John Howard Yoder and the Way of Jesus

1. Jesus renounced violence and coercive power.
2. Jesus' example is normatively binding upon the Christian community.
3. Following Jesus is a political, constructive act, not a withdrawal from politics.

The believer's cross is no longer any and every kind of suffering, sickness, or tension, the bearing of which is demanded. The believer's cross must be, like his Lord's, the price of his social nonconformity. It is not, like sickness or catastrophe, an inexplicable, unpredictable suffering; it is the end of a path freely chosen after counting the cost. It is not. . . an inward wrestling of the sensitive soul with self and sin; it is the social reality of representing in an unwilling world the Order to come. (Politics of Jesus, 97; cf. 132)

 Active use/pursuit of coercive power

Non-use/pursuit
of coercive power

 Direct challenge to the status quo

Violent rebellion
(seeks to overthrow the establishment)

  • Zealots
  • Sicarii

Non-violent resistance
(confronts injustice and disarms through servanthood and forgiveness)

  • Jesus
  • certain mass uprisings against Pilate & Caligula*

No direct challenge to the status quo

 Conservatism
(seeks to preserve the establishment)

  • High Priest
  • Sadducees
  • Herodians

Retreat/Quietism
(abandons society and its structures)

  • Qumran (?)

* Non-violent challenges to abusive structures and injustice among Jews in Roman Judea.

How did Jesus relate to political power and social structures?
What kind of community did he establish?
Is the Gospel fundamentally political? In what sense?

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What might this look like? What alternative(s) tempted Jesus?