The Politics of Jesus by John H. Yoder
"The Politics of Jesus" by John H. Yoder offers a profound examination of the intersection between faith and social justice through a Christian lens. Yoder argues that many Christians mistakenly interpret scripture solely as a means of personal salvation, neglecting the broader social implications of Jesus' teachings. He contends that Jesus's life and crucifixion represent a clear political statement against oppressive systems and that his message is deeply relevant to contemporary societal issues. Central to Yoder's thesis is the idea of nonviolent resistance, which he believes should be the hallmark of Christian engagement with injustice. He emphasizes a communal approach to faith, encouraging Christians to embrace their role as a collective body working towards peace and justice, rather than focusing on individual salvation. Yoder draws from both the Gospels and the Old Testament, illustrating a historical precedent for nonviolent responses to oppression within the Jewish tradition. He challenges readers to reconsider core Christian concepts like justification and discipleship in light of their social responsibilities, advocating for practices rooted in the concept of jubilee—such as debt forgiveness and social equity. Through this lens, Yoder presents a compelling case for a Christianity that actively engages with and transforms societal structures rather than retreating from them.
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The Politics of Jesus by John H. Yoder
First published: 1972
Edition(s) used:The Politics of Jesus: Vicit Agnus Noster. 2d ed. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1994
Genre(s): Nonfiction
Subgenre(s): Biblical studies; exegesis
Core issue(s): Ethics; nonviolent resistance
Overview
John H. Yoder’s major work is an exegetical defense of passivism and a call to social involvement by Christians. He argues that Christians too often read the scriptures only in terms of personal salvation as relief of personal anxiety, when in fact the scriptures demand that Christian disciples understand the collective, social implications of faith in Jesus Christ. Many erroneously conclude that the message of Jesus was irrelevant or that he was disinterested in political situations. Yoder argues to the contrary, that Jesus was specifically political, and that his death by crucifixion demonstrates his renunciation of a dehumanizing political system operative in his day:
[T]he cross is beginning to loom not as a ritually prescribed instrument of propitiation but as the political alternative to both insurrection and quietism.
Yoder’s claims stand in opposition to other political and religious viewpoints, such as liberation theology, Marxist ideology, subjective irrelevance, and Jewish zealotry, all of which have been prominent at various points in history. Yoder argues that nonviolent, social involvement, modeled by Jesus in the New Testament, is the appropriate model for Christians. He initially argues this based on a close reading of the Gospel of Luke, then follows with an examination of Pauline writings. Yoder points out that the most significant temptations of Jesus, as recorded in the New Testament, concern an appeal for him to use violence in response to injustice.
The Christian community is to be a new kind of community. Justification is to be understood in more than personal guilt before God, who grants amnesty on the basis of one’s faith. Rather, justification has to do with breaking down walls that separate segments of a larger society. It has to do with making peace with those who might otherwise be enemies. Yoder reads that to be in Christ is to be part of a community wherein creation is new. He goes beyond an individual reading of one’s existential status before Christ to focus on the collective community ethic that is literally a new creation. Community members practice nonviolence, not as a retreat from the political concerns about them but in a proactive manner and, if need be, in the face of violent opposition. The community is also to recognize that suffering and death have redemptive value for society; real power is realized in the face of evil that is an affront to the stability of society, not merely to individual happiness.
Closely related to the nonviolence advocated and practiced by Jesus, Yoder understands, other ethical concerns naturally follow. The concept of jubilee, an Old Testament event, was preached by Jesus and should be practiced by contemporary Christian communities. Jubilee includes letting the land lie fallow for a year, releasing debt, liberating slaves, and redistributing capital. This is not a utopian vision, he argues, but would in fact have prevented “many bloody revolutions” if the “Christian church had shown herself more respectful than Israel was of the jubilee dispositions contained in the law of Moses.” Essential elements of the message of Jesus—for example, the Lord’s Prayer and the Sermon on the Mount—should be understood as examples of a community called to practice jubilee.
Yoder provides exegesis and examples from the Old Testament to demonstrate that Jews have had a history of nonviolent responses to injustice. This history was understood by Jesus and the community of believers, and it is foundational for recognizing that Jesus was not disinterested in the political and social concerns of his day. To the contrary, his recorded death is evidence of his social and political involvement. His teachings challenged the status quo of his society. Moreover, his nonviolent response to personal threat establishes the primary method for his disciples when they engage injustice within society and when they encounter similar accusations or retribution. Yoder also quotes significant passages from the Old Testament and from nonscriptural Jewish history in which random nonviolent responses to injustice occurred. These examples underscore his point that such methods of resistance were not uncommon in the cultural memory of the contemporaries of Jesus. Jesus expected this type of response from believers based on their a priori understanding. Since the time of Jesus, however, the Christian church has too often ignored this foundational position.
Rather than resisting political regimes by force, Christians are to be subject to the governmental powers on earth. Yoder argues that personal responses, even by passivists, miss the point of this biblical injunction. He claims that the biblical passages in Romans 13 and Matthew 5-7 are not in contradiction; both passages “instruct Christians to be nonresistant in all their relationships, including the social.” Both passages call Christians to renounce vengeance and
to respect and be subject to the historical process in which the sword continues to be wielded and to bring about a kind of order under fire, but not to perceive in the wielding of the sword their own reconciling ministry.
Christian Themes
Yoder addresses Christian themes common in both Protestant and Catholic theology as expressed in varying degrees throughout history. Perhaps the key distinction of Yoder’s work, however, is his corporate, rather than a personal, reading of those themes. Instead of focusing on the Jesus story’s implications for individuals, for Yoder, all of the New Testament ideas coalesce into a messsage of social responsibility that is to be implemented, rather than ignored. He reads the traditional biblical concepts of justification, the Kingdom of God, discipleship, grace, and faith in light of the active, collective social and political involvement exemplified in the life of Jesus. Principally, this life is a life of nonviolent resistance. It is a call to the cross, by which Yoder seems to mean that Christians must be prepared literally to suffer at the hands of those who would inflict injustice. A collective, nonviolent response to injustice, however, not only demonstrates the methodology of Jesus; practically, it should also have an efficacious result. If collectively practiced by Christians, rather than ignored or misinterpreted, such nonviolent responses could render defenseless the motives of the oppressor. In the meantime, such a response bears witness to the action to which Christians are truly called.
Yoder’s exegesis takes seriously the problem of social unrest, and his writing underscores the fact that Christianity is not an easy religion. The fact of punishment, even death, as a result of resisting unjust powers within a given society, however, is not reason to ignore the biblical teachings and human example of Christ.
Sources for Further Study
Carter, Craig A. The Politics of the Cross: The Theology and Social Ethics of John Howard Yoder. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Brazos Press, 2001. According to one reviewer, “first systematic survey of Yoder’s work” and the first place to turn for elucidation of Yoder’s The Politics of Jesus.
Hauerwas, Stanley, ed. The Wisdom of the Cross: Essays in Honor of John Howard Yoder. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1999. The essays address questions surrounding nonviolence, biblical interpretation, method or antimethod, ecclesiology, and other aspects of Yoder’s thought, attesting the diversity of his theological concerns. Bibliographical references.
Hughes, Richard T., ed. The Primitive Church in the Modern World. Urbana: Illinois University Press, 1995. A collection of essays originally presented at Pepperdine University in 1991. Includes an essay by Yoder. Contains an index and bibliographical references.
Niebuhr, Richard H. Christ and Culture. New York: Harper & Row, 1951. A classic study that offers five positions that Christian communities have historically held in relation to faith and society.
Rouner, Leroy S., ed. Foundations of Ethics. Notre Dame, Ind.: Notre Dame University Press, 1983. Part of the Boston University series on the study of philosophy and religion, this collection contains an essay by Yoder. Index, bibliographic references.
Whitmore, Todd, ed. Ethics in the Nuclear Age: Strategy, Religious Studies, and the Churches. Dallas, Tex.: Southern Methodist University Press, 1989. A collection of essays from the Colloquium on Religion and World Affairs, held at the University of Chicago. The volume includes an essay by Yoder.