aggressive faith

In re-reading the New Testament texts, and now, specifically, the book of John, my eyes are searching for the gospel of peace. One thing strikes me as I read--that it takes aggressive faith to imitate the gentle, peaceful attitude and actions of Jesus Christ. At his words, Jesus was faced with a brutally violent verbal resistance: "he is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?" ( John 10:20). "This man is not from God" (John 9:16). "We know this man is a sinner" (John 9:24). "Your testimony is not valid (John 8:13). "Now we know that you are demon-possessed" (John 8:52). It takes an aggressive faith to stand up under words like this--an even stronger faith to stand up under them when they come from religious leaders, and an indescribable faith to stand up under them in peace, without lashing back, which is just what Jesus did.

Better yet, oftentimes, these words were spoken after Jesus had acted in tender compassion to someone. Look at the context for John 9:16. Jesus had just healed a man who was blind, setting him free from an affliction that plagued him from birth. The Pharisees were not impressed. Instead, they criticized him, saying "this man is not from God."

Look again to John, chapter five, where Jesus heals an invalid who laid at the waters edge to be healed, but who had not been able to get into the healing waters to receive his healing. What does Jesus do? He heals him. What do the Jewish leaders do? They begin to persecute him because he healed the man on the Sabbath.

And again--look at what happens when Jesus, out of his compassion, raises Lazarus from the dead: "so from that day on, they plotted to take his life" (John 11:53).

I could go on, reciting stories where Jesus acted in compassion, reached out to heal or accept those no one else would. But better, not just to have the faith to heal these people, but to stand up against the pressure of the violence in their--the leader's--words. It takes aggressive faith to stand up to that kind of pressure--it took aggressive faith to create "shalom" for these people.


And how does Jesus exhibit this aggressive faith, this fierce stance for truth, for the word of God? He exhibits it with the utmost careful, beautiful, tenderness to those who will recieve his love. I love to read the passage of the woman at the well, who, being a Samaritan and a woman of five husbands, would have (at best) been ignored or disdained by other Jewish men. But Jesus, sweet, tender, lovely Jesus talks with her, even to reveal his identity as the Messiah to her, gives to her, even she--a half-breed, an adultress--the chance to drink the water that will "become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (John 4:14).



And I see his tenderness, even in the moment he is about to be stoned at the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem (John 10:22-42). Even to the last moment that he is able, he speaks truth to them, that they too might believe on him and be saved. "Do not believe me unless I do the works of my father, but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father" (John 10:37-38). I can imagine the earnestness in his voice as he tried to reason with them, setting himself aside, to reason with them from where they were ("even though you do not believe me") with proof that their mentality might accept (the works). Even to the very last moment, Jesus is not seen fighting back, is not seen protecting himself, but speaking truth to the last moment--planting that seed that they might be saved. That's an aggressively tender faith!


Oh! What kind of strength is this? To proclaim the good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, to set the captives free--and to do this in the face of great opposition? To do this in the face of great danger--even to his last moment on the cross when he promised to receive the thief into heaven--what kind of strength is this?!!