If Jesus Is Lord: Loving Our Enemies in an Age of Violence by Ronald J. Sider

Abstract

Reviewed by: If Jesus Is Lord: Loving Our Enemies in an Age of Violence by Ronald J. Sider Ma. Marilou S. Ibita ronald j. sider, If Jesus Is Lord: Loving Our Enemies in an Age of Violence (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2019). Pp. xvi + 240. Paper $24.99. Sider's work has a foreword by Stanley Hauerwas and inviting blurbs from wellknown personalities. It aims "to show in detail" (p. 2) what the NT teaches about pacifism. His central question is, "Does Jesus ever want his disciples to kill in order to resist evil and promote peace and justice? When Jesus commanded his disciples to love their enemies, did he mean that they should never kill them?" (p. 2). The titles of the fourteen chapters of the book give a good description of the contents: "Jesus's Gospel"; "Jesus's Actions"; "Jesus's Teaching in the Sermon on the Mount"; "Other Teachings of Jesus"; "Peace in the Rest of the New Testament"; "But What About …?"; "Foundational Theological Issues"; "Problems with Pacifism"; "Problems with Just War Thinking"; "Jesus and Killing in the Old Testament"; "What If Most (or All) Christians Became Pacifists?"; "Nonviolence and Atonement"; "Christians and Killing in Church History"; and "If Jesus Is Lord." After locating Jesus's gospel in the context of Jewish messianic expectations and describing Jesus's actions that shun violence, S. examines the six antitheses in Matt 5:17-48, finding support from biblical scholars on how these texts support nonviolence. In discussing other teachings of Jesus that reject violence, S. calls attention to NT texts that affirm peace among peoples and on the cosmic level. [End Page 721] In the second half of the book, S. engages biblical texts that seem to resist pacifism, such as passages about the sword, soldiers and military leaders, military symbolism, the cleansing of the temple, wars, capital punishment, dealing with authority, texts that speak of God killing enemies, and the violent texts in Revelation. S. then turns to a theological discussion of biblical pacifism: Jesus's identity and his resurrection, the already/not-yet aspect of the kingdom, the role of the church, and the question of living out biblical non-violence. S. examines how biblical pacifists engage in daring acts of nonviolence to protect their neighbors and casts doubt on the just war theory and its usefulness. In exploring the OT, S. treats texts about killing in relation to the promised land and a range of issues such as adultery, drunkenness, and so on. In the context of some of the psalms (68:22-23; 137:8-9), S. discusses Jesus's relationship with OT texts. One cannot avoid the fact that there are people or groups that inflict violence on others. S. expects that a lot of Christians will suffer and die by being pacifists but that more will embrace Christ. Sider explains the challenges presented by the traditional understanding of atonement, "sins" and "sin," God's wrath, and the multiple, complementary metaphors of the atonement. Turning to church history, S. discusses killing from pre-Constantinian Christianity to the present, highlighting prominent individual pacifists in the last two centuries and explaining the different kinds of pacifism from the 1920s onward. The final chapter, "If Jesus Is Lord," asks, "What did Jesus tell us about killing our enemies?" Here, S. gathers insights from the NT passages that he earlier explored to conclude that Jesus called his followers to love and not to kill their enemies. Sider worked through the passages that underline and challenge biblical pacifism. Nonetheless, I wish that his work included recent interpretations that use empire studies, ritual studies, and trauma hermeneutics. These hermeneutical lenses would have helped to provide a richer understanding, first, of the multiple roles of the examined biblical passages, especially the violent/harsh texts, in other aspects of the life situation of the originating communities of Jews (e.g., Psalm 137), and, second, of the early Jesus followers' changing response to authority as reflected in the NT materials. This response depends on when the materials were written, from accepting authority in Paul, to critical engagement in the Synoptics, and finally to resistance in Revelation. Sensitivity to and critical awareness of potential...