Have you ever wondered, “Was Jesus a peacemaker and should His people take up His ways”? Maybe you have wondered, “Was Jesus a pacifist?”
If you are not reading Jason Porterfield’s book, Fight Like Jesus during Lent, there is still time to order it and start reading before Holy Week. His subtitle “How Jesus Waged Peace throughout Holy Week” sets us up to take a journey with Jesus through the seven days leading to the cross and the resurrection.
Jason began working out the realities of peacemaking in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. In the preface he confesses that he was young and naive, but that’s not the real problem. He goes on: “The combination of so many destructive forces at work in the Downtown Eastside soon proved too much for me… Over the course of a few short months, my neighbourhood’s brokenness had broken me. Despite my claiming to be a peacemaker, it was now readily apparent that I had no idea how to make peace.” p. 16.
Most of us are ill-equipped to actually make peace in conflictual settings, but Jesus affirmed the place of peacemaking among His followers as a response to His Kingdom. “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God.” (Matthew 5:6) As well James, one of Jesus’ brothers who became a leader in the church in Jerusalem, affirms a distinctive quality of Jesus’ followers in the world when they have the “wisdom that comes from heaven.” He writes that we will be “Peacemakers who sow in peace” and that we will “reap a harvest of righteousness.” (James 3:18)
So how?
Jason takes us through the lessons Jesus delivered to His disciples on each day of the week as He journeyed to the Cross in Jerusalem. I found myself at times surprised and delighted by Jason’s observations of Jesus’ journey and teaching. I learned something new in almost every chapter. Jason challenged the internal assumptions and reflexive movement toward violence that most of us have learned from our culture, our society and perhaps even from our churches. He shows how this reflexive movement toward violence colours how we read the witnesses of Jesus’ life, ministry and teaching.
I imagine that most of us, as Jason notes, race through Palm Sunday into Holy Week and miss the announcement of Jesus’ theme for the week. The crowd is waving palm branches joyfully but Jesus is weeping. He cries out, “If only you knew on this of all days the things that make for peace.” (Luke 19:42)
Jason writes, “What if Jesus’ lament is more than just an intriguing glimpse into his innermost thoughts and desires? What if it was placed at the start of Holy Week as a marker so that it might guide us down the correct interpretive path? What if Jesus spoke these words on the first day in order to introduce his primary objective for the week?
Jason goes on: “This book makes a bold claim: Jesus’ lament is the interpretive key to Holy Week. His lament suggests that the events of Holy Week are best understood when viewed through the lens of peacemaking. And it encourages us to see the central struggle of Holy Week as a struggle for peace.” (p. 21)
In Fight Like Jesus, Jason Porterfield writes in a very approachable style as he examines the events and teachings of each day to draw out lessons for the peacemaker. He shows us how Jesus himself corrects our tragic approaches to life and conflict. He show us how Jesus makes it possible for us to live into and out of the love of God in a world that desperately needs His peace.
Jason Porterfiled, Fight Like Jesus: How Jesus Waged Peace throughout Holy Week, 2022, Herald Press.