Gaza: A Tragedy for Everyone: Since the recent bombardment and invasion of Gaza by Israel many of my friends on Facebook, particularly those with a religious faith, have commented on the situation and their comments generally fall into two categories: support for the people of Gaza or support for Israel. The situation is a complicated one and there are without doubt faults on both sides, Hamas’ hatred for Israel is as evil as Israel’s daily injustices against ordinary Palestinians. You would think that support for Israel by Christians would fade with every child killed or injured but from the numerous daily Facebook posts this does not seem to be the case. In the thinking of Christian supporters of Israel, bound by a particular dispensation interpretation of the Bible, Israel can do no wrong. I think Jesus would disagree, just read the Sermon on the Mount. Read it not as a sermon of lofty spiritual ideals but as Jesus’ manifesto for how we are to live in the real world: “if you have two coats give one to him who has none; give food to the hungry, and do not turn away your neighbour when he needs to borrow from you. When you are asked for an hour’s work, give two. You must strive for his justice. If you want to found a family, see that all others who want to found a family are able to do so, too. If you wish for education, work, and satisfying activity, make these possible for other people as well. If you say it is your duty to care for your health, then accept this duty for the health of others also. Treat people in the same way that you would be treated by them.” So what should be a truly Christian (that is to say Christ-like) response to the situation in Gaza? In 1921 following the horrors of the First World War and prophetically aware of the direction that Germany was heading with the rise of the Nazi party, Eberhard Arnold preached these words based on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: “No matter what its origin, we must speak up in protest against every instance of bloodshed and every power of violence and death. Our witness and will for peace, for love at any cost, even the cost of our own lives, has never been more needed than it is today…Jesus knew he would never conquer the spirit of the world with more violence, but only by greater love. This is why he overcame the temptation to seize power over the kingdoms of this earth. What he proclaimed was God’s rulership in the present and the future. God’s will was always present in his life, his words, his deeds, and his suffering. This is why in the Sermon on the Mount he speaks of those who are strong in love, the peacemakers, those with heart who will inherit the land and possess the earth. The kingdom belongs to them. He took up the ancient proclamation of peace and justice which belongs to the future kingdom of God. He deepened the crucial ‘Thou shalt not kill’ which ruled out all murder. He showed that any cruelty – any brutal violation of the inner life – injures the body, soul, and, in fact, God himself, just as much as killing the body.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer said of Jesus’ sermon, “Humanly speaking we could understand and interpret the Sermon on the Mount in a thousand different ways. Jesus knows only one possibility: simple surrender and obedience, not interpreting it or applying it, but doing and obeying it. That is the only way to hear his word. He does not mean that it is to be discussed as an ideal; he really means us to get on with it.” A Christian response then, is to denounce the violence and hatred on both sides, to make no concession with evil nor give comfort to those who would do evil, to make no allegiance with any political ideology but rather, out of allegiance to Christ and his demands, to live peaceably and to work for peace and for the present experience of his future Kingdom for all people – Palestinian or Israeli.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 10:37:53 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015