Jesus and Loss

There is no evidence in the gospels that Jesus fought to avoid the cross until he was finally overwhelmed and overcome by superior power, thereby ending up being crucified. Rather, Jesus submitted to the coercive exercise of power, to loss and to the cross, thereby setting us a hard but sublime example.

Overcoming Evil

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Anniversary of September 11

Ineluctably, this week we come to the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against targets in the United States. The hatred and evil of the attacks were stunning and heartrending, particularly for those intimately affected by injury and loss. The storm of effects carved, and continues to carve, the landscape of life for individuals, families, and communities. And now, this anniversary of the attacks raises afresh the complex challenges of remembrance and response. How do we remember and respond to such hatred and evil?
Romans 12:9-21

I contend that Romans 12:9-21 should frame and form how the community of Christ remembers and responds to the events of September 11. This passage from this letter of Saint Paul to the followers of Jesus in Rome begins with these words: “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good….” It concludes with these: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” In this week when the remembrance of those acts of hatred and evil is prominent in the hearts and minds of most in the United States, this passage is God’s grace to guide and shape the remembrance and response of the community of Christ.
Remembrance and response

How then do we – the community of Christ – remember and respond to such hatred and evil? How does this passage – Romans 12:9-21 – guide and shape the community of Christ as it remembers, prays, and acts in response to those events? In the truth and power of God’s Word in this passage, the community of Christ remembers and responds through genuine love and steadfast adherence to what is good, in order to overcome evil with good.

What does it mean to love genuinely and to hold fast to what is good, in order to overcome evil with good? The community of Christ loves genuinely and holds fast to what is good in the following ways, enumerated in the passage.

Rejoicing in hope, being patient in suffering, and persevering in prayer. Contributing to those in need, whether fellow saint in Christ or stranger (for in Christ the stranger is always a neighbor). Blessing those who persecute the members of the community – blessing, not cursing. Rejoicing with those who rejoice and weeping with those who weep – acting in solidarity, compassion, and empathy to bear other’s burdens. Not repaying evil with evil, but doing what is noble in the sight of all. Doing all we can to live in peace with all people. Not seeking to avenge ourselves or others, but leaving the sorting of actions, consequences, guilt, and blame to God. Acting in great charity even to our enemies. In short: overcoming evil, and doing so with loving and good actions, not evil ones.
Transformation and renewal

How is it possible to remember and respond to such hatred and evil through genuine love and steadfast adherence to what is good, in order to overcome evil with good? It is possible through the transformation and renewal of our lives in the powerful grace of God.

This passage, from the last part of Romans 12, follows as the necessary or inevitable ethical outworking of the first part of Romans 12. A key statement from the first verses of chapter 12 provides the foundation for the ethical injunctions in verses 9 through 21, as summarized in verse 21 with the injunction to overcome evil with good. In verse 2 of chapter 12, Saint Paul exhorts the community of Christ, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Hence, we are not to be conformed to this world but transformed and renewed in our hearts and minds by the powerful grace of God. Because of the transformation and renewal of our lives in God’s grace, the community of Christ is framed and formed, enabled and empowered, to live in what God determines to be good and acceptable and perfect – as against what any particular nation, culture, or government determines to be good and acceptable and perfect.
Citizenship in heaven

This passage highlights the truth that our citizenship and allegiance are fundamentally and ultimately in heaven, not in the United States or in any other country. We do of course live in the United States. Our earthly citizenship in this country is profoundly significant for our lives – for the general shaping of our perspectives, emotions, and identity, and for our remembrance of and response to the particular events of September 11, 2001.

Yet our earthly citizenship and allegiance are not unmixed goods. Our earthly citizenship and allegiance – with their influence on our perspectives, emotions, and identity – are ambiguous and penultimate. They are always to be measured and qualified by our fundamental and ultimate citizenship and allegiance. They are always secondary and subordinate to our fundamental and ultimate citizenship and allegiance.

As citizens of heaven fundamentally and ultimately, in the power of God we are to be transformed and renewed in our whole lives, and thus conformed to the patterns of heaven, not to the patterns of this world. And in conformity with the patterns of heaven, we are to love genuinely, hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good, and overcome evil not with evil but with good.
The way of Jesus

This passage from Romans 12 does not indicate that it is easy to overcome evil with good. It does not specify when good will overcome evil, or how much effort it will take to overcome evil with good. The effort to overcome evil through genuine love and doing good may take much time and effort. It has already taken 2000 years. It may involve much suffering, even death. It cost God his only son. Yet, as we remember and respond to the terrorist attacks of September 11 as the community of Christ fundamentally and ultimately, this passage from Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans clearly describes none other than the way of true discipleship for the community of Christ, because the way of hating and overcoming evil through love and doing good is the way of Jesus, and the way of Jesus in this world of hate and evil is the way of the cross.

What Makes a Martyr a Martyr?

For Christians, what makes a martyr a martyr?

As we may remember, on Sunday, December 9, 2007, a young man named Matthew Murray shot a number of people: first very early in the morning in Arvada, Colorado, at a Youth With a Mission Center; then about twelve hours later in Colorado Springs, Colorado, at New Life Church. Two of those shot in Arvada died – Tiffany Johnson and Philip Crouse. Others were wounded. At New Life Church, two also died – Stephanie and Rachael Works, teen-aged sisters. Their father and others were wounded. Matthew Murray, too, died at New Life Church before he could shoot others. A member of the church volunteering that day as a security guard – Jeanne Assam, armed with a pistol – confronted Matthew. She was quoted later: “I knew I was given the assignment to end this…. I give the credit to God.” (New York Times online article, Dec. 11, 2007; by Kirk Johnson and David Frosch.) Jeanne responded with deadly force against Matthew as he continued to shoot, and she critically wounded him. A post-mortem investigation indicated that the wounded Matthew actually died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Further investigation into these incidents led to the conclusion that Matthew Murray had come to a point in his life where, despite being raised in a Christian family, he espoused hatred for Christians. On December 9 he acted on that hate to hurt and kill any Christians he could.

For Christians, what makes a martyr a martyr?

More particularly, what makes a martyr a martyr as against merely a victim? No diminishment or disrespect of what it means to be a victim, especially of violent action, is intended here. To be a victim of violence is a terrible and unjust experience. No one should have to undergo it. What happened to Tiffany, Philip, Stephanie, and Rachael – and to their families and friends – was terrible and unjust. We lament and grieve their violent deaths at the hand of the very troubled Matthew Murray. Indeed, we lament and grieve as well for Matthew, his family, and his friends.

Yet there seems to be a difference between being a martyr and being a victim. We get our English word “martyr” directly from a form of the Greek word martys, meaning “witness.” Written in Greek, the New Testament use of martys generally bears this meaning of “witness.” A martys or witness is a person who has seen or encountered something, and who may then tell others about what he or she has experienced. The early followers of Jesus were witnesses in that they experienced the blessings of Jesus’ life and love and communicated the good news of Jesus to others. Over time in the early church, martys came to refer not only to those who bore witness to Jesus by telling others about him. It especially signified those who bore witness to Jesus by suffering death rather than recanting their faith when persecuted. Many of the first Christians were witnesses also in this suffering sense of martys. They held to their faith in Jesus in the face of death.

However, from our vantage point many years later in a different context, we may ask whether those early church martyrs became martyrs in the suffering sense because they lacked the means to defend themselves against their persecutors? That is, did they die and thus become martyrs only or primarily because they lacked the means to defend themselves when attacked for their faith?

Consider it this way. If early Christians had possessed means of defense against persecution and used those means, and if they had thus succeeded in defending themselves by thwarting the persecution, perhaps even killing the persecutors, they would not have died. They would have lived, and they would not have suffered martyrdom as it came to be understood.

Even if early Christians had possessed means of defense and employed those means yet still died under persecution, then they would have died not because they stood for their faith but because they failed in defending themselves. If they had succeeded, they would not have died. The persecutors would have been thwarted, perhaps even killed instead. Hence, persecuted Christians would not have died for their faith. They would have lived. They might even have lived by killing “for their faith.”

Clearly, many early Christians did die for their faith. They suffered martyrdom. Did they die because they did not have the means to defend themselves? Did they die because they had the means and used them but failed in defending themselves? Or did they become martyrs because, whether they had the means or not, they refused to defend themselves by any means necessary, including deadly force, against those who despised, feared, hated, persecuted, and killed them?

I suggest that this is the truth and the true witness of those early church martyrs. I suggest that, in refusing to defend themselves against persecution by any means necessary, and in professing their faith in Jesus even if it meant suffering and dying for him, they enacted, even embodied, love for God and love for their persecutors, for their enemies, as Jesus himself did on Calvary. Is not this the true pattern, the true taking up, of the cross of Jesus? For Christians, is not this what makes a martyr a martyr and not just another victim of violence?