WAR, VIOLENCE AND THE PRINCE OF PEACE

War and violence can never bring any solution, let alone peace, progress and prosperity. Sadly, the “macho” world, and many gun slinging “cowboys” – the active proponents of war and violence – think that peace, progress and prosperity can be achieved by the “bullets” and the “barrel of a gun.” What fools they are? They never seem to learn anything from history at all. What a tragedy!

One of the titles given to the LORD Jesus is, “The Prince of Peace” – Isaiah 9:6. Jesus followed it up by His life and His teaching. The question that begs an answer is – Why did Jesus choose the path of PEACE, SACRIFICE, SUFFERING and FORGIVENESS? The LORD had clearly taught us, to give up our rights, when our enemies strike us, and let God deal with the justice – Luke 6:27-38. We as Christians, are called to follow our LORD, who chose to walk the path of LOVE, FORGIVENESS and SACRIFICE.

How are we doing in following the Jesus of the Bible? There are many who are following another “Jesus” who seems to accept racial superiority, thinly veiled as exceptionalism – where everyone else is sub-human, and therefore, subservient to the superior race. Has slavery and casteism come to your mind? There are a whole lot of other items on this list – majoritarianism, ethnic superiority,  regional superiority, linguistic superiority, religious superiority – the list can be extended. Such ideas lead only towards suppression, oppression, dominance, control and subjugation by the “superior” over against the “inferior” – nothing else. A tragedy is that, historically speaking, “christians” and “christian nations” are found to be at the forefront, on such ideas and ideologies.

What Jesus are we following? Are we following the Jesus of the Bible? Or, are we following the “jesus” who is a “golden calf” of our making? We better be mindful, and be careful, of whom we are following. One day, we all are going to meet the real Jesus – the Jesus of the Bible, face to face. He is going to judge the living and the dead. What account would we give of our life, and all that we believed and practiced? We better be very very careful.