#31 John Dear: "This verse contains the most radical, political, revolutionary words in the Bible!"
This week I share with you a Bible text that contains what I believe are the most profound spiritual teachings ever taught in human history.
They are the most radical, political, revolutionary words in the entire Bible, and we know historically that no one ever wrote these words. For the last 1,700 years, we Christians have done our best to pretend Jesus never said them.
If we want to follow the nonviolent Jesus, and these words are his bottom line, His fundamental teaching, then we need to spend time listening to them, taking them to heart, and figuring out how to apply them concretely to our own day to day lives in this terrible moment of permanent war and global destruction.
I explain how these words pertain to us as a nation, not just as individuals, and how the so-called Just War Theory is never mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount, the four Gospels or the New Testament. It is heresy and blasphemy.
Dive deep with me in these powerful, often ignored verses and how these words describe the nature of God in the simplest, clearest terms.
The image of a God of nonviolence is a breakthrough in human history. It is the heart of Jesus’ message and continues to be rejected. It challenges us to question our image of God.
Is our God violent or nonviolent?
Do we want the God of universal nonviolent love that Jesus tells us about?
If we want to be sons and daughters of the living God, are we willing to practice the same universal nonviolent love as God and to accept the social, economic, and political consequences for our public stand?
Any idea what this life-changing, all powerful verse is? This is my call to universal love and for you to be inspired as we follow the nonviolent Jesus together.
More can be found in my book The Gospel of Peace: A Commentary on Matthew, Mark and Luke from the Perspective of Nonviolence.