Welcome back to the Fourth Way podcast. Today, we are going to continue looking at John Howard Yoder's book, The Politics of Jesus. As a quick recap, here's where we are so far. Yoder argues that Jesus faced temptation as we do. That as the second Adam, Jesus' temptation was like the first Adam's temptation.

This temptation was the defining of good and evil for self or the usurping of power and control and their refusal to submit to God's means. We see this evidenced in Satan's temptations in the wilderness and Jesus telling Peter to get behind him, when he told him that he wasn't gonna let him suffer. And the the three shots of Jesus' kingship, where the masses tried to count crown him king. He was proclaimed king at the temple. And the final shot at kingship in the placard placed on the cross declaring him mockingly so, but declaring him king, preceded by Peter's attempt to use force to prevent Jesus from suffering.

Jesus' drops of blood in prayer, pleading to let the cup pass, and Luke's account of the availability of legions of angels to stop what was about to happen and overthrow Rome. And then Pilate giving Christ in out, but Jesus saying that his kingdom wasn't of this world and that his people would not fight for him. So Jesus' temptation was to take control and to take power and to not submit to the means that God had for him. Now a lot of people listening to this might agree up to this point about Christ's temptation to throw off the cross, but so what? Right?

I'm not called to do what Jesus was called to do because the cross was Jesus' to bear. The cross is not mine to bear because Jesus was the Messiah, and I'm not. So his path was different, and God doesn't call me to those same things. I won't face cross. I won't face Rome.

I won't face the Pharisees. Jesus' prescriptions were specific to his role as Messiah, and that's what Yoder is going to push back against next. So Yoder lays out a a few things. I think I've identified like three three big ideas that I want to get at from Yoder. So we'll start with number one.

So we've already established that that Christ is the second Adam. The way that he lived his life is the way that we should seek to live ours. And in fact, the whole trajectory of the Christian faith is explicitly declared throughout the Bible to be our conformity to Jesus Christ. Our goal is to become like him. The the Orthodox call this theosis or deification, and that sounded really weird when I learned about that, especially deification, like we're becoming gods.

That but we we believe it too. Protestants believe it, if you're a Protestant, and it's called glorification. I I don't know if Catholics have a term for it. I would guess glorification, kinda like the Protestants, but I don't know. Anyway, point is, our goal is to become like Christ.

That is that is pretty clear. Christ wasn't just the Messiah. He is our role model. He is the he is the true human. Point number two is something we discussed a little bit in the first episode, which is that Jesus' explicit ministry was to declare the kingdom.

His life was spent telling others that the kingdom had arrived and then telling them what that kingdom looks like and how to live in it. The Sermon on the Mount, which we just went through in the last season, was all about kingdom living. Jesus' ministry wasn't biding time until he could make a divine transaction on the cross. His ministry was central to his work. This overlooking of the importance of Christ's life is a very huge blind spot, which is particularly big in in the Protestant church and especially in evangelical churches like, probably the dispensational variety more so.

Because, first of all, our our deemphasis of works, the importance of works, and and our almost explicit focus on on faith, which I think James would have some things to say about in particular, but as well as the rest of the bible. Right? We faith is what saves us, but works are necessary. Like, they're a necessary component of what is going to accompany that faith. But Protestants, we we just hate talking about works because then we get into legalism, and and we hate that concept, which I understand.

I understand the aversion to legalism. I have that aversion too, but it is also conveniently self insulating when we don't have to evaluate our lives. And this is one of those things that, at least on paper, I won't say that in practice because my experience in practice with Orthodox believers is that that a lot of them have a a a dead sort of faith as well, just like a lot of Protestants. But on paper, the Orthodox do a a really good job of emphasizing and and incorporating the life of Jesus Christ. The life was very important to them, and that's something that I I find very an an underrated aspect in Protestant faith.

The life of Jesus is just kind of leading up to the cross, which is the culmination, the emphasis, the core, the gospel, really the only thing that matters. Of course, if you put it like that, Protestants would say, no. I don't believe that. But practically, a lot of us do. Okay.

So so far, we we said that Jesus is the second Adam, and he's the true human, and Jesus's explicit ministry was to declare the kingdom, which he brought already. And the third thing that's that's really important to understand is that prescriptions for our lives are able to be distinguished because right now, some people are probably thinking in their heads, well, wait. So am I supposed to grow a beard like Jesus? Right? Just because Jesus did it doesn't mean I'm supposed to do it.

And that's exactly right. Yoder argues that the monastics go wrong because they focus on aspects of Christ's life, mimicking those aspects of Christ's life, which were not prescribed to emulate, like growing beards or not being married or being itinerant. Jesus doesn't say anything about those aspects of life having any bearing on the kingdom, but he does teach and show us other truths like, our daily bearing of our crosses, the laying down of our lives for others, even enemies, trusting in God for our provisions rather than worrying and attempting to be wise in our own eyes by building storehouses to hoard our resources, the not returning blows for blow, not lording power over others like the Gentiles do, and forgiving even 70 times seven. The kingdom Christ declares and portrays us is persuasive, loving, peaceful, and clear. And the kingdom centers around the very actions Christ took in the wilderness, continued with his disciples, and displayed in the garden and on the cross.

Our role as his disciples is to portray the same love and persuasiveness to all by not grasping at the levers of power and seeking means of control which dominate, manipulate, or use violence. But rather, we are to faithfully trust that God knows what he's doing even in his implementation of using foolish means, which we know can't win. The fact that he employs you and I should evidence enough that God has no problem accomplishing his will through the foolish and the hopeless. So a lot of people are going to be trying to dismiss this idea of trying to emulate Christ by showing us lots of ways that it it we all know it's ridiculous to try to emulate Christ. Well, all of us except the monastics.

And and Yoder says, look. We we can look at the scripture, and we can see that Jesus promises persecution. He tells us to bear our cross. He he promises us suffering, and and he has all of these explicit teachings as well, like the sermon on the mount. It it's it's not grasping at straws to figure out what aspects of Jesus' life are supposed to be modeled.

Maybe there's some, like, gray area somewhere, but by and large, it's pretty clear. So it's just it's kind of a a weak evasion to try to say that that, you know, what the odor is arguing is arguing that we should basically all grow beards, although I'm safe if that is the case. And while we can look at the scripture and and see what aspects of Jesus' life are the truly human aspects that we are were to follow, there is another way that we can often tell if certain aspects are the aspects of Christ that we're supposed to mimic. And that is Yoder talks about how the more we live a life like Jesus, the more we will be bearing our cross. And Yoder spends the rest of this portion talking about what the cross is.

And this is extremely helpful because in in my community, you know, the phrase bearing your cross meant I mean, if if life was hard, if you're getting a little bit less sleep than normal and you're really tired, you know, I'm bearing my cross. I mean, you don't have a lot of people say it that way, but that's kind of what bearing your cross means. It means life's a little bit hard right now. I have surgery coming up. Right?

I'm bearing my cross. Or it could even be something serious. I have cancer. I'm bearing my cross. But Yoder is going to push back against that and he's going to say, no.

The bearing our cross of that's not what it means. But when we figure out what it means, then that's going to help us to understand what sorts of actions are the types of actions which lead to the bearing of cross, and those are the types of actions that we should be emulating in Jesus. So what is bearing our cross? Well, Yoder says first that the cross is purposed. Yoder is very explicit that bearing our cross does not mean what most American Christians use it to mean.

It's not getting sick. It's not losing our job for normal, like, economic means. The cross is not just general hardship. Rather, the cross is something which results from specific actions. Yoder summarizes it very well like this.

Quote, this gospel concept of the cross of the Christian does not mean that suffering is thought of as in itself redemptive, or that martyrdom is a value to be sought after, nor does it refer uniquely to being persecuted for religious reasons by an outspoken pagan government. What Jesus refers to in his call to cross bearing is rather the seeming defeat of the strategy of obedience, which is no strategy. The inevitable suffering of those whose only goal is to be faithful to that love which puts one at the mercy of one's neighbor, which abandons claims to justice for oneself and for one's own in an overriding concern for the reconciling of the adversary and the estranged. So Jesus' cross was the culmination of a three year ministry. Three years of ticking people off by pushing against the the varying power structures and by failing to meet people's expectations of what a Messiah should do.

Three years of faithfulness meant that Jesus was constantly moving around, being chased, had attempts on his life, and ultimately ended up being executed. That execution wasn't just a bad day for Jesus, but it was the direct result of a life well lived in obedience to God and without consideration for the approval of others. The cross of Jesus Christ was a pointed culmination and conclusion of the way that he lived his life. So we have to look at our own lives, and we have to wonder, at least I do and I did, why we aren't being persecuted and why we don't really have crosses to bear. Yoder made me ask that question myself because, I mean, honestly, I was never bearing my cross and I still largely am not bearing a cross.

Yoder pointed out that a a key point that that changed my life here. He said that an important thing to note is that persecution often comes internally, not externally, and and that helped me to see how to live in order to start bearing my cross. See, Rome executed Jesus, but at the request of the Jews. The Jews basically got Jesus, who was also a Jew. They got him killed.

I mean, he was a teacher. He was one of them, but they had him killed. Yeah. Pagan governments can be great persecutors of the Christian church, but the inquisition, the religious wars, and all of the history of Christendom shows us that we do a pretty good job persecuting ourselves. And I realized that I was basically just falling in line with my group and maintaining the status quo on pretty much everything.

Especially, race issues are one of the things that that came to light for me. I might have been more progressive in terms of not being racist or more progressive in terms of thinking bigger measures needed to be taken towards social justice. But, I mean, by and large, I just kind of fell in line and was quiet about things. You know? Don't rock the boat.

If you listen to the Christianity Today episode back in the second season, I talk a little bit about this, or the the episode after facing after Bonhoeffer and COVID, they're facing another virus, I think it's called. So you would have heard my story of how we've received some soft threats of having our funding pulled for our missions work because we've stood our ground on the impropriety of some of our president's actions, calling him out for those immoral actions or because we shined a light on our group's racial injustice and a refusal to be more our group's refusal to be more vocal about race. This this was just individuals, so not our organization that that kinda gave us this threat. So because because we called out the president for immoral actions and because, we were vocal about certain issues of racial racial justice, and we had threats of pulled funding. You know, quite honestly, that was the first time in my life, maybe the only time that I felt like I was really bearing my cross even though a threat of some individuals pulling some money, for supporting us is is an extremely light threat, I recognize.

But now I was facing a burden for calling evil evil and for standing up against it and refusing to be quiet about it. And that burden didn't come from some pagan pagan atheist, Satan worshiping atheist. Right? I guess that would that wouldn't work out. But, that's about the worst thing probably my Christian group could imagine.

So I I didn't face some pagan, Satan worshiping atheist, but it was my own group that didn't like the light being shined on it. And, honestly, I'm I my wife thinks I'm I'm really weird because, like, I don't know. Hard hard times, like, when we had to long, long story, but when we had to raise, like, we had, like, 250,000, 3 hundred thousand dollars worth of debt. And to get to the mission field, we were trying to get down to zero. And I was excited.

I was like, I have no idea how this is gonna happen, but this is gonna be awesome. Like, I I think God's gonna do something awesome. So I kind of I kind of thrive on those moments of where most other people would be scared and frustrated. Not that I'm not scared or frustrated, but there's always, this this excitement that comes with it. So for as weird as it might seem, it felt really good to have people threaten to pull funding because because of having a red Yoder and and, that helping me to take actions which could lead me to bearing my cross, and the fact that he prepared me to see where the persecution was gonna come from and not be blindsided by it, it was it was pretty exciting because, finally, I was seeing some fruits of taking actions that needed to be taken.

Instead of being a pansy and just shutting my mouth and going with what my group said, saying something tactfully. It wasn't we weren't rubbing anything in people's faces or calling names or anything, but doing something tactfully and just saying, hey. Look. This is a problem, and we need to face it. And having threats against us to to have our funding pulled.

Yeah. That felt really good. I mean, I don't know if I I wanna bear my cross like Peter and hang on across and be nailed upside down. I'm not there yet, but I don't know. It felt really good to know that my life was being purposed towards an end, and that end is justice and love for others.

And there was pushback against that. So as you live your life and you seek to bear your cross, know what it means. Know that bearing your cross isn't just something that happens to you, but it's something that because of who you are and what you're doing, is is directed at you. And then know that there's a there's a good chance that that persecution or the bearing of your cross is going to be exacerbated. It's gonna be made heavier by your own group.

That's where it's it it may likely come from. Second thing Yoder says about the cross is that the cross is not insurrection and it is not quietism. So if one does not engage in the politics of the day, a lot of people falsely dichotomize the remaining political options as being quietist or insurrectionist. So if if you don't get involved with the Democratic or Republican party, then pretty much you're a quietist. You're not really seeking to do anything good.

Or you're you're an insurrectionist. You're you're seeking like, you're one of those crazy groups who just wants to overthrow things. If the world is in desperate need of change and you abstain from invoking the powers of the day, whether that's political, religious, business, whatever, then you are either a quietist or insurrectionist. If you simply withdraw from action, then you're not really playing in the game. On the other hand, if you go outside of the system to overthrow the powers through other means or force, then you're an insurrectionist intending to abandon order.

But Christ engages in constant politics without being either a quietist or an insurrectionist. Here is a a pertinent quote from Yoder, an extended quote. Quote, because Jesus' particular way of rejecting the sword and at the same time condemning those who wield it was politically relevant, both the Sanhedrin and the procurator had to deny him the right to live in the name of both of their forms of political responsibility. His alternative was so relevant, so much of a threat that Pilate could afford to free in exchange for Jesus, the ordinary Gavira type insurrectionist Barabbas. Jesus' way is not less, but more relevant to the question of how society moves than is the struggle for possession of the levers of command.

To this, Pilate and Caiaphas testify by their judgment on him. Jesus refused to concede that those in power represent an ideal, a logically proper, or even an empirically acceptable definition of what it means to be political. He did not say, as some sectarian pacifist or some pietist might, you could have your politics and I shall do something else more important. He said, your definition of polis, of the social, of the wholeness of being human socially is perverted. End quote.

So Jesus did not seek to overthrow the system through insurrection nor did he not face the system head on. Instead, he showed a new way which was in direct competition to the other methods of power. Jesus was only a quietist in the sense that he didn't participate in the religious or political structures and boxes through which participation was expected. And he was only an insurrectionist if you define that as one who upends powers by offering something better through strictly persuasive speech and humble example. So rather than participating in the immoral structures, Jesus created a different opportunity that was so compelling.

It competed with the power so well, even though it was done by pure persuasion that the powers had to take him out. Jesus was crucified precisely because what he did was social and political, but outside of any of the accepted social and political powers that could claim him and protect him. This is exactly why the religious leaders had to kill him and the Rome that prided itself on orderly law had to run a kangaroo court to convict him. Christ's way held more power than any other way, even more than the overt zealotry of Barabbas. The cross does not accept political and social lines of order.

Human institutions are founded on order in hopes that they will bring about good and love for some. The cross is about a love and good for all first, which in turn will bring about true human community. The cross might seem like a quietest option to the political and religious institutions that are bellowing effectiveness and order, but the cross bellows love. The cross only seems quiet if you bought into a message which drowns out agape love. And I think you see that today.

The cross should not be sectarian, partisan. It should be inclusive of all people. But what you notice about political lines, groups of people, whatever whatever it is, there's an in group and there's an out group. And when you're in one of those groups and you start trying to accept the out group. So two examples here maybe.

If you are a democrat and you are pro life, you are going to have a really difficult time, a very difficult time being accepted. If you are a republican, particularly if you're in, you know, the moral majority republican brand, you're gonna have a difficult time being a homosexual or being being vocal on certain race issues, as I can attest, or being serious about the potential risks of global warming, you're gonna have a hard time in that in that party. If you're an immigrant, you're gonna have a hard time in that party. But the cross circumvents all that, and instead of saying, you have to figure out which party you're in, it invites everybody to the party. Whether you're an immigrant, whether you are poor or an outcast, it doesn't matter.

You're part of this party, and that is a threat. That is a threat to partisan politics, to institutions who like outgroups or they don't like the outgroups, they hate the outgroup, but they like that there are outgroups to have as enemies. So finally, the third aspect of the cross. Yoder says that the cross is more than just the golden rule. Yoder argues that Jesus did not teach the golden rule as the end goal, but rather stated that the golden rule was a sum of the law and the prophets.

I think this is a really interesting point. Yoder is is saying that, look, Jesus wasn't trying to prescribe the golden rule for us. Yeah. He says he says, hey. Look.

You do the golden rule that sums up the law and the prophets. Good for you. But all throughout Jesus' ministry, he says, look. You've you've heard it said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I tell you. Or he so anger and murder, he couples.

He extends the law, or he elevates the law. Adultery, lust. Right? We see Jesus elevating the law constantly. So, sure, he acknowledges the golden rule as something that's good that that sums up the law, but Yoder argues that Jesus was not content with with that.

Jesus' fulfillment of the law was not do as you'd have done to you, but rather Jesus' fulfillment of the law was do as I, Jesus, have done to you. Or to put it another way, do as your Father in heaven has done to you by sending you his enemies, by sending you his son. The golden rule is centuries behind other great teachers if Jesus is merely stating the golden rule. But he doesn't just state the golden rule. He goes well beyond the golden rule.

The cross then isn't merely bearing the difficulty of being nice to other nice people like we'd like to have done to us. I mean, don't some people lay down their lives for good people? Jesus says that. Rather, the cross is choosing to return love to those who cause you to bear difficulties even in the midst of their malice. So in summary of of this episode, Yoder has made a number of important points about the specificity of the cross.

The cross is born because of a continued choice to abstain from the powers that be and a move towards the laying down of our lives for even our enemies. In all of scripture, one of, if not the only way, we are consistently told to imitate Christ is in bearing such a cross. The life of Christ's disciple is one that inevitably leads to persecution on all sides, from religious and political institutions and likely business institutions as well because we refuse to buy into their definitions of power, control, effectiveness, society, and order. We will pick up with our last look at the politics of Jesus book next week. So I hope you enjoyed it.

That's all for now. So peace because I'm a pacifist and I say it, I mean it.