As a pacifist, if you could end cancer or stop the next Hitler and save millions just by killing an innocent person, would you do it? These ridiculous scenarios are often posed to Anabaptists, seeking the knife’s edge that would cut through our nonviolent convictions. Melissa Florer-Bixler points out this week that all four gospels share a story with a similar scenario. To save Jesus from Judas and the mob coming to arrest and crucify him, all that needed to happen was a disciple to cause the death or mutilation of a young slave of the high priest. Jesus, who apart from the sword-wielding disciple could have called down the hosts of heaven upon his enemies, chose instead to heal and protect this lowest of the low in Roman society, end the violence, and surrender himself to a painful death. Join Melissa as they discuss how pacifism is the embodiment of Christ’s example of tipping the scales away from the important and powerful to the least among us, even if it costs us everything. We must live as sheep among wolves to build the kingdom of God.
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