Introduction

When we see violence, evil, and injustice in the world, we might wonder what it would take to set things right. For example, what did justice look like after World War II? What the Nazis had done seemed like evil on a whole new scale:They didn’t just invade other countries to conquer new territory; they aimed to enslave or eradicate the people in those countries they considered racially inferior. When the full extent of Nazi atrocities was exposed, the world’s conscience was shocked. The wheels of justice started to turn quickly. Germany surrendered in May 1945, and by November, the Allies put the surviving Nazi leaders on trial. After the trial ended about, many top Germans were sentenced to death and promptly hanged. But even though punishing the perpetrators might have felt satisfying at the time, killing them did not erase the horrors of years of war and genocide.

What stands out to me about the end of World War II is how the Western Powers treated the nations they defeated with grace. They helped countries like Austria, Germany, and Italy rebuild out of the ruins. Rebuilding Europe wasn’t just an act of kindness. It also matched what Americans saw as their own interests. They believed leaving the continent in ruins could leave Western Europe vulnerable to communist expansion. But even if it was self-interest, it also turned out to be the right thing to do, reflecting God’s kingdom, where Jesus tells us to do for others what we would want them to do for us. I believe this act of mercy did more to bring peace and justice than executing Nazi war criminals.

When the world feels unfair and unjust, the answer isn’t to use violence or seek power. Instead, the answer is to live out the Kingdom of God, which unleashes God’s power to restore and heal.

I. Violent Zeal

In Israel’s scripture, there are two different people—Phinehas and Matthias—described as leaders who were so overcome with zeal for God’s law that they used deadly violence against others, and it is implied that God approved. For many in Jesus’ day, these two incidents served as a model for the salvation they expected to receive from God. They thought God’s deliverance would come through the violence of a Messianic king, cut from the same cloth as Phinehas and Matthias.

A. Phinehas

The first of these incidents happened during Israel’s wilderness wandering, The Israelites were lulled into idolatry by both the Moabites and Midianites. The allure of cultic prostitution allowed Moabite women to seduce some of the leaders of Israel to join them in idolatry. In response, the Lord unleashed a plague to punish the people, which killed 24,000 Israelites.

As Moses and Israel’s leaders were discussing how to respond to the people’s failure, an Israelite clan leader, Zimri son of Salu, was seen taking a Moabite woman into his tent. When Aaron’s grandson, Phinehas, saw this happen, he grabbed his spear, went into the tent and skewered both Zimri and his foreign paramour. The text suggests that the Lord approves of this violence:

¹⁰ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹¹ “Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the Israelites by manifesting such zeal among them on my behalf that in my jealousy I did not consume the Israelites. ¹²Therefore say, ‘I hereby grant him my covenant of peace. ¹³ It shall be for him and for his descendants after him a covenant of perpetual priesthood, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites.’ ” (Numbers 25:10–13, NRSVue)

What would normally be seen as outright murder is given approval here because Phinehas acted out of zeal for God. The text even portrays Phinehas as the people’s saviour.

B. Matthias

The second incident happened during the period of time between the Old and New Testament. Protestant Bibles have a 400-year gap, but Roman Catholic Bibles include some of the writings from this time, including the books of Maccabees. These books recount the Jews’ rebellion against the pagan king Antiochus Epiphanes, and the aftermath of that rebellion.

Antiochus demanded his Jewish subjects offer sacrifices to the Greek God Zeus, killing those who resisted. Royal officials, travelled from town to town to oversee the apostasy. And when they came to the town of Modein, they asked a high-ranking priest, Matthias, to lead the people in sacrifice to Zeus, offering him wealth and honour if he would take the lead.

This text is not part of our Bible, but it was a well-known story in Jesus’ day that shaped people’s expectations:

¹⁹ But Mattathias answered and said in a loud voice: “Even if all the nations that live under the rule of the king obey him and have chosen to obey his commandments, every one of them abandoning the religion of their ancestors, ²⁰ I and my sons and my brothers will continue to live by the covenant of our ancestors. ²¹ Far be it from us to desert the law and the ordinances. ²² We will not obey the king’s words by turning aside from our religion to the right hand or to the left.” 

²³ When he had finished speaking these words, a Jew came forward in the sight of all to offer sacrifice on the altar in Modein, according to the king’s command. ²⁴When Mattathias saw it, he burned with zeal, and his heart was stirred. He gave vent to righteous anger; he ran and slaughtered him on the altar. ²⁵ At the same time he killed the king’s officer who was forcing them to sacrifice, and he tore down the altar. ²⁶ Thus he burned with zeal for the law, just as Phinehas did against Zimri son of Salu (1 Maccabees 2:19–26, NRSVue).

So Matthias killed two people out of zeal for the law, and the text presents this as something good.

C. Reading Old Testament Violent Texts In Light of Jesus

If ancient Jewish texts suggest that God approved of violence motivated by religious zeal, how do we make sense of that alongside Jesus’ command to love our enemies? It’s a complex issue, and I can’t explore it in detail, but I’ll share a few ways people have tried to resolve this tension.

i. Dispensationalism

One way people explain this is by saying that the way God’s relates to people changes at different points (The technical word for this is dispensationalism). For example, in the Old Testament, forgiveness came through sacrifices, but now, in the church age, it comes through faith. Those who hold this view believe God once allowed violence, but since the church began, it’s no longer acceptable. So, while it may have been okay for Phinehas to act out of zeal back then, it isn’t anymore because Jesus commands us to love our enemies.

ii. Redemptive Movement

Another explanation is called Redemptive Movement. This idea says that God’s laws were meant to guide people living in a harsh culture toward his ultimate goal. The laws didn’t express God’s highest desire for Israel, but moved them incrementally closer to the goal, which would only be fully expressed in Jesus. While other cultures allowed violence in many situations, God allowed it in fewer cases. Because Phinehas and Matthias were trying to stop idolatry, God permitted their actions, even if they didn’t fully reflect what God really wanted.

iii. Misunderstanding

A third way to look at this is to say that God is committed to working with his fallen people, even when they badly misrepresent who he is and misunderstand what he wants. The writers of these texts may have assumed God would be pleased by violent zeal, and God didn’t correct them because they weren’t ready for that correction. So, while the violence saddened God, he still chose to work with violent people who were trying to follow him, even if they made mistakes in his name.

II. John the Baptist and Messianic Hope

No matter how we try to make sense of the Old Testament’s approval of religious violence alongside Jesus’ command to love our enemies, one thing is clear: when Jesus arrived, people’s hopes for the Messiah didn’t match his vision for how the kingdom would come.

After centuries under foreign rule, many Jews believed that only violence from God and his faithful people could bring justice. This belief was so widespread that even John the Baptist seems to believe it. When speaking about the Messiah coming after him, John says:

¹¹ “I baptize you with water for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is more powerful than I, and I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹² His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire”(Matthew 3:11–12, NRSVue).

If you read John’s words simply, it sounds like he expects the Messiah to use violence. After Easter, Christians would later interpret John’s comments in a spiritual way, but at the time, John and his listeners seemed to think the Messiah would be violent.

This misunderstanding is the source of John’s confusion about Jesus. When John baptized Jesus, the Spirit descended on him like a dove, and the voice of the Father said, “This is my Son.” So John has received confirmation that Jesus was the Messiah. But after John was arrested and Jesus began his ministry, the reports that came back to John perplexed him. Why wasn’t Jesus raising an army to oppose Rome? Why wasn’t he punishing the unfaithful among the Jews?

He sent some of his disciples to Jesus for clarification:

² When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples ³ and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” ⁴ Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: ⁵ the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with a skin disease are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. ⁶And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me” (Matthew 11:2–6, NRSVue).

Jesus’ ministry of miracles and healings was good, but to John, it seemed like a distraction from what he thought the Messiah should really be doing: setting Israel free from the rule of the wicked.

Jesus responds by challenging John’s assumptions and showing that his ministry actually fulfills God’s promises, His answer to John points to several passages in Isaiah”

• Isaiah 35:5–6 “5 And when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind and unplug the ears of the deaf. 6 The lame will leap like a deer, and those who cannot speak will sing for joy!
• Isaiah 61:1 “1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

Even John, who was a prophet, didn’t fully understand what Jesus was doing. John was a product of his own time culture, and he was influenced by the ideas in the air. If John could make that mistake, so could we. Our vision of God’s justice might be more influenced by our cultural assumptions than by Jesus’ words. We see this when Christians feel they need to seek power to faithfully follow God.

III. Playing the Wrong Game

A. The Temptation to Fight Fire with Fire

The problem is that when we suffer because of others, it’s easy to think things will get better if we use their own power against them. Rome’s strength came from its ability to use violence against anyone who resisted. In that situation, people believed that defeating Rome required even greater power. Since Rome had the biggest army, they thought they needed God to fight for them. But there’s a contradiction here: we hope God will bring peace through war, but war only leads to more war, not peace.

It’s not just violence; it’s also power (which ultimately rests on the threat of violence). People want to gain power and use it to correct what they see as wrong. Populism, at its core, is the belief that those with power—however you define them—have used it for their own benefit and hurt the rest of us. The idea is that if we can get more power than the current elites, we can fix what’s wrong. But something changes when those without power finally gain it. Even people with good intentions often end up serving themselves once they have power. The result isn’t justice—it’s just a new kind of oppression.

Jesus shows us that the life we hope for doesn’t come from being stronger or more powerful than those who oppose us. Instead, it comes to communities that give up the need to dominate and choose to love and serve others. Jesus brought God’s kingdom to Israel not by killing Pilate or defeating the Roman army. Instead, he said God’s kingdom was arriving as he brought healing and grace to the poor and vulnerable. It was most clearly expressed when he laid down his life for us on the cross.

B. Fighting Injustice with Love

Jesus demonstrates what it looks like to reject the games of this world and pursue an alternative vision for how God’s kingdom comes. We don’t overpower evil by force, but by embodying the kind of self-giving love that Jesus modelled for us. The Apostle Paul explains what this looks like practically in Romans 12:

⁹ Let love be genuine; hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good; ¹⁰ love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. ¹¹ Do not lag in zeal; be ardent in spirit; serve the Lord. ¹² Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; persevere in prayer. ¹³ Contribute to the needs of the saints; pursue hospitality to strangers. 

¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. ¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another; do not be arrogant, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. ¹⁷ Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. ¹⁸ If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. ¹⁹ Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” ²⁰ Instead, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink, for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” ²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:9–21, NRSVue).

Notice how Paul talks about zeal here. Zeal isn’t about doing wrong things and excusing them because they’re done for God. That kind of zeal once led Paul to persecute the church. But after meeting the risen Jesus, his zeal changed direction. For Paul, zeal isn’t shown through violence, which God forbids, but through love, which God commands.

We may not be able to do miracles as Jesus did, but we should exercise the power we have in a way that matches Jesus’ example. That means showing mercy, love, hospitality, and humility in our daily lives. We shouldn’t try to dominate others, even those who have tried to dominate us. Instead of putting ourselves above those with less power or status, we can lift them up by welcoming them as equals. We shouldn’t shut ourselves off from others’ pain, but open our hearts and share in their struggles. And when others have good fortune, we shouldn’t resent it, but celebrate with them. Paul sums it up by saying we must overcome evil with good. We don’t try to beat Rome at its own game. Instead, we choose to live by a different set of rules and a different kind of wisdom.

Some people think this approach is naïve. They might say your goals are laudable, but that’s not how the world works. In a way, they’re right. In this world, people seek power or use violence to protect themselves. But when we do what’s right and good in obedience to God, he can take what looks like a losing strategy and make it succeed.

But when I say God makes it succeed, I don’t mean he will make us victorious in the way the world defines victory. Jesus was victorious, but he won by letting Rome humiliate and execute him. Normally, that would be a defeat, but God turned Jesus’ death into victory by raising him from the dead.

Jesus’ victory is a model for our own. If you welcome strangers, forgive your enemies, and give up power, you might get hurt or taken advantage of. When Jesus lived this way, they crucified him. But just as God brought victory from Jesus’ defeat, he can do the same for us.

When we follow Jesus, our lives show the world that God’s way is different. This is illustrated in John’s vision of the heavenly throne room in Revelation: John sees a lamb that looks like it has been slain, sitting on the throne with God. This is John’s way of saying that Jesus’ death—what looked like his defeat—is why he now reigns. When speaking of the victory of God’s people, John points out that their victory rests on Jesus’ victory, but that their actions reflect Jesus’ victory too.

¹¹ But they have conquered him [the accuser] by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony,
for they did not cling to life even in the face of death (Revelation 12:11, NRSVue).

Their testimony wasn’t just words—it was shown in their actions. They gave their lives just as Jesus gave his. We show we truly believe that Jesus is Lord when we lay down our power and authority as he did. Then, we reflect the glory of Jesus’ victory to the world.

Conclusion

So how does justice come in a broken world? Like the Jews in Jesus’ time, we might look for an enemy to defeat. Using violence and domination may be seen as distasteful, but necessary tools to build a more just world. That’s what we tell ourselves. But Jesus offers us another way.

Jesus doesn’t win by using violence or taking power for himself; Instead, he gives himself away. He feeds the hungry, heals the sick, and stands up for those who are powerless or excluded. And for this, he was killed. That might seem like proof that Jesus’ way was just naïve optimism, except that God raised him from the dead. What looked like defeat was actually victory. Rome used its greatest power—the power of death—against Jesus, but death couldn’t hold him. In the end, Jesus exposed Rome’s weakness and revealed God’s true power and love.

In Revelation, John shows how our victory is meant to look like Jesus’ victory. This means we don’t win just by believing in our minds that Jesus won. We win by learning to live by the unusual logic of his victory. Instead of seeking power, we choose love; We forgive those who have wronged us; We work to bring reconciliation to those who are estranged; We value people who have been dehumanized or exploited; and we climb down the ladder of status and success to help those further down it.

It might look naïve or like we’re losing. We may wonder if we’re making any difference. But the resurrection shows that God can turn what looks like defeat into victory. We don’t have to win by the world’s rules for God to accomplish his purposes. We can live by a different set of rules—Jesus’ rules— and when we do, our lives become a testimony to his resurrection.

We don’t just talk about Jesus’ reign; we show it by changing our lives to look like his. If the world says, “Overcome evil with greater power,” Jesus says, “Overcome evil with good.” If the world says, “Protect yourself by controlling others,” Jesus says, “Lay down your life.” The kingdom doesn’t come when we get all the power; It comes when ordinary people live out the extraordinary love of Jesus, trusting God to bring victory even when it looks like we’re losing. We trust that when we follow God’s way of love, even if it seems like defeat, God will have the final word.