The Violence of Love

Does it strike you as odd that John the Baptist would have the question of Jesus’ identity in mind when he sends his disciples to Jesus in the Gospel today? This scene is presented in the eleventh chapter of Matthew’s Gospel – well after even the Sermon on the Mount; well after John’s baptizing and preaching ministry. Last week, the Baptist seemed very certain of this “one who is to come” when he was preaching by the Jordan. So, what’s going on here?

Some Scripture scholars have presented that John probably knew what he was doing, and he was sending these disciples to Jesus so that they could receive the good news that Jesus shares. In other words, John was just being a good teacher by allowing them to hear it for themselves. However, there are other commentators who see here a correction of John’s message by Christ – not that the Baptist was off base, only that Jesus needed to make very clear that His message – the Kingdom of Heaven – was not what everyone expected.

John the Baptist laid much stress on the eschatological message: the day was close when the Lord would come in wrath to punish sinners. He was a prophet whose heart burned at the injustice he saw all around him. Seeing so many people maltreated and feeling that God could no longer tolerate those unjust situations, last week he declared, “You brood of vipers! Don’t you see that even now the axe is about to fell the tree?”. But Jesus came with greater gentleness, and he sent word back to tell this impatient prophet John what James says in his letter: “Be patient—the sign of the Messiah is goodness”.

Jesus also comes to save what is lost, but by means of conversion. “Be converted! As John the Baptist has preached, so also I preach, but I preach a conversion that does not make the poor arrogant but makes them realize their complete dependence on God in true poverty. I don’t preach a conversion that makes the poor feel resentful or hateful toward the rich; I preach conversion that makes the poor understand that they must convert the powerful so that they too become poor in spirit”. Poverty must always exist in the world because it is out of poverty that God proclaims his message of conversion to all people. The powerful and the rich must put aside their attitudes of pride and self-sufficiency; they must become poor in spirit even if they might possess wealth.

Too often, when confronted with injustice, we may feel our righteous anger flair up. We may want to engage in resistance that could even lead to violence, feeling that we have had as much as anyone can endure. We understand those who fight for their freedom and rights, even those who do so physically. However, this is not what Jesus calls us to.

St. Oscar Romero (as you know, one of my favorites!) said this about the “violence” that he would encourage:

We have never preached violence, except the violence of the love that led Christ to be nailed to a cross. We preach only the violence that we must each do to ourselves to overcome selfishness and to eliminate the cruel inequalities among us. This is not the violence of the sword, the violence of hatred. It is the violence of love and fraternity, the violence that chooses to beat weapons into sickles for work (Isa 2:4). What a beautiful call we would make to you here, sisters and brothers, when work abounds in our fields! Do not change this work into hatred or struggles or bloodshed. Do not wait for laws but be inspired in the fraternal love that should unite owners and workers. Let us raise from our fields a hymn that is in tune with the generosity with which God grants us [the] harvests. This is our goal; this is the peace toward which we walk.

As we continue to await the coming of Christ, we need to remember that He is the Messiah who does not break the bruised reed. He is the Prince of Peace, not a warlord. And if that is true, then we need to be a people of peace. That calls for waiting in patience, as St. James signals today. Does it surprise us that God does not swoop in and vanquishes our enemies? It shouldn’t. That’s never been what God wanted. Rather, He wants to see hearts converted – theirs and ours.

When we realize that the point of salvation is not that some should suffer and others should rejoice over that suffering – that it not a matter of us and them, that some will win and others will lose. Instead, for Jesus, salvation means that the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear,the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. It means that hearts are converted and people are made whole; relationships are made whole; the world is made whole.

That is the root of true joy. As Christmas nears, joy is made manifest in the presence of Jesus, and the fruit of that presence is the harmony of relationships that leads to real peace. We can be agents of that joy when we are agents of that peace. And that is how the least in the Kingdom can be greater than even John.