Dimitri, in Dostoyevsky’s novel The Brothers
Karamazov, affirmed that: “If God did not exist,
everything would be permitted”. The widespread
intuition – that God is the moral Governor of the
universe – would then have no meaning. There would
be no final reckoning against human sinfulness and
particularly the actions of despots from Mao Zedong
to Vladimir Putin. Yet even our atheist Prime Minister
implied the contrary in his expressed desire to “smash
the gangs!”
This expression suggests several key points
(1) evil is an objective reality – in this case an aspect of
people trafficking;
(2) most ‘normal’ human beings wish for an ‘avenging
angel’ to compel evildoers to desist and to establish
justice, or even to act in that capacity;
(3) this desire is widely unfulfilled, although in some
cases criminal acts receive due punishment through
the courts. But generally, the judicial process is
fraught with difficulty because, at some level, evil
desires run through all human hearts including
judges and other officers of the law.
(4) We all feel this inability to establish a just society,
which is deeply troubling. It underlies the global
popularity of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels, where
local justice is meted out by a ‘semi-messianic
deliverer’, expressing ‘an American dream’.
Meanwhile, our news bulletins major on a litany of
horror and tragedy, ranging from child abuse to tribal
wars.
Enter: Jesus of Nazareth, the promised “Prince
of Peace”!
What did our Lord have to say? Any interpretation of
Jesus’ sayings must reckon with God’s ‘dual stage’
plan, as revealed in the New Testament. We can
expect some progress ‘already’, since the advent of
Jesus and his “…making peace by the blood of his
cross” (Colossians 1:20). But the ultimate outworking
is ‘not yet’. That awaits the return of Christ in glory,
the general resurrection, the final judgement and
the establishment of God’s kingdom of Shalom, in a
“new heaven and new earth”.
At present, therefore, as Christians, we must live and
work with the tension between ‘already / not yet’. Our
prayer remains: “Thy will be done on earth, as it is in
heaven”. This helps us understand Jesus’ paradoxical
statement in the Gospels:
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace
to the earth. I have not come to bring peace,
but a sword. For I have come to set a man
against his father, and a daughter against
her mother.”
Matthew 10: 34ff. (Luke 12: 49-53).
Jesus sometimes gets his point across by extreme
contrasts: “Whoever loves his father or mother more
than me is not worthy of me”. This is not a mandate
to hate one’s parents, which would contradict the
Fifth Commandment, but to establish the priority of
commitment to Jesus Christ.
Presently, the establishment of peace on earth is
neither instant nor total. The reason is that
transforming justice is also required. This is often
resisted within a family when one member commits
to Christ and abandons incompatible familial
lifestyles and values. In some cultures, such as the
militantly Islamic, persecution can be severe and
eventuate in social ostracism and even martyrdom.
Generally, western societies are nominally tolerant,
and the cost of discipleship may be lessened.
Nevertheless, there remains a cost to Christian
discipleship. This can be experienced even in
historically ‘Christian nations’ and, sadly, for faithful
Christians, even within some Church denominations
– whenever there is departure from Biblical truth and
tolerance of secular ethics.