Don't Push Back?

I find myself reeling as I read the words of Jesus.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.  If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away" (Matthew 5:38-42  NKJV).

Really?  Requite evil through non-resistance?  Don't push back?  Let evil roll its tanks of destruction over you?  But I want to fight back!

The Apostle Paul echoed the command of Christ when he wrote:  "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.  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" (II Corinthians 10:3-6).

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote:  "The only way to overcome evil is to let it run itself to a standstill because it does not find the resistance it is looking for.  Resistance merely creates further evil and adds fuel to the flames.  But  when evil meets no opposition and encounters no obstacle but only patient endurance, its sting is drawn and at last it meets an opponent which is more than its match.  Of course this can only happen when the last ounce of resistance is abandoned, and the renunciation of revenge is complete.  Then evil cannot find its mark, it can breed no further evil, and is left barren" (In The Cost of Discipleship, 1959, pp. 141-142).

So I ask myself the question, "Was Bonhoeffer inconsistent when he participated in the German resistance against Naziism? Did he betray this truth he proclaimed in the 1930s in the midst of the crisis of World War II?  "

I really don't know the answer to that question.  Perhaps he weakened in his resolve.  I don't know.

However, I do remember how it ended for Bonhoeffer.  His prison guards loved him.  His fellow inmates held him in the highest regard.  He died a martyr's death.  Even in death... perhaps, especially in death, his influence lives.  

Naziism is powerless today.  Perhaps, you say, that's because the Allies massacred the Nazis and obliterated the Third Reich.  True.  

But what about Bonhoeffer?  What about his persistent call to the church to be disciples of Jesus Christ?  Does that call still echo?  What about his call to non-violence?  What about Bonhoeffer's insistence that true disciples demonstrate the attitude of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount?  Does any of that point the way forward for you and me in times of suffering?  Surely, it does.  

I see the storm clouds darkening the horizon.   The godless assaults of the sinful bigots cry, "Tolerance."  The light of truth dims as the relativists marshall their forces.  They cry for tolerance as they amass their intellectual militias with an assault of character assassination, destroying the lives of good people who dare to espouse a belief in Truth.  

How must Christ's Church push back?  What is Jesus' pattern for our resistance?  

The true Church of Jesus Christ pushes back without bombs, without guns, without hate.  The Church pushes back with love, evangelism, pointing to a better way--a narrow way, a way of Life.  The Church pushes back by demonstrating a life that has taken that better way, not by resorting to fleshly warfare.  We push back by suffering, and if need be, by dying.

But what about Isis?  They want to kill me.  They want to destroy my way of life.  

"The followers of Jesus for his sake renounce every personal right... The Church is different:  it has abandoned political and national status, and therefore it must patiently endure aggression... When a Christian meets with injustice he no longer clings to his rights and deeds them at all costs" (ibid, pp. 141-142).

What about the LGBTQ agenda? It seeks to force me to call evil good.  Friends all around me are capitulating to the pressure.  Professing Christians are betraying the very authority of God's Word to receive the praise of men and avoid persecution.  

"By willing endurance we cause suffering to pass.  Evil becomes a spent force when we put up no resistance.  By refusing to pay back the enemy in his own coin, and by preferring to suffer without resistance, the Christian exhibits the sinfulness of contumely and insult... The exclusiveness of this adherence is the only power which can overcome evil... Suffering willingly endured is stronger than evil, it spells death to evil. There is no deed on earth so outrageous as to justify a different attitude.  The worse the evil, the readier must the Christian be to suffer; he must let the evil person fall into Jesus' hands" (ibid, p. 142).

As I refuse to respond in kind to the hate, vitriol, and vileness of my would-be oppressors, the dignity of a true Christian witness with shine in the darkness.  That kind of vocal, deliberate, enduring, winsome response follows the example of our Lord Jesus.  That is a "push back" that confounds the world.  

Who has believed our report?

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,

And as a root out of dry ground.

He has no form or comeliness;

And when we see Him,

There is no beauty that we should desire Him.

He is despised and rejected by men,

A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;

He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Surely He has borne our griefs

And carried our sorrows;

Yet we esteemed Him stricken,

Smitten by God, and afflicted.

But He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities;

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,

And by His stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

We have turned, every one, to his own way;

And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and He was afflicted,

Yet He opened not His mouth;

He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,

And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,

So He opened not His mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment,

And who will declare His generation?

For He was cut off from the land of the living;

For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.

And they made His grave with the wicked—

But with the rich at His death,

Because He had done no violence,

Nor was any deceit in His mouth.

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;

He has put Him to grief.

When You make His soul an offering for sin,

He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,

And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.

He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.

By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,

For He shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,

And He shall divide the spoil with the strong,

Because He poured out His soul unto death,

And He was numbered with the transgressors,

And He bore the sin of many,

And made intercession for the transgressors.

Isaiah 53

May I be found worthy of pushing back like Jesus.