Christ endorses love over against violence. So must Christians, especially in America today. [View all]

[The Great Open Dance]

Who are we? In 21st century America, we debate whether we are strongest as a multiethnic or White country, as a multireligious or Christian country, as an internationalist or militaristic country. Similar debates occurred centuries ago, and Jesus took sides.

In the first century, Jews debated the relative importance of obeying religious law and pursuing divine justice. Generally, priests emphasized the former and prophets emphasized the latter. One rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth, explicitly identified with those prophets who demanded a more compassionate society that included all and excluded none, that prioritized flexible love over inflexible legalism.

His mother may have had something to do with this, since she herself seemed to prefer the God of the prophets to the God of the hierarchs. Upon learning that she would bear the Christ child, Mary offers the first meditation on the meaning of the Christ, making her the first Christian theologian. In so doing, Mary reiterates Abba’s promise to correct the cruel stratifications of society:

My soul proclaims your greatness, O God,
and my spirit rejoices in you, my Savior. . . .
You have shown strength with your arm;
you have scattered the proud in their conceit;
you have deposed the mighty from their throne
and raised the lowly to high places.
You have filled the hungry with good things,
while you have sent the rich away empty.
(Luke 1:46–47, 51–53)

According to Mary, God actively rejects distorted values that deem persons to be worth more than or less than others, a distortion that God never intended for one human family.

In keeping with Mary’s prophecy, Jesus explicitly identifies himself with the prophetic lineage when he begins his ministry. Anticipating his intense focus on the universal, unconditional love of God for all, especially those unloved by society, he quotes Isaiah 61, which declares good news to the poor and release to the captives.

Jesus rejects ritual violence. This endorsement of love and justice continues throughout Jesus’s ministry. What Jesus did not endorse was the ritual slaughter of anything or anyone to placate a punitive God. In fact, Jesus explicitly rejects ritual violence, demanding sacramental mercy instead.

When Jesus is criticized for dining with tax collectors and sinners, he instructs his critics: “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’” (Matthew 9 –13; see also Matthew 12 ). Here, he is quoting another Hebrew prophet of justice, Hosea. Writing in the voice of God, Hosea had declared, “For I desire kindness toward others, not sacrifice; acknowledgement of God, not burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6).

When an expert in Jewish law asks Jesus which commandment is the most important, Jesus points to love of God and love of neighbor. The lawyer approves of Jesus’s emphasis on love, declaring, “This is much more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices,” to which Jesus replies, “You are not far from the kingdom of God” (Mark 12:28–43a).

Elsewhere, Jesus condemns those who legalistically give a tenth of their income to the temple but neglect justice, mercy, and faithfulness (Matthew 23:23). And Hebrews has Jesus quote Psalm 40: “You [YHWH, Abba] who wanted no sacrifice or oblation prepared a body for me, in burnt offerings or sacrifices for sin you took no pleasure” (Hebrews 10:5–6; Psalm 40:6).

Jesus rejects substitutionary atonement theory. Jesus’s rejection of propitiatory sacrifice (sacrifice that appeases the divine wrath against sin), and his endorsement of sacramental mercy, must determine our interpretation of his crucifixion. Jesus did not die to satisfy the fury of an angry God against us. Jesus died because he revealed the love of a forgiving God for us. When he went to Jerusalem with the disciples, he attempted to worship in the temple but never made it past the courtyard, so enraged was he by the commerce taking place. He cleansed the temple, driving out the merchants, overturning the tables of the money changers, and chasing away those selling sacrificial animals (Mark 11:15–18).

Because temple commerce was so important to the Jerusalem economy, Jesus’s actions enraged the power elite to the point of murder. When evening came, he and the disciples left Jerusalem. I wonder if that night, realizing how much he had upset a cruel hierarchy, realizing that their vengeance was at hand, Jesus said to his disciples (and here I’m paraphrasing): “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life—longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. . . . And so I’m happy tonight; I’m not worried about anything; I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

Martin Luther King was murdered the day after giving that speech. He was murdered for attempting to repair relations between Blacks and Whites, and between the rich and the poor, to the benefit of all.

Two thousand years earlier MLK’s moral exemplar, Jesus, had attempted to repair relations through his teaching and actions, at the cost of his life. Reunifying the separated will bring great joy, great suffering, and great danger. Christ is love that unifies souls in separation. Therefore, Christ is danger. Those souls have grown accustomed to that separation. They are miserable but used to it. The terrain is ugly but they have it mapped, and they don’t want to go anywhere new. They don’t want a guide who speaks to them of new lands.

Can we even be made well? Monica Coleman asks, “Do you want to be made well? I like this question for all that’s behind it. The healers are asking: Are you willing to have a new experience? You know sickness, but you don’t know wellness. You’ve learned how to manage what you do know. You know it like the back of your hand.”

Healing God, help us replace our familiar misery with unfamiliar joy. Give us that courage. Amen. (adapted from Jon Paul Sydnor, The Great Open Dance: A Progressive Christian Theology, pages 194-196)

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For further reading, please see:

Coleman, Monica A. Not Alone: Reflections on Faith and Depression. New York: Inner Prizes Incorporated, 2012.

Foster, Jonathan. Theology of Consent: Mimetic Theory in an Open and Relational Universe. Idaho: Sacrasage, 2022.

King, Martin Luther Jr. A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Edited by Clayborne Carson. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2024.