Excerpt from Bob Ekblad, Guerrilla Gospel: Reading the Bible for Liberation in the Power of the Spirit,(Burlington: People’s Seminary Press, 2018), p. 1-4, 6.
Following Comandante Jesus
I joke with former gang members involved in Tierra Nueva’s ministry about how Jesus is our comandante, which is Spanish for military or guerrilla commander. He’s the one who calls the shots, instructing soldier disciples in the trenches of warfare to advance the movement as an unprecedented and truly life-giving insurgency, to win over inhabitants, neighborhoods and people groups of the world for the kingdom of God. These friends are used to gang shot-callers or are themselves shot-callers. But they are tired of living in fear, grieving beloved homies killed in drive-by shootings, and spending years of their lives serving long prison sentences. We love that Jesus is an outsider, on the hunt for recruits, eager to go out on missions. We love that he gathers with his confidants in the mountains or in boats, on foot or on the move from town-to-town, stopping along roadsides, visiting people in homes, teaching and healing crowds along the way in fields or synagogues, on beaches or in the wilderness.
Talking like this about Jesus gets us excited. We’ve all seen too many casualties of the fast life of both legal and illegal workaholism, drugs, alcohol, and poverty, gang violence and domestic violence. We’ve had enough of relationship breakdown, children taken by Child Protective Services, incarceration, premature death by suicide, homicide, overdose, and different illnesses.
Many of us know firsthand the life-restoring benefits of Jesus’ saving help and want to see others benefit too. Being part of a movement of true liberation compels us, giving us a new reason to live—and perhaps even something to die for.
The dictionary definition for “guerrilla” works to a certain extent to describe Jesus and his followers, past and present: “a member of a band of irregular soldiers that uses guerrilla warfare, harassing the enemy by surprise raids, sabotaging communication and supply lines.” In Spanish, guerrilla is the diminutive for guerra (war), which includes the notion of small-scale war. Guerrilla warfare is defined as “the use of hit-and-run tactics by small, mobile groups of irregular forces operating in territory controlled by a hostile, regular force.” The ministry of Jesus is all about reaching and empowering ordinary people and usually involves prolonged struggle against formidable powers. It requires flexibility, adaptability, and being on-point around the clock.
Unlike modern guerrilla warfare, Jesus refuses physical violence, coercion, and terror (Mt 26:52; Lk 9:55). But like guerrilla activity, Jesus uses unconventional tactics, travels in small, mobile bands (Mk 9:30), recruits from among the outcasts (Mk 2:15), advocates for the oppressed (Lk 13:16), depends on local collaborators for support (Lk 8:3; Jn 12:1-2), and multiplies his followers and thereby his fighting force (Lk 10:1). There’s a subversive dimension of Jesus’ presence as God infiltrates the human race. God’s strategy is to be born undercover, behind enemy lines, into a family that is both humble and yet has ties to the people’s hero, King David. Jesus, though, takes the revolution to a new level. Jesus’ first thirty years as a carpenter in Nazareth reveal how keen God is about sleeper-cell beginnings as a way to embed his yeast-like realm outside the radar of empire. Once activated at his baptism, Jesus embodies an unprecedented authority that attracts adherents, and the movement multiplies amongst the disenfranchised.
Jesus’ main way of operating is to meet up with people wherever he finds them. He is not a commander who runs things from a safe distance, but an on-the-ground, front-line activist. He often takes the initiative, going after people personally. He sees and calls ordinary people—fishermen (Mt 4:18–22) and tax collectors (Mt 9:9), including the chief tax-collector, Zaccheus, whom he calls down from a tree, and then invites himself to his house for a stay (Lk 19:1–10). Jesus sees a man paralyzed for thirty-eight years among invalids at a sheep gate, asks him if he wants to be well, and then heals him on the spot (Jn 5:2–9). Jesus also attracts adherents from among more privileged sectors: the Pharisee leader, Nicodemus, who is impressed by his signs (Jn 3:1–2); Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward, Chuza who supports Jesus and the disciples financially; (Lk 8:3) a synagogue official who is desperate to see his dying daughter healed (Lk 8:41); a Roman centurion who begs Jesus to heal his slave (Mt 8:5–9). Are you ready to join up?
Other times, Jesus’ encounters are a bit on the fly, unplanned meetings that seem to be interruptions. Blind people and lepers cry to him for mercy from the roadsides, and he stops to heal or cleanse, teaching as he goes (see Lk 18:35–43; Mk 10:46–52; Mt 8:1–3). People also come to Jesus with the need for deliverance (e.g., Mt 8:16, 9:32–33; Mk 5:2–16). In every case, these encounters become opportunities for Jesus to teach, challenge, and offer immediate relief. In one instance, men cut a hole in the roof and lower a paralyzed man down in front of Jesus and some antagonistic religious leaders, and Jesus spontaneously declares to the paralytic, “your sins are forgiven” (Mk 2:2–7). Then Jesus proves his authority by telling the man to “rise, take up your pallet and go home” (Mk 2:8–11). Such actions inspire discussion and sometimes aggression from Jesus’ enemies.
Jesus often uses the language of guerrilla warfare in his instructions to his disciples, and there’s a combativeness to his words and actions throughout the Gospels. “Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you,” Jesus instructs seventy of his fresh recruits (Lk 10:19).
He also proclaims violence against unseen enemies: “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil” (1 Jn 3:8). Since “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one,” Jesus and his disciples must organize a strike force and be adequately equipped for the task (1 Jn 5:18).
Jesus also uses kingdom tactics and an arsenal of weapons that are “not of this world” (Jn 18:36), such as prayer, fasting, forgiveness, love, and the power of God. His armory also includes words, which he and his disciples wield as an integral part of their mission to announce the good news to all of creation (Mk 16:15). Jesus himself says: “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Mt 10:34). This sword is elsewhere called “the sword of the Spirit” and is equated with the Word of God (Eph 6:17) as part of the believers’ arsenal (Eph 6:13-17). Hebrews 4:12 states this clearly: “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword.” Jesus even drives out evil spirits with a word (Mt 8:16).
…The Gospels’ presentations of Jesus’ life and teachings as Israel’s Messiah are preceded by the Old Testament Scriptures, which include material that depicts God in ways that seem out of alignment with Jesus. Accounts of God’s judgment of sinners, laws requiring sacrifice of animals, the separation of unclean from clean people, and graphic depictions of violent conquest of the Canaanites can bring confusion to Bible readers hunting for good news. In the next chapter, we will identify pitfalls to avoid and assumptions to consider for reading the Bible for liberation now. In chapter three we will then consider some possible ways to look at the larger story of Scripture in alignment with the revelation of God in Jesus, before focusing more closely on how he engages in a guerrilla gospel encounter with a Samaritan woman in chapter four.
Bob Ekblad, Guerrilla Gospel: Reading the Bible for Liberation in the Power of the Spirit,(Burlington: People’s Seminary Press, 2018), p. 1-4, 6
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