As I have been reflecting on Jesus as the prototypical anarchist and examining if he had an anarchistic program or not, I have come to three general conclusions. This is a summary of what I have been saying over the past several months in this blog.
The Commonweal of Love
Jesus announced a new age, and a new movement of people, most often referred to by conventional or so-called orthodox Christianity as the New Covenant. I understand this new covenant to be an anarchistic one because it is clearly connected to the teaching of Jeremiah’s prophecy of a new covenant: “But I will make a new covenant …. I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts and minds. I will be their God and they will be my people. People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me. For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me. For I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done” (31:33a,c, 34). This new covenant is marked by three realities: (a) no more need for external law; (b) no more exercising of power over others, and (c), no more subjugation to guilt and shame, but a setting free to become fully human.
It may be stated that Jesus spoke more often about the principles of the Kingdom of God rather than the New Covenant, which would seem to fly in the face of anarchy. Nevertheless, the two are intricately intertwined in Christ and his teaching. The reason Jesus spoke often in monarchical language was not because he wanted to start a violent revolution and place himself as king, but merely because Kingdom was the most commonly used term to describe a society of people in his era. Jesus had no interest in being a king (Mt 4:8-10; Jn 6:15). Jesus, instead, was promoting a new anarchistic society through this new covenant in his blood, which for a while I was calling the un-kingdom of God, but I am now calling the Commonweal of Love.
The reason I am now calling it the Commonweal of Love is twofold. First, Jesus calls us to a new way to love, a new interdependent way of life based on radical love. Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor’ and ‘hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you…” (Mt 6:43-44). This love is a repudiation of all sorts of isms—nationalism, racism, sexism, etc.— and proclaims the reality that God is perfect love (1 Jn 4:8). Second, Jesus calls us to radical community which could be known as a Commonweal in that it calls forth the commonality of all humanity. “[I pray] that they will all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me” (Jn 17:21).
The first Christians understood the movement of the Commonweal of Love in such a deep way that they acted radically in accordance with one of its primary principles: that property did not belong to them, but to all. “The group of those who believed were of one heart and mind, and no one said that any of his possessions was his own, but everything was held in common” (Ac 4:32). Pierre-Joseph Proudhon said that property was a no-thing, and whether it was “widely distributed” or it was “concentrated” it always failed to produce peace and communion (Letter to M. Blanqui on Property, 1840/2011: 141). Thus, the only thing to do with “owned” property was to divest oneself of it, as the first Christians did.
The Repudiation of Power
Jesus’ preaching was prophetic against the religious, social, and political domination systems of his day. When his followers wrongly believed that Jesus was going to seize power and that they would share it with him, Jesus said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions use their authority over them. It must not be this way among you! Instead whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave” (Mt 20:25-27). To the religious elite he publicly confronted them by telling his followers, “Do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy loads, hard to carry, and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing even to lift a finger to move them” (Mt 23:4). Jesus went on to say that they should have no earthly leaders, because God, the Spirit in Christ and in us, is the only leadership we will need. “Do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is, Christ” (Mt 23:10, NASB). Clearly, Jesus’ preaching and actions showed forth the start of new way of being for oneself and in relationship to the world.
Walter Wink writes, “Jesus denounced the Domination System of his day and proclaimed the advent of the reign of God, which would transform every aspect of reality, even the social framework of existence. … it set in motion a permanent revolution against the Power System whose consequences we are still only beginning to grasp today” (2013: 185).
Anarchist scholar Mohammed Bamyeh said, “The basic anarchist conception of evil locates it … in the capacity to exercise excessive power. Evil is the outcome of an excessive concentration of power in a few hands, anywhere” (2009:35). Jesus’ ministry was a clear confrontation of these powers.
The Cross & Resurrection (Confronting the Powers)
Thus, Jesus’ whole ministry of healing, forgiving sins, and preaching social justice and love was his activism, his anarchistic confronting of the religious and political oppressors of his day. The cross and resurrection further enacted his confrontation and victory over the powers of domination.
Elizabeth Johnson in her review of liberation theology notes that, “In one real sense the crucified Jesus is a victim arrested, unjustly tried, executed. But he is far from passive. Far from legitimizing suffering, the cross in a liberation perspective shows victims that God is in powerful solidarity with them in suffering, and opens the possibility of their own engagement, both interiorly and exteriorly, against the forces of oppression. The risen Christ embodies God’s intention on behalf of everyone who is oppressed; in the end, the murderer will not triumph over his victim. … Christ is seen to be in league not with dominating powers who cause so much suffering, but with those who suffer, as the ground of their hope. He is the Lord as the crucified one who liberates. [He becomes] Jesus Christ, Liberator” (1990, 91-92).
What it means to be in Christ is to appropriate a cross and resurrection lifestyle, a confronting of the powers, a willingness to die for yours and others freedom, and to know that you will be resurrected if you chose this life. And as Christ is the resurrected Anarchist liberator, he calls us to fulfill his Great Commission to go and make anarchists of all peoples(Mt 28:18-20).
Jesus the Anarchist calls us to a new spirituality of radical love and communion, a nation-less, but intersubjective and interdependent way of being in the world, thus beginning the implementation of the Commonweal of Love.
© Pablo de la Paz, 2016
References
Scripture quoted by permission. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are takenfrom the NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved.”
Bamyeh, Mohammed A. Anarchy as Order: The History and Future of Civic Humanity. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009. Print.
Johnson, Elizabeth A. Consider Jesus. Waves of Renewal in Christology. New York, NY: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1990. Print.
Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph. Property Is Theft! A Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Anthology. Oakland, CA: AK Press, 1840/2011. Print.
Wink, Walter. Walter Wink: Collected Readings. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2013. Print.
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