“Though most religions shun warfare and hold nonviolence as the only moral route toward political change, religion and its language have been co-opted by the violent people who govern societies. If someone were to come along who would not compromise, a rebel who insisted on taking the only moral path, rejecting violence in all of its forms, such a person would seem so menacing that he would have to be killed, and after his death he would be canonized or deified, because a saint is less dangerous than a rebel. This has happened numerous times, but the first prominent example was a Jew named Jesus.”

— Mark Kurlansky. 2006. ‘Nonviolence: Twenty-five lessons from the history of a Dangerous idea’

I just finished this book recently, which I would highly recommend, and was struck by this statement. Rob Bell actually mentioned it in a sermon he preached at Mars Hill about being Peacemakers. I think we miss seeing Jesus in this way, and I found Mark’s words extremely profound and challenging.

The point is that, though most religions teach the danger of violence and lay out a moral path, few if any are willing to follow that path in all of its implications. Jesus was a Moral man, thus a rebel. Isn’t that interesting? We live in a society and a world, and many believe in religions, that esteem values and morals that we choose not to live up too. I’m not just talking about Christians, I think every single one of us, if we are honest with ourselves recognize that we are hypocrites. I think every parent has probably come to a point were they acknowledge they are trying to teach their children values they know are right, but they themselves do not even live up to, even more they choose not to live up to those values at times.
And so Jesus is a radical, he is a rebel. In a society that says one thing and does another, a person who would have the audacity to actually follow through and live out his beliefs must be killed and hidden. Jesus has been hidden, his radical life has been hidden in our deification of him. Regardless of whether you believe Jesus Christ is a deity or not, at the least we need to recognize that his life was far more rebellious then we acknowledge.