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.