent revolution. Because 00:09:31.769 --> 00:09:35.009 they forbid all violence. And with Aidan Below, 00:09:35.250 --> 00:09:37.789 Tolstoy, and Gandhi, I consider them to be one 00:09:37.789 --> 00:09:40.210 of the most important sentences in the Bible 00:09:40.210 --> 00:09:44.179 and in history. This is why Gandhi, as you know 00:09:44.179 --> 00:09:47.740 I've studied Gandhi, read this verse at his prayer 00:09:47.740 --> 00:09:51.720 every morning and every evening for the last 00:09:51.720 --> 00:09:54.879 45 years of his life. That's just astonishing. 00:09:55.220 --> 00:09:59.940 And why Leo Tolstoy spent the last 25 years of 00:09:59.940 --> 00:10:03.080 his life writing basically only about this verse, 00:10:03.240 --> 00:10:06.320 trying his best to publicize this teaching. They 00:10:06.320 --> 00:10:08.580 understood that this new commandment holds the 00:10:08.580 --> 00:10:11.480 key to a new way of life. end the disarmament 00:10:11.480 --> 00:10:14.659 of the world. So the Torah had tried to regulate 00:10:14.659 --> 00:10:18.500 punishment so that it'd be fair, you know, an 00:10:18.500 --> 00:10:21.100 eye for an eye, so that the punishment would 00:10:21.100 --> 00:10:23.720 not exceed the injury. And if you think about 00:10:23.720 --> 00:10:27.220 it like that, an eye for an eye really was progress 00:10:27.220 --> 00:10:30.980 in the history of violence. But Jesus is done 00:10:30.980 --> 00:10:33.710 with all that and wants to get all beyond. all 00:10:33.710 --> 00:10:36.789 that and end all violence. So he forbids all 00:10:36.789 --> 00:10:39.929 violence, even retaliatory violence, no matter 00:10:39.929 --> 00:10:43.610 how supposedly fair, because he wants to end 00:10:43.610 --> 00:10:47.250 this downward cycle of violence itself. He prohibits 00:10:47.250 --> 00:10:50.129 any form of violent punishment or retaliation 00:10:50.129 --> 00:10:54.049 or revenge. And therefore, Gandhi concludes he's 00:10:54.049 --> 00:10:57.269 advocating a whole new alternative, creative 00:10:57.269 --> 00:10:59.929 nonviolent resistance to violence and oppression. 00:11:01.549 --> 00:11:03.649 So if you're hanging in here with me, the Greek 00:11:03.649 --> 00:11:07.710 word here, according to Walter Wink, is antistene, 00:11:07.750 --> 00:11:13.610 which means, quote, to resist violently, to revolt 00:11:13.610 --> 00:11:17.509 with violence, to rebel with violence. Okay? 00:11:17.789 --> 00:11:23.190 So the scripture says, Matthew 5, verse 39, offer 00:11:23.190 --> 00:11:28.250 no antistene. Do no antistene. Do no violent 00:11:28.250 --> 00:11:31.539 resistance to the person doing evil. Do not use 00:11:31.539 --> 00:11:34.220 violence to resist violence. Do not continue 00:11:34.220 --> 00:11:36.360 the downward spiral of violence. Jesus wants 00:11:36.360 --> 00:11:39.639 to break the cycle of violence by our refusal 00:11:39.639 --> 00:11:43.519 to cooperate with it and therefore to retaliate 00:11:43.519 --> 00:11:45.500 with further violence because he knows that the 00:11:45.500 --> 00:11:47.740 heart of this teaching is violence in response 00:11:47.740 --> 00:11:50.720 to violence can only lead to further violence 00:11:50.720 --> 00:11:55.299 down the line. So Wink sums it up as do not repay 00:11:55.299 --> 00:11:59.549 evil for evil. And he says the best translation 00:11:59.549 --> 00:12:03.509 are the words, offer no violent resistance. And 00:12:03.509 --> 00:12:06.169 that's what got us in trouble with the bad translation 00:12:06.169 --> 00:12:09.889 down through the centuries. Jesus does not say, 00:12:09.929 --> 00:12:14.009 offer no resistance to one who does evil. He 00:12:14.009 --> 00:12:18.009 doesn't say, be passive, do nothing. The teaching 00:12:18.009 --> 00:12:22.370 is, offer no violent resistance. And this is 00:12:22.370 --> 00:12:25.129 where Gandhi made the leap, and even Aidan Below, 00:12:25.389 --> 00:12:29.429 by saying, The translation means, and Wink really 00:12:29.429 --> 00:12:33.129 unpacks this, engage in proactive, creative, 00:12:33.470 --> 00:12:35.909 active, nonviolent resistance to one who does 00:12:35.909 --> 00:12:40.610 evil and the systems of evil and violence until 00:12:40.610 --> 00:12:43.769 you disarm the opponent. Just don't use the means 00:12:43.769 --> 00:12:47.190 of the opponent. So just because we don't respond 00:12:47.190 --> 00:12:50.590 with... to violence with further violence doesn't 00:12:50.590 --> 00:12:53.730 mean we get to sit back and do nothing or just 00:12:53.730 --> 00:12:56.629 suffer violence passively. Jesus is commanding 00:12:56.629 --> 00:13:01.129 us to actively disarm our opponent, but through 00:13:01.129 --> 00:13:04.970 aggressive, active, nonviolent means. We don't 00:13:04.970 --> 00:13:07.590 use the means of our opponent. He's not teaching 00:13:07.590 --> 00:13:10.570 blind submission to violence or evil as the will 00:13:10.570 --> 00:13:14.470 of God. In fact, I think the scandal is, on the 00:13:14.470 --> 00:13:18.299 contrary, he's commanding active, courageous, 00:13:18.600 --> 00:13:21.960 fearless, nonviolent resistance to evil as God's 00:13:21.960 --> 00:13:26.399 will for us. And in the process, he's changing 00:13:26.399 --> 00:13:30.820 our entire understanding of God. So Walter Wink 00:13:30.820 --> 00:13:33.320 says that the entire culture of violence has 00:13:33.320 --> 00:13:37.039 always said that there are only two options in 00:13:37.039 --> 00:13:39.539 the face of violence. You fight back with violence 00:13:39.539 --> 00:13:42.480 or you run away and do nothing. And Wink famously 00:13:42.480 --> 00:13:46.059 wrote that Jesus offered, quote, a third way. 00:13:46.730 --> 00:13:50.070 A third option in the face of any form of violence, 00:13:50.129 --> 00:13:54.629 which is active nonviolent resistance. Again, 00:13:54.690 --> 00:13:57.909 Jesus doesn't advocate passive resignation or 00:13:57.909 --> 00:14:00.990 indifference to evil, but something entirely 00:14:00.990 --> 00:14:04.830 new that the world had never heard before. He 00:14:04.830 --> 00:14:08.429 taught and practiced active, steadfast resistance. 00:14:09.710 --> 00:14:12.269 to every form of violence and injustice, but 00:14:12.269 --> 00:14:15.669 it has this one catch. Our resistance must be 00:14:15.669 --> 00:14:19.210 nonviolent. He insists that we stand up and resist 00:14:19.210 --> 00:14:22.590 all violence and all injustice at every level, 00:14:22.710 --> 00:14:25.110 the personal level, the national and the global 00:14:25.110 --> 00:14:28.690 level. We just never use the means of our oppressors 00:14:28.690 --> 00:14:31.210 or our opponents. We don't use the means of violence. 00:14:31.409 --> 00:14:35.049 We use nonviolent resistance. And in the end, 00:14:35.149 --> 00:14:38.570 everyone comes out unharmed and we break. the 00:14:38.570 --> 00:14:41.710 chain of violence. So if you practice nonviolence, 00:14:41.710 --> 00:14:44.789 even in the face of violence, through your suffering 00:14:44.789 --> 00:14:48.190 love and insistence on truth, God is going to 00:14:48.190 --> 00:14:50.450 work through you to disarm the situation and 00:14:50.450 --> 00:14:54.490 end the violence. That's the teaching. I propose 00:14:54.490 --> 00:14:56.789 that the fifth antithesis in the Sermon on the 00:14:56.789 --> 00:14:59.370 Mount is the clearest teaching on nonviolence 00:14:59.370 --> 00:15:03.090 resistance to evil in all of human history up 00:15:03.090 --> 00:15:07.360 until this point. Jesus wants us to resist evil 00:15:07.360 --> 00:15:10.600 with active nonviolence. Again, to hold our ground, 00:15:10.700 --> 00:15:13.220 speak the truth, insist on our common humanity, 00:15:13.480 --> 00:15:16.620 disarm our opponent through risking suffering 00:15:16.620 --> 00:15:19.840 love and trusting in God and working for the 00:15:19.840 --> 00:15:23.440 conversion of our opponent, not killing him, 00:15:23.500 --> 00:15:29.610 so that no one does evil. and that the one who 00:15:29.610 --> 00:15:32.450 is doing the evil is disarmed. The goal is not 00:15:32.450 --> 00:15:35.169 to hurt or kill our opponent, but to transform 00:15:35.169 --> 00:15:38.549 him, really to heal him. to lead him to a change 00:15:38.549 --> 00:15:41.070 of heart, to win him over to the truth of our 00:15:41.070 --> 00:15:43.870 common humanity, to convert him to the wisdom 00:15:43.870 --> 00:15:46.190 of nonviolence, to help him and others welcome 00:15:46.190 --> 00:15:49.230 God's reign of love and peace here and now. And 00:15:49.230 --> 00:15:51.409 Jesus is teaching that the only way to do this 00:15:51.409 --> 00:15:54.649 is to resist the opponent, but not through the 00:15:54.649 --> 00:15:57.389 opponent's means of violence, but through nonviolence. 00:15:57.549 --> 00:16:01.860 So here's a quote from Walter Wink. Jesus reveals 00:16:01.860 --> 00:16:05.059 a way to fight evil with all our power without 00:16:05.059 --> 00:16:08.159 being transformed into the very evil we fight. 00:16:09.480 --> 00:16:14.480 It is a way, the only way possible, of not becoming 00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:19.539 what we hate. So do not counter evil in kind. 00:16:19.740 --> 00:16:23.879 This insight is the distilled essence stating 00:16:23.879 --> 00:16:27.720 with sublime simplicity the experience of those 00:16:27.720 --> 00:16:32.480 Jews who had, in Jesus' very lifetime, so courageously 00:16:32.480 --> 00:16:35.340 and effectively practiced nonviolent direct action 00:16:35.340 --> 00:16:38.860 against the Roman Empire. Jesus, in short, abhors 00:16:38.860 --> 00:16:43.240 both passivity and violence. He articulates, 00:16:43.340 --> 00:16:45.700 out of the history of his own people's struggles, 00:16:46.000 --> 00:16:49.480 a way by which evil can be opposed without being 00:16:49.480 --> 00:16:53.299 mirrored, the oppressors resisted without being 00:16:53.299 --> 00:16:56.570 emulated. and the enemy neutralized without being 00:16:56.570 --> 00:16:59.649 destroyed. Those who've lived by Jesus's words, 00:16:59.850 --> 00:17:03.169 people like Tolstoy, Gandhi, Dr. King, and Dorothy 00:17:03.169 --> 00:17:06.210 Day, point us to a new way of confronting evil 00:17:06.210 --> 00:17:09.289 whose potential for personal and social transformation 00:17:09.289 --> 00:17:13.150 we are still only beginning to grasp today. That's 00:17:13.150 --> 00:17:17.390 powerful. So then after this commandment, Matthew 00:17:17.390 --> 00:17:22.589 5 verse 39, Jesus gives five concrete examples 00:17:22.589 --> 00:17:26.549 of how to do this. That's what's just so amazing 00:17:26.549 --> 00:17:31.190 to me. He doesn't just give us the theory. In 00:17:31.190 --> 00:17:33.450 effect, the Sermon on the Mount is a nonviolence 00:17:33.450 --> 00:17:36.349 training session that Jesus did by the Sea of 00:17:36.349 --> 00:17:38.829 Galilee for oppressed people suffering under 00:17:38.829 --> 00:17:42.430 Roman occupation, the same way Dr. King led nonviolence 00:17:42.430 --> 00:17:45.150 trainings in the Birmingham campaign in 1963. 00:17:46.630 --> 00:17:49.609 So here's the first example. When someone strikes 00:17:49.609 --> 00:17:52.039 you on your right cheek, Turn the other one to 00:17:52.039 --> 00:17:56.700 him as well. Well, I think Walter Wink was probably 00:17:56.700 --> 00:18:02.220 the first person in history to ask the obvious 00:18:02.220 --> 00:18:06.220 question, to really think about this. Basically, 00:18:06.220 --> 00:18:08.019 how do you strike someone on the right cheek? 00:18:08.900 --> 00:18:12.559 So think about it. If you strike someone's face 00:18:12.559 --> 00:18:16.200 with your right hand, where is your right hand 00:18:16.200 --> 00:18:20.400 going to land? It's going to land on their left 00:18:20.400 --> 00:18:24.559 cheek. But Jesus doesn't say that. Jesus says 00:18:24.559 --> 00:18:26.480 when someone strikes you on the right cheek. 00:18:27.339 --> 00:18:29.960 Well, it's not possible to strike someone on 00:18:29.960 --> 00:18:31.700 your right cheek. So what's Jesus talking about? 00:18:31.819 --> 00:18:34.759 And here, and you know, as Walter Wink says, 00:18:34.839 --> 00:18:36.980 it's taken us 2 ,000 years to figure this out. 00:18:37.039 --> 00:18:41.519 It's incredible. Wink says the only way to strike 00:18:41.519 --> 00:18:43.599 someone and hit them on the right cheek would 00:18:43.599 --> 00:18:46.119 be to use, well, first of all, you'd say your 00:18:46.119 --> 00:18:49.059 left hand. But the left hand was only used for 00:18:49.059 --> 00:18:51.180 unclean work and you could be punished for ever 00:18:51.180 --> 00:18:53.519 using your left hand. So no one would do that. 00:18:53.619 --> 00:18:55.960 So the only way to strike someone with your right 00:18:55.960 --> 00:19:01.019 hand on the right cheek would be to use the back 00:19:01.019 --> 00:19:06.539 of your right hand. Wow. So Jesus is not talking 00:19:06.539 --> 00:19:10.700 about a fist fight. but top -down violent humiliation. 00:19:10.980 --> 00:19:14.480 He's talking about a slave owner slapping the 00:19:14.480 --> 00:19:16.799 slave who's kneeling down in front of him, or 00:19:16.799 --> 00:19:20.220 the Roman soldier who's standing over a terrified 00:19:20.220 --> 00:19:22.859 oppressed person who's kneeling down, he's being 00:19:22.859 --> 00:19:25.880 humiliated and terrified, and being struck with 00:19:25.880 --> 00:19:29.059 the back of the hand. And Jesus is speaking to 00:19:29.059 --> 00:19:31.460 them, saying, if you're a slave or a peasant 00:19:31.460 --> 00:19:35.240 kneeling in front of a Roman soldier, turn the 00:19:35.240 --> 00:19:37.359 other cheek in the face of this humiliation. 00:19:38.089 --> 00:19:41.150 Assert your dignity, your equality, your humanity, 00:19:41.250 --> 00:19:46.230 and put yourself on equal footing. Wink says 00:19:46.230 --> 00:19:49.910 that Jesus is teaching his people to say, in 00:19:49.910 --> 00:19:53.150 effect, I deny you the power to humiliate me. 00:19:53.190 --> 00:19:56.690 I am a human being just like you. And this Gandhi 00:19:56.690 --> 00:20:00.500 concluded was at the heart. of nonviolence. Here's 00:20:00.500 --> 00:20:03.319 a quote from Gandhi. The first principle of all 00:20:03.319 --> 00:20:07.700 nonviolent action is non -cooperation with everything 00:20:07.700 --> 00:20:11.980 humiliating. Wow. So Jesus doesn't want us to 00:20:11.980 --> 00:20:14.579 sit back passively and suffer the violence of 00:20:14.579 --> 00:20:16.740 our oppressors. That's not what this is about. 00:20:17.000 --> 00:20:19.839 He's saying you're not powerless. I want you 00:20:19.839 --> 00:20:22.779 to be creative and daring in your nonviolent 00:20:22.779 --> 00:20:25.619 resistance. The problem, of course, is that this 00:20:25.619 --> 00:20:29.059 means engaging the opponent right then and there 00:20:29.059 --> 00:20:31.440 in the face of violence. So it's risky and scary. 00:20:31.720 --> 00:20:36.279 We'd rather run away or strike back. But Jesus 00:20:36.279 --> 00:20:38.759 is saying to these rural poor people who live 00:20:38.759 --> 00:20:41.559 in fear of the Roman soldiers and all their attacks, 00:20:41.759 --> 00:20:44.599 don't be afraid. Don't let them humiliate you. 00:20:44.680 --> 00:20:47.000 Turn the other cheek and disarm your opponent. 00:20:47.299 --> 00:20:50.619 Show them that you're a human being. Well, it's 00:20:50.619 --> 00:20:53.180 just as equally scary to fight back with violence. 00:20:53.400 --> 00:20:55.720 And I think if you respond with violence, this 00:20:55.720 --> 00:20:57.299 is what Martin Luther King always said, your 00:20:57.299 --> 00:20:59.619 chances are more likely that you're going to 00:20:59.619 --> 00:21:02.819 be hurt or killed. Nonviolence resistance has 00:21:02.819 --> 00:21:06.099 a higher chance of a peaceful outcome. This is 00:21:06.099 --> 00:21:09.279 actually a very practical teaching. Furthermore, 00:21:09.599 --> 00:21:13.660 though, for Jesus, I invite you to consider that 00:21:13.660 --> 00:21:17.339 for Jesus, there's a third party involved in 00:21:17.339 --> 00:21:19.839 this scenario. It's not just the oppressed person 00:21:19.839 --> 00:21:24.240 and the violent oppressor striking, but God is 00:21:24.240 --> 00:21:27.559 present whenever we respond with active, creative 00:21:27.559 --> 00:21:30.200 nonviolence. I think that's the message of the 00:21:30.200 --> 00:21:34.200 gospel. If we respond nonviolently with resistance 00:21:34.200 --> 00:21:36.799 to the threat of violence, the Holy Spirit can 00:21:36.799 --> 00:21:40.160 work through us and disarm the oppressor. And 00:21:40.160 --> 00:21:42.940 there are a million examples of this. especially 00:21:42.940 --> 00:21:44.960 in the civil rights movement, for example, when 00:21:44.960 --> 00:21:47.779 black activists sat in illegally at segregated 00:21:47.779 --> 00:21:51.279 lunch counters. They refused to leave. They prayed. 00:21:51.539 --> 00:21:53.859 They had been trained. They maintained their 00:21:53.859 --> 00:21:56.700 dignities. And sometimes they were beaten and 00:21:56.700 --> 00:21:59.619 they refused to retaliate. And their suffering 00:21:59.619 --> 00:22:04.779 love and truth eventually brought down segregation. 00:22:06.599 --> 00:22:10.180 So then Jesus gives a second example. If anyone 00:22:10.180 --> 00:22:13.630 wants to go, to law with you over your tunic. 00:22:14.089 --> 00:22:18.569 Hand him your cloak as well. And we're going, 00:22:18.710 --> 00:22:26.210 huh? So in that time, listen to, if you can stay 00:22:26.210 --> 00:22:30.769 with me here. In that time, the poor were forever 00:22:30.769 --> 00:22:34.029 in debt. People wore outer and inner garments, 00:22:34.089 --> 00:22:36.769 but as Wink writes, they would be hauled into 00:22:36.769 --> 00:22:40.109 court and sued by their landlords, even for the 00:22:40.109 --> 00:22:43.369 clothes off their backs. That's how awful everything 00:22:43.369 --> 00:22:46.910 was for the poor. And only the very poorest would 00:22:46.910 --> 00:22:49.630 have nothing but an outer garment to give as 00:22:49.630 --> 00:22:52.589 a loan. Literally, the clothes off your back. 00:22:52.970 --> 00:22:55.490 So Jesus is saying, because he's talking to the 00:22:55.490 --> 00:22:58.289 poorest of the poor, when you find yourself dragged 00:22:58.289 --> 00:23:01.920 into court, And the authorities for your landlord 00:23:01.920 --> 00:23:07.259 demand your outer garment as payment. On behalf 00:23:07.259 --> 00:23:10.460 of this unjust landlord, Jesus says, give them 00:23:10.460 --> 00:23:13.920 your inner garment as well. Well, Wink goes on 00:23:13.920 --> 00:23:16.559 to say, like no one had ever written before, 00:23:16.660 --> 00:23:20.130 ever. So if you're a poor person, you're sued 00:23:20.130 --> 00:23:22.349 in court for the outer garment, and you give 00:23:22.349 --> 00:23:24.390 away your inner garment too, what would that 00:23:24.390 --> 00:23:26.809 mean? You end up standing naked in the middle 00:23:26.809 --> 00:23:29.789 of the courtroom. But then Wink discovered in 00:23:29.789 --> 00:23:33.230 those days, it was more shameful to see a naked 00:23:33.230 --> 00:23:36.430 person than to be naked in public. So Jesus is 00:23:36.430 --> 00:23:40.190 teaching bold, creative, daring, non -valent 00:23:40.190 --> 00:23:43.940 action. Claim your power, shame the oppressors, 00:23:43.980 --> 00:23:46.299 and liberate yourselves without running away 00:23:46.299 --> 00:23:49.160 or being violent, but confronting the crisis 00:23:49.160 --> 00:23:52.240 nonviolently head on. But, of course, this is 00:23:52.240 --> 00:23:55.500 scary and risky again. Here's Wink. The poor 00:23:55.500 --> 00:23:59.579 man, quote, has transcended the attempt to humiliate 00:23:59.579 --> 00:24:03.640 him. He has risen above shame. At the same time, 00:24:03.720 --> 00:24:06.500 he has registered a stunning protest against 00:24:06.500 --> 00:24:09.660 the system itself that created his debt. And 00:24:09.660 --> 00:24:12.640 he's saying in this effect, oh, you want my robe? 00:24:12.779 --> 00:24:15.140 Here, take everything. Now you've got all I have 00:24:15.140 --> 00:24:18.700 except my body. Is that what you want next? By 00:24:18.700 --> 00:24:21.960 refusing to be awed by their power, the powerless 00:24:21.960 --> 00:24:25.490 are emboldened to seize the initiative. This 00:24:25.490 --> 00:24:28.089 message, far from being a counsel to perfection, 00:24:28.470 --> 00:24:32.390 unattainable in this life, is a practical, strategic 00:24:32.390 --> 00:24:36.009 measure for empowering the oppressed, and it 00:24:36.009 --> 00:24:38.910 is being lived out all over the world today by 00:24:38.910 --> 00:24:41.930 powerless people ready to take their history 00:24:41.930 --> 00:24:46.750 into their own hands. Wow. Then Jesus gives a 00:24:46.750 --> 00:24:49.150 third example of offering no violent resistance 00:24:49.150 --> 00:24:53.650 to one who does evil. Quote, Should anyone press 00:24:53.650 --> 00:24:57.049 you into service for one mile, go with him two 00:24:57.049 --> 00:25:00.569 miles. Well, what's that about? Again, wink. 00:25:00.769 --> 00:25:03.450 In those days, as the Roman soldiers are barreling 00:25:03.450 --> 00:25:06.470 through the countryside and they're burning people's 00:25:06.470 --> 00:25:09.150 huts and stealing their few resources and food, 00:25:09.269 --> 00:25:13.009 they would then force the local men to carry 00:25:13.009 --> 00:25:18.319 their loot for them. But in those days. This 00:25:18.319 --> 00:25:21.059 is what Walter discovered. There was a kind of 00:25:21.059 --> 00:25:24.619 a liberal spirit happening in Rome in the empire. 00:25:25.220 --> 00:25:28.799 And they forbade the Roman soldiers from forcing 00:25:28.799 --> 00:25:31.720 these poor locals to walk more than one mile 00:25:31.720 --> 00:25:36.380 with their packs on their backs. And Jesus says, 00:25:36.559 --> 00:25:40.099 oh yeah, we'll go an extra mile. His audience 00:25:40.099 --> 00:25:42.440 would immediately have understood that any soldier 00:25:42.440 --> 00:25:45.519 who made someone walk an extra mile carrying 00:25:45.519 --> 00:25:48.569 the loot on their backs. would themselves be 00:25:48.569 --> 00:25:51.609 arrested for breaking the law and be imprisoned. 00:25:51.950 --> 00:25:54.950 So Jesus is saying, if you all did this, all 00:25:54.950 --> 00:25:57.269 the Roman soldiers themselves would have to be 00:25:57.269 --> 00:26:00.269 arrested and be imprisoned, not you, because 00:26:00.269 --> 00:26:03.809 they'd be violating their own law. So notice 00:26:03.809 --> 00:26:06.069 he's not saying fight back and kill the Romans. 00:26:06.529 --> 00:26:08.869 And notice he's not saying run away, there's 00:26:08.869 --> 00:26:11.789 nothing that can be done. He's calling for creative, 00:26:11.869 --> 00:26:15.710 daring, bold, nonviolent action that will set 00:26:15.710 --> 00:26:18.509 you free. And it's risky, and it's exciting, 00:26:18.730 --> 00:26:22.210 and it sounds like Gandhi and Martin Luther King. 00:26:23.670 --> 00:26:28.410 So for Jesus, I propose this methodology of creative 00:26:28.410 --> 00:26:31.849 nonviolent direct action is actually the methodology 00:26:31.849 --> 00:26:36.609 of God. This is the way God works and the way 00:26:36.609 --> 00:26:40.039 God intends us to relate with one another. even 00:26:40.039 --> 00:26:43.980 the way God relates with us. Jesus is not speaking 00:26:43.980 --> 00:26:47.440 of some utopian world without conflict, but a 00:26:47.440 --> 00:26:50.200 world with conflict in which we all learn to 00:26:50.200 --> 00:26:53.819 resolve our conflicts nonviolently. Here's Walter 00:26:53.819 --> 00:26:56.799 Wink again. I find this very powerful. Jesus 00:26:56.799 --> 00:27:00.519 does not encourage Jews to walk a second mile 00:27:00.519 --> 00:27:04.380 in order to build up merit in heaven or to exercise 00:27:04.380 --> 00:27:08.079 a superior piety or to kill the soldier with 00:27:08.079 --> 00:27:11.859 kindness. He is helping an oppressed people find 00:27:11.859 --> 00:27:16.039 a way to protest and neutralize an onerous practice 00:27:16.039 --> 00:27:19.640 despised throughout the Roman Empire. He is not 00:27:19.640 --> 00:27:22.200 giving a non -political message of spiritual 00:27:22.200 --> 00:27:27.380 worldly transcendence. He is formulating a worldly 00:27:27.380 --> 00:27:30.839 spirituality in which the people at the bottom 00:27:30.839 --> 00:27:34.440 of society or under the thumb of the empire learn 00:27:34.440 --> 00:27:38.890 to reclaim and recover their humanity. One must 00:27:38.890 --> 00:27:42.190 be creative, improvising new tactics to keep 00:27:42.190 --> 00:27:45.269 the opponent off balance. To those whose lifelong 00:27:45.269 --> 00:27:47.589 pattern has been to cringe before their masters, 00:27:47.849 --> 00:27:50.869 Jesus offers a way to liberate themselves from 00:27:50.869 --> 00:27:54.650 servile actions and a servile mentality. He asserts 00:27:54.650 --> 00:27:56.970 that they can do this before there's a revolution 00:27:56.970 --> 00:28:00.109 even. They can begin to behave with dignity and 00:28:00.109 --> 00:28:03.890 recover their humanity now, even under the unchanged 00:28:03.890 --> 00:28:07.650 conditions of the old order. Jesus's sense of 00:28:07.849 --> 00:28:12.829 divine immediacy has social implications. In 00:28:12.829 --> 00:28:15.170 other words, the reign of God is already breaking 00:28:15.170 --> 00:28:18.069 into the world and it comes not as an imposition 00:28:18.069 --> 00:28:22.230 from on high, but as the leaven slowly causing 00:28:22.230 --> 00:28:26.470 the dough to rise. Wow. So then we get the last 00:28:26.470 --> 00:28:30.589 two examples of Jesus. First, give to the one 00:28:30.589 --> 00:28:36.250 who asks of you. And then second, do not turn 00:28:36.250 --> 00:28:39.460 your back. on one who wants to borrow. So instead 00:28:39.460 --> 00:28:42.240 of hoarding money, he's teaching us to give to 00:28:42.240 --> 00:28:45.200 those in need and to lend money without expecting 00:28:45.200 --> 00:28:47.720 interest or even the return of the principal. 00:28:47.980 --> 00:28:52.400 He's saying, be generous, selfless givers. This 00:28:52.400 --> 00:28:57.240 is a vision of radical egalitarian sharing, which 00:28:57.240 --> 00:29:01.819 Jesus is presenting as the beginning of you oppressed 00:29:01.819 --> 00:29:05.579 people's own liberation. He's really in a vision 00:29:05.579 --> 00:29:08.180 and extension of the Jubilee year from the Torah, 00:29:08.359 --> 00:29:13.539 as we'll hear later in Luke 4. So do not turn 00:29:13.539 --> 00:29:15.859 your back on one who wants to borrow. Lend to 00:29:15.859 --> 00:29:18.599 others. Don't turn your back. Be generous. Well, 00:29:18.660 --> 00:29:20.940 think about that. If we applied these gospel 00:29:20.940 --> 00:29:24.220 economics socially and globally, we'd have to 00:29:24.220 --> 00:29:28.420 end our hoarding, end all corporate greed, end 00:29:28.420 --> 00:29:31.799 oligarchy. Return all resources that we've stolen 00:29:31.799 --> 00:29:34.819 from the poor and from enemies in countries around 00:29:34.819 --> 00:29:37.859 the world. Feed all the hungry in the world. 00:29:37.940 --> 00:29:40.740 House all the world's homeless and heal all sick 00:29:40.740 --> 00:29:43.480 people. We would treat every human being with 00:29:43.480 --> 00:29:46.140 respect and dignity and make social and economic 00:29:46.140 --> 00:29:48.859 justice for every human being our first priority. 00:29:49.769 --> 00:29:51.890 I see all of that in these commandments, which 00:29:51.890 --> 00:29:55.210 run throughout the four Gospels. And you, of 00:29:55.210 --> 00:29:58.329 course, hear this and see this egalitarian sharing 00:29:58.329 --> 00:30:02.910 as really the basis of the early Christian community 00:30:02.910 --> 00:30:06.670 and the Acts of the Apostles. So, friends, I 00:30:06.670 --> 00:30:08.349 read the Sermon on the Mount as a commandment 00:30:08.349 --> 00:30:10.950 to practice creative nonviolent resistance in 00:30:10.950 --> 00:30:12.869 the face of violence and systemic oppression. 00:30:13.970 --> 00:30:17.269 And then I see Jesus. in the rest of the Gospels, 00:30:17.269 --> 00:30:20.150 going on for the rest of his short life, living 00:30:20.150 --> 00:30:23.349 out this commandment and showing how it's done. 00:30:23.730 --> 00:30:26.809 If you read the four Gospels from the perspective 00:30:26.809 --> 00:30:29.910 of this commandment, as Gandhi did, as Aidan 00:30:29.910 --> 00:30:32.970 Below did, and Tolstoy did, then you see that 00:30:32.970 --> 00:30:35.809 Jesus practiced creative nonviolent resistance, 00:30:36.029 --> 00:30:40.140 I think, every day and even every hour. and engaged 00:30:40.140 --> 00:30:42.819 in hundreds of disarming nonviolent actions. 00:30:43.059 --> 00:30:46.259 He's never power. He never resorts to violence 00:30:46.259 --> 00:30:49.440 or retaliates with violence, but he's never passive, 00:30:49.480 --> 00:30:51.880 and he's always standing up, speaking out with 00:30:51.880 --> 00:30:54.720 love, and engaging in fearless nonviolent direct 00:30:54.720 --> 00:30:57.119 action, and he's teaching us to do the same. 00:30:57.319 --> 00:31:01.160 The good news today is that... Actually, millions 00:31:01.160 --> 00:31:03.700 of people around the world are engaging in just 00:31:03.700 --> 00:31:06.619 such grassroots campaigns of nonviolent resistance 00:31:06.619 --> 00:31:10.279 to oppression and empire. We see this in the 00:31:10.279 --> 00:31:13.000 writings of Gene Sharp, Erica Chenoweth, Maria 00:31:13.000 --> 00:31:16.539 Stephan, and many more. who are showing us and 00:31:16.539 --> 00:31:19.460 documenting how more people are involved personally 00:31:19.460 --> 00:31:22.160 today in local and global grassroots movement 00:31:22.160 --> 00:31:24.740 of nonviolence than ever before in history. So 00:31:24.740 --> 00:31:27.079 I'm hoping that more and more people are going 00:31:27.079 --> 00:31:30.220 to reclaim this teaching of the fifth antithesis 00:31:30.220 --> 00:31:32.960 and realize that we've been given a power to 00:31:32.960 --> 00:31:36.259 disarm our opponents through organized, steadfast, 00:31:36.339 --> 00:31:40.680 nonviolent resistance. Given the potential for 00:31:40.680 --> 00:31:43.099 global destruction that we now face through our 00:31:43.099 --> 00:31:46.539 nuclear weapons and climate change, I think, 00:31:46.539 --> 00:31:50.819 as Aidan Below, Tolstoy, and Gandhi did, we should 00:31:50.819 --> 00:31:53.460 take Jesus at his word. And all of us try to 00:31:53.460 --> 00:31:57.000 figure out how to practice steadfast nonviolence 00:31:57.000 --> 00:31:59.859 as a way of life and nonviolent resistance to 00:31:59.859 --> 00:32:04.019 evil. I'd like to end with a longer summary by 00:32:04.019 --> 00:32:07.900 Walter Wink because it's so powerful. So here 00:32:07.900 --> 00:32:12.170 goes. just on the grounds of sheer originality. 00:32:12.609 --> 00:32:16.269 The examples of unarmed direct action in Matthew 00:32:16.269 --> 00:32:20.549 5, 39 to 41, would appear to have originated 00:32:20.549 --> 00:32:24.390 with Jesus. No one, not only in the first century, 00:32:24.529 --> 00:32:30.029 but in all of human history, ever advocated defiance 00:32:30.029 --> 00:32:33.430 of oppressors by turning the cheek, stripping 00:32:33.430 --> 00:32:36.430 oneself naked in court, or jeopardizing a soldier 00:32:36.430 --> 00:32:40.019 by carrying his pack an extra mile. For three 00:32:40.019 --> 00:32:43.559 centuries, the early church observed Jesus' commandment 00:32:43.559 --> 00:32:46.220 to nonviolence. But nowhere in the early church 00:32:46.220 --> 00:32:49.500 say nothing of the early fathers do we find statements 00:32:49.500 --> 00:32:52.500 similar to these in their humor and originality. 00:32:52.819 --> 00:32:56.720 These sayings are, in fact, so radical, so unprecedented, 00:32:57.119 --> 00:33:00.410 and so threatening. that has taken all these 00:33:00.410 --> 00:33:02.910 centuries just to begin to grasp their implications. 00:33:03.490 --> 00:33:07.210 So nonviolence, Wink says, must not be misconstrued 00:33:07.210 --> 00:33:10.309 as a way of avoiding conflict. This is really 00:33:10.309 --> 00:33:13.589 important. The peace that the gospel brings is 00:33:13.589 --> 00:33:17.069 never the absence of conflict, but an ineffable 00:33:17.069 --> 00:33:21.329 divine reassurance within the heart of conflict, 00:33:21.450 --> 00:33:25.130 a peace that passes understanding. So Christians 00:33:25.130 --> 00:33:28.299 have all too often called for nonviolence when 00:33:28.299 --> 00:33:32.099 they really just mean tranquility. Nonviolence, 00:33:32.099 --> 00:33:35.859 in fact, seeks out conflict, elicits conflict. 00:33:37.029 --> 00:33:39.910 exacerbates conflict in order to bring it out 00:33:39.910 --> 00:33:43.230 into the open and lance its poisonous sores. 00:33:43.329 --> 00:33:47.230 It is not idealistic or sentimental about evil. 00:33:47.390 --> 00:33:51.089 It does not coddle or conjole aggressors, but 00:33:51.089 --> 00:33:54.109 moves against perceived injustice proactively 00:33:54.109 --> 00:33:58.150 with the same alacrity as the most hawkish militarist. 00:33:58.390 --> 00:34:01.390 The programmatic task of what we might call the 00:34:01.390 --> 00:34:05.099 Jesus Project in the decades ahead will require 00:34:05.099 --> 00:34:09.300 moving from largely reactive, episodic, and occasional 00:34:09.300 --> 00:34:12.539 nonviolent actions to an aggressive, sustained 00:34:12.539 --> 00:34:16.000 movement of nonviolence. Our goal must now be 00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:18.500 the training of millions of nonviolent activists 00:34:18.500 --> 00:34:22.119 who are ready at a moment's notice to swing into 00:34:22.119 --> 00:34:25.980 action on behalf of the humanizing purposes of 00:34:25.980 --> 00:34:31.179 God. Wow. Amen. Thank you, friends, for listening 00:34:31.179 --> 00:34:33.780 to this Nonviolent Jesus podcast. You can hear 00:34:33.780 --> 00:34:36.559 many more podcasts and upcoming Zoom programs 00:34:36.559 --> 00:34:40.239 at BeatitudesCenter .org. And please consider 00:34:40.239 --> 00:34:42.820 offering a donation to support this free work. 00:34:43.019 --> 00:34:45.699 And if you can, please leave some positive feedback 00:34:45.699 --> 00:34:49.579 or review at NCR or Apple or Spotify or whatever 00:34:49.579 --> 00:34:52.719 platform you use. Well, may the God of peace 00:34:52.719 --> 00:34:55.619 bless you all and keep on following the nonviolent 00:34:55.619 --> 00:34:58.300 Jesus. See you next time. Thanks so much.