Recently a sister in the Lord asked me what my take was on this
coming war with Iraq. Some of the rest of you might have been wondering the same
thing. Here is what I wrote in reply.
Stefanie,
You asked me the other day what my take on this coming war with
Iraq is. Well, I have one question back. Was Jesus a patriotic flag waving Jew?
I think the answer is all too obvious to anyone who has ever read the gospels
with an open heart.
The Jews hated the Roman occupation of their country and expected
the "true" Messiah to come and lead a revolt and cast off the yoke of the Roman
Empire and eventually make Jerusalem the
capital of the world, restoring the glory of the earthly kingdom of David. This
thinking was behind all the hullabaloo on what we call "Palm Sunday," His
"triumphant entry" into Jerusalem the week before this same mob was calling out
for his death. Why did they change their minds about Him? He rained on His own
parade and told them that He came there to die, not establish the present Jewish
leaders as the heads of a new world order. Because Jesus didn't come as a
military leader and would not even speak out against Rome, the Jewish leaders
rejected Him as their Messiah. In fact, to make matters worse, He constantly
criticized the Jewish hierarchy and cast doubt on their legitimacy as those who
sat in Moses' seat and even on whether they were of the seed of Abraham!
You see, He knew where His kingdom was and it was not of this
world. He was other worldly and He
expected His disciples to be the same. For years I was a dyed-in-the-wool
AMERICAN. I put God and country on the same plane. To be an American was to be a
Christian and to be a Christian was to be a good flag waving American. I served
this country in Vietnam and came home to "the real world," only to find the
anti-war protesters calling us names as we left our ship in Alameda, California.
The problem was that it soon became obvious that THIS was not the real world at
all. The America I left three years earlier was not the one I came back to in
1967.
This started me thinking. I hated the left and the anti-war crowd
for the way they aided and supported our Vietnamese enemies, the Cong and the
NVA. Does anyone remember Hanoi Jane and Joan Baez and their trips to North
Vietnam to entertain and support their troops? I do. I also hated President Lyndon Johnson for the way he tied the
hands of the US military from really fighting that war over there. We were put
in harm's way without permission to really fight. It was all too obvious that
the real goal was to prolong that war as long as possible to buoy-up the economy
back home.
Well, that hate in me grew and grew until one day my wife came to
me and told me that my hate was killing her love for me and it was hurting the
children. I stewed on those words for three more months until one day I came out
of my little straight-laced, flag waving Free Methodist church on a Sunday
morning and found a handbill on the windshield of my car. It read, "Jesus People
Army - Revolutionary Youth Movement..." Well, this I had to see! I thought,
"Jesus, a revolutionary? NOT!" You know the church Jesus... gentle Jesus, meek
and mild, right? That was how I saw Him. The American compliant Jesus who went
along with everything a "good patriotic American" could want, "a chicken in
every pot, and an new car in every garage," right?
Well, I went to the meetings that this handbill was announcing and
I saw something other worldly. For the first time I saw some Spirit filled
Christians who were ALIVE! They looked like the very hippies that I had grown to
hate, but shone all over with the love of God (Funny how God loves to use the
foolish and weak things of this world to confound the wise and the mighty). They
were speaking of a revolution in terms of the REAL Revolutionary, the REAL Jesus
Christ. The same Jesus Christ that did not come to pat the world establishments
on the back, but rather to bring the people His Father created back to Him and
HIS kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven. That very same Jesus who told Pilate that
His kingdom was not of this world, the one that turned over the thieving
money-changers tables in the temple and told the temple hierarchy that they had
turned His Father's house into a house of thieves. Now THIS Jesus, I could get
excited about! He was other worldly and THAT made sense!
I surrendered to Jesus with all my heart and cast off all my hopes
for a man- made heaven on this earth that week at one of those meetings in June
of 1970. I, too, became "other worldly" and swore to pick up my cross and follow
Him. Needless to say, all my hate for those whom He created in His image,
whether they be right wing, or left, communist or Republican, black or white,
etc., was all gone. For the first time in my life I had been set free and Jesus
the revolutionary had done it.
Yes, Jesus the REVOLUTIONARY-- the very One who said, "Do
not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but
a sword. For I have come to `set a man against his father, a daughter
against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's
enemies will be those of his own household. He who loves father or mother more
than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is
not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not
worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for
My sake will find it. He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me
receives Him who sent Me." (Matthew 10:34-40, NKJV). Yes, He also said, "But the
Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you
all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give
to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John
14:26-27, NKJV).
So you ask, "Isn't this a contradiction?" No. What is contradictory
is a Christendom that says it follows Jesus but is more concerned about being a
"good American citizen" and has given its heart over to enjoying all the perks
that go with that citizenship, instead of denying its flesh and giving its whole
heart to Jesus and the kingdom of His Father.
Jesus DID bring a sword on this earth. THAT sword is the one that divides soul
from spirit, bone from marrow that discerns the thoughts and intents of the
heart (Heb. 4:12). It also divides our loyalty from the things of this world and
sets our hearts on a heavenly kingdom. This heart change, I was soon to
discover, set me at variance with my relatives and friends. As He had told His
disciples, "Who are my mother, my brother and my sister? Those who do the will
of My Father are my mother, my brother and my sister." All the while He left his
mother, brothers and sisters standing outside and kept on teaching those who
were followed Him. It was to THESE that He came to bring peace, not the world
systems of men. Only as we leave our worldly kingdoms behind and follow the Son
can we all know the peace of His Father's kingdom where there is no longer "Jew
nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female"
but ONE new man in Christ Jesus.
We who are His are to know no man after the flesh or even after his
nationality (2 Corinthians 5:16)! We are to look upon all as God does, upon
their hearts. To dwell on politics or nationalities or even be prejudiced
against a certain extremist religious sect is to miss an opportunity to reach
out in the love of Christ that calls all to His Father's kingdom. It is the lack
of this other-worldly heart that has made the missionary efforts of American
churches such a dismal failure. We have been going forth with another gospel,
the gospel of American Christianity instead of the gospel of the kingdom of God
that bids all to leave all ties with this world, its families, denominations,
organizations and governments behind--for the gospel that Jesus preached. Let us
all who name His name go forth and do likewise. Remember, this world is not our
home. We are just passing through.
So Stefanie, what is my take on this war with Iraq? I feel about
this one the way I feel about all the wars that are started by the worldly
kingdoms of men. Our warfare is not of this world any more than our kingdoms as
followers of Christ is not of this world. As Paul told the church in Corinth,
"For the weapons of our warfare [are] not carnal but mighty in God for pulling
down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself
against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the
obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your
obedience is fulfilled. Do you look at things according to the outward
appearance? If anyone is convinced in himself that he is Christ's, let him again
consider this in himself, that just as he [is] Christ's, even so we [are]
Christ's."
Michael
13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but
having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that
they were strangers (aliens) and pilgrims on the earth.
14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.
15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come
out, they would have had opportunity to return.
16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is
not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
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