Vineri 
(Through the image of new wine which destroys the old wine skins Jesus indicated that he realized that he advocated a way of thinking which was incompatible with the popular thinking of his time. Probably one of the most striking examples is Matthew 5:39: “But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also.” Surprisingly, this statement has become very much loved by Christianity haters and is probably the only thing in Christianity that non-Christians really like; not for themselves, but for Christians. There are those who love to pile abuses on Christians and then turn around and add with a grin: “Don’t you love me? Your Jesus is going to spank you!” Even Christian spiritual leaders tell wives which are abused by their husbands to submit to the abuses because that’s that Jesus said.
The ability to strike has always been cherished but never in history has it been revered as it is today. As it is well known, life is no longer understood today as having been created by God but evolved slowly through a natural process through the so called “survival of the fittest.” The “fitness” to survive translates into the “fitness” to strike in the sense that the one which is able to strike harder is able to kill the other one and therefore “survive.” According to the evolutionist “theology,” humans are the last and the most successful species because have developed their abilities to kill and survive beyond all other animals. This is supposed to be “scientific” thinking because is supposed to be based on “facts.” Whether the “facts” prove that animals which are best equipped to kill are best equipped to survive as well I have discussed in another article, but there are some “facts” about us humans which Darwin and his worshipers have never cared to notice: humans are completely unequipped to strike or to fight. Humans do not have big teeth or fangs, tusks, horns, claws, spikes, venom, big muscles, or any harming organism. Moreover, they are not equipped with any protective gear: shells, thick skin, scales, etc. They do not have a very keen eyesight, or keen sense of smell, great speed, and so on. While most animals are able to run sometimes within minutes from birth, it takes almost two years for human babies to be able to stagger on their feet. If humans “evolved” by perfecting all the fighting skills developed by all other animals, they must have done so by losing them altogether.
When Jesus advised his followers to “turn the other cheek” when someone else is turning to physical abuse, he did it not in order to endorse the use of force by non Christians and to ask the Christians to welcome the abuses done against them, but in order to reject the use of force in human relationship altogether. Turning the other cheek when someone is hitting with the fist is the opposite of responding with another fist. When humans resort to fists they lower themselves to the level of animals and those who respond with the fist are actually accepting to settle disputes the way the animals do and as a result lower themselves to the level of animals as well. The reason Jesus asked his followers to refuse to respond to force with force is because, unlike animals, humans have a much better way of settling disputes: words or language. In other words, humans have the option to justify whatever they say or do with words and not with fists. Because humans have been endowed by God with rationality or the ability to reason (which Darwin and “scientists” never discuss or even mention) they can use language to explain and justify what is true, right, and good so that anyone can see who is right and who is wrong. The one who strikes a Christian on the cheek with the fist first, does so because the kind of thinking which Jesus taught could not be rejected or proved wrong with any arguments and as a result the only “weapon” left to those who hate it is force. Significantly, the gospels emphatically point out that Jesus was able to answer all the questions which the religious leaders of his time asked him while they always remained speechless when Jesus asked them questions about what they believed and taught others. Similarly, every time they remained speechless, they responded by making a plan how to arrest Jesus and kill him. Eventually, as we know, they did arrest him and one of the difficulties they faced before putting him on the cross was to find a charge in order to justify the murder. A court is a place where everything must be proved and defended exclusively with words or arguments and where force is emphatically forbidden. As the gospels again emphasize, the religious leaders could not find anyone able to testify that anything that Jesus had said could be used against him. Unable to find people to justify why Jesus was arrested, the high priest eventually turned to Jesus to explain what in what he had said was offensive, to which Jesus replied: “Why do you ask me? Ask those who heard what I said to them; they know what I said.” Frustrated that nothing could be said against Jesus, eventually the fist went into actions: “When he had said this, one of the police standing nearby struck Jesus on the face, saying, ‘Is that how you answer the high priest?’ Jesus answered, ‘If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong. But if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?’” (John 18:21-23). In other words, if I have said something wrong, prove me wrong with words and not with the fist. Even with his hands and fists tied, Jesus kept answering questions which others could not answer and asking questions to which his opponents remain silent. They were masters of the fist while Jesus remained master of the word.
Ironically, in spite of Jesus’ teaching, the “Christian” West has developed means of killing beyond anything that has ever been imagined, with the atomic weapons developed and used fist by the most “Christian” country (I hope I do not need to name it). Eventually other countries which have been hostile to Christianity have developed them or are in the process of developing such weapons of mass destruction. Even more ironically, the countries most vocal against others developing weapons of mass destruction are the very ones which have never enough of them. According to the thinking of modern Christianity Jesus taught: “Make sure you can strike others as much as you like and they can never strike back.” Jesus’ old wine needs to break the wine skins of the modern thinking before it blows the whole world into pieces.
Aurel Ionica - Majesty.ro
