The Peaceful Warrior

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Jesus is known as the Prince of Peace who will rule over a peaceable kingdom. Yet he said, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace, but a sword.” (Matthew 10:34, NIV)

So, I guess Jesus wants a peaceable Kingdom of God; but he recognizes that there will be conflict in establishing that Kingdom. Yvette Shock writes this about Jesus’ double nature:

          Jesus’ last week in Jerusalem is full of confrontation. He enters in a
          way that is purposefully conspicuous, his homespun parade a kind
          of counterprogramming to the imperial show of force in Pilate’s
          procession into town. The next day Jesus disrupts the buying and
          selling and money-changing in the temple and in the days following,
          religious leaders come at him repeatededly trying to discredit him and
          get him into trouble. But all of this confrontation begins with a sign
          of peace: Jesus rides into town on a borrowed donkey, recalling
          Zechariah’s promise of the humble king, riding not a war horse but
          a donkey; the king who would “command peace to the nations.”  
 
          Jesus confronts and disrupts all of the domination systems that harm,
          corrupt, or diminish the wholeness of God’s good creation and all
          of its people…Jesus confronts and disrupts—with a sign of peace.
          (Yvette Schock in Sunday’s Coming of The Christian Century, 3/18/2024)
          https://mailchi.mp/christiancentury/scfree_2024-03-18?e=3188fe17a7
 
~ submitted by Richard Russell