Campolo asked an army colonel, Do you think Jesus would drop a bomb? Of course he wouldn’t. Campolo – so why should Christians? OT laws limit retribution; NT goes further. Jesus has a “new” law of love, even for enemies. Non-violent resistance of Gandhi. How it worked against Nazis in Denmark.
Matt 25:40 – we meet Jesus in the person of every one we meet. War and capital punishment become wrong.
Story of monk [Telemachus] given [see #3078], who went to Rome, was appalled at gladiators in coliseum, stepped down among them and shouted, “In the name of God, stop!” They ran him through, then were horrified. One by one the spectators left, and gladiator fights ended. Our age needs the same command – “In the name of God, stop!” [used by Jimmy Hull on September 23, 1990]
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Version in Leadership, Fall 1983, “Courage,” Randy Roth, Portland, Oregon:
President Reagan recently retold the story of Telemachus, the fourth-century Christian whose boldness has been recounted in Charles Colson’s “Loving God.”
The Asian hermit lived in a remote village, tending his garden and spending much of his time in prayer. One day he thought he heard the voice of God telling him to go to Rome, so he obeyed, setting out on foot. Weary weeks later, he arrived in the city at the time of a great festival. The little monk followed the crowd surging down the streets into the Coliseum. He saw the gladiators stand before the emperor and say, “We who are about to die salute you.” Then he realized these men were going to fight to the death for the entertainment of the crowd. He cried out, “In the name of Christ, stop!”
As the games began, he pushed his way through the crowd, climbed over the wall, and dropped to the floor of the arena. When the crowd saw this tiny figure rushing to the gladiators saying, “In the name of Christ, stop!” they thought it was part of the show and began laughing.
When they realized it wasn’t, the laughter turned to anger. As he was pleading with the gladiators to stop, one of them plunged a sword into his body. He fell to the sand. As he was dying, his last words were, “In the name of Christ, stop!”
Then a strange thing happened. The gladiators stood looking at the tiny figure lying there. A hush fell over the Coliseum. Way up in the upper rows, a man stood and made his way to the exit. Other began to follow. In dead silence, everyone left the Coliseum.
The year was A.D. 391, and that was the last battle to the death between gladiators in the Roman Coliseum. Never again in the great stadium did men kill each other for the entertainment of the crowd, all because of one tiny voice – one life – that spoke the truth in God’s name.
[see also Charles Swindoll, “Living on the Ragged Edge,” pp. 109-110.]
[see also #3078]