The Word in Focus with Dr Larry Taylor

I believe Donald Trump.

If Donald Trump is elected president, he is promising to pursue a dictatorial program of revenge and retribution against the free press, Democrats, immigrants, liberals, the LGBTQ+ community, and those not entirely loyal to him. He is certain to pursue relationships with dictators like Putin, Viktor Orbán, and Kim Jong Un. 

If Donald Trump loses, he is promising to contest the election, disenfranchise voters, and support some of his followers who are advocating violent civil war.

Either way, chaos may be a real possibility. (Of course, we hope and pray for the opposite.)

If chaos does ensue, how will we who sincerely seek to follow Jesus respond?

Prayerfully, we will respond by overcoming. 

But they (Jesus’ apprentices) have conquered him (the satan) by the blood of the Lamb (Jesus)
    and by the word of their testimony,
for they did not cling to life even in the face of death. (Revelation 12:11, NRSVUE)

Conquering by the blood of the Lamb – Jesus conquered death by dying, hatred by loving, and lies with truth. 

Living by the word of our testimony – loving our enemies, turning the other cheek, going the second mile, renouncing retribution, revenge, and all violence, and serving those Jesus described as “the least” of his siblings with self-sacrificial, other-oriented, cruciform love. 

“Not clinging to our lives even in the face of death” – choosing the way of life, love, forgiveness, grace, truth, and justice even if it threatens our lives.

We might get killed. 

Like Jesus. 

Like Paul and Peter. 

Like all the original apostles. 

Like Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Like Martin Luther King, Jr.

Or we might be persecuted. 

Like every Christ-follower in the first three centuries of Christianity. 

Like those who have nonviolently resisted tyranny throughout history. 

Like the Anabaptists. 

Like the German Confessing Church in the Nazi era.

Like Corrie ten Boom. 

Like the civil rights advocates of our recent past.

The Way of the Lord is the way of nonviolent resistance to injustice. It is the way of support for outsiders, the disenfranchised, the marginalized, the demonized, the victims of hatred. The Way of Jesus is delineated in the Sermon on the Mount. It is the way of agapé love.