Monday, September 16, 2013

Who would Jesus bomb?

For some years young people have been wearing bracelets with the letters WWJD printed, embroidered or otherwise etched. It stands for 'What would Jesus do?' and the aim was to encourage them to think before acting, and then to do so in the way Jesus would.

Syria is a really complex situation. Almost a conundrum. What would Jesus do?
I remember 16 years ago visiting the central mosque in Damascus. Having taken our shoes off as we entered the guide showed us the font. The font exists because prior to being a mosque it was a Christian church.

The tallest minaret is the Minaret of Jesus. Islamic belief holds that Jesus will descend from heaven before the Day of Judgement as part of the final battle with the Antichrist.. According to local tradition, he will reach earth via the Minaret of Jesus, hence its name.

One wonders what will Jesus do.
We were also shown the shrine. It was a shrine to Saint George, 'You know Saint George, in the Bible,' our guide explained, 'who killed a dragon.'

For those that know the mosque, you'll realise the shrine is actually to John the Baptist, not Saint George! I find that sort of inaccuracy interesting. Is it a lie, is it incompetence?

What would Jesus do?

It was an interesting tour, seeing the call to prayer sung around a microphone and then amplified to rather tinny speakers at the top of the minaret. We stayed and watched the Muslims prostrating themselves in prayer, before leaving and walking through the central souk and visiting 'Straight Street' where Saint Paul was brought after his blinding experience on the road.

The episode is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles:
4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9 For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.
I'm sure Straight Street doesn't look anything like it did when Saint Paul was led there.

I remember eight years ago, taking a two day mini-cruise with my wife and friends to Syria where we docked at Latakia, which is the centre of the wine growing district of Syria. Yes, you did read that right - although Syria is nominally a Muslim country they do grow grapes and make pretty fair wine from them.

Syria has a very mixed population - there is simultaneously both a religious and ethnic split. Religiously the largest group is Sunni Muslim (60%) and then Alawites (12%) and Christians (10%) and a mixture of other religious groups make up the remainder. President Bashar al-Assad's family is Alawite and Alawites dominate the government and hold key military positions. And that is nominally the start of the conflict, rule by a minority over the majority.

When thinking about the problems and pondering What would Jesus do? a friend of mine posted on Facebook a provocative question Who would Jesus bomb? (You can read some interesting background stuff on Carl Medearis' blog) He's American, and obviously they are one of the protagonists in what has brought the simmering conflict to the forefront of everyone's news. This also coincided with the remembrance of the September 11 attacks, which precipitated George Bush's War on Terror, technically ended by Barack Obama.

At this stage usually figures get banded about: 3,000 killed on 11 September 2001. Also in 2001 a further 15,980 Americans were murdered… by other Americans, of which more than 11,000 were killed with guns. Then it goes on 2,500,000 killed in wars justified by the attack, 110,000 killed in Syria uprising... so we're back to Syria again... and 1,500 killed in Syria by chemical weapons. Suddenly Syria is in the news, even though it's less than half the number killed on 11 September 2001 when two planes hit the World Trade Center.

What would Jesus do? Does Jesus count the numbers of dead and weigh up depending on how many die? When He wept over Jerusalem was He counting the numbers?
...the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation. (Luke 19:43-44)
What would His response be? Would He summon up the heavenly F111s and bomb the attackers? Who would Jesus bomb?

Jesus won the battle with Satan not by power, not by might, but by love. We tend to forget that. And that is what Satan wants us to do. Because in a power conflict, we're back in his game not our Father's.

My final thought comes again from Jesus. His words...
He opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons[a] of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:1-48)

This post is part of a synchroblog (syncronised blog) in which various people write about the same general theme from different points of view, and thus help one to see the bigger picture. Follow the links below to see the other posts. More links may be added later, as more people add their contributions. If you are participating in the synchroblog, please copy the links below and paste them to the end of our own post.
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