“God forbid that we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion… the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants, it is its natural manure”
Thomas Jefferson
Think about what he is saying here, Jefferson calls God’s forbiddance on the prospect of there not being blood shed by patriots against tyrants.
I firmly believe that the tree of liberty is not some ideal that is created in humanity through war between good and evil. Instead the tree of liberty is Jesus Christ himself.
Most of my life I had embraced ideas like this quote from Jefferson as a good and necessary way to react to tyranny. And that liberty and what America stands for, was and can only be brought about by violence against evil men by good men.
But after rethinking, I want to now contrast this with what Jesus Christ said.
“But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil, But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also….If someone wants to take your coat, give him your tunic also.”
Jesus in Matthew 5:39-40
“Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted, blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. 7 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. 8 Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”
the Beatitudes of Jesus Christ in Matthew 5
Jesus taught his followers how to react to tyrants.
Jesus cares about how his followers react to the tyrants in our lives.
The early church, from what I read in the first two to three centuries reacted to tyrants according to how Jesus taught. This resulted in many deaths, many injustices, many martyrs, many human rights abuses. Oppression and torture and widespread murder of Christians. All perpetrated by the tyrannical Roman government itself, led by emperors. Christians were murdered in brutal and unjust ways for centuries.
But Jefferson teaches another way and most of us have embraced Jefferson over Christ. Maybe he learned this way in Europe, maybe he learned it from some other example from the very violent 18th century. Life can be so violent and unfair and exhaustingly evil that good men sometimes just snap and punch back.
But he did not learn that way of thinking from Jesus Christ. He departed from Christ when it came to dealing with England.
If England can be viewed as the 18th century’s version of the Rome of the first century. Then Jefferson was a lot like the disciples who wanted to fight violently fight Rome. Remember even Peter took a sword to the men who came to arrest Jesus. The disciples wanted a militant messiah.
Jefferson taught this militant messiah mentality. However Jefferson’s militant messiah was the common militia of good men, of those he called patriots.
I’m not saying it is never justified to fight evil men militarily. What Hitler was doing necessitated extreme violence to protect millions more from slaughter. At times in history Satan has such a grip on certain powerful men that they reap what they’ve sown. They live by the sword and the sword returns back on themselves. In the Psalms we can see prayers calling for the traps set for the righteous being sprung on the wicked men who’ve set them.
I don’t write this to bad mouth Thomas Jefferson I write this to highlight and contrast the matchless teachings of Jesus Christ to some individuals who we see as impeccable. Jefferson was mistaken, in my opinion. Tyrants can be resisted in other ways and even defeated in mighty ways. Like what the early church did to Rome through love and through being willing to suffer.
Using the pattern of Jesus’ beatitudes and to illustrate my point I will now write what might be the…
Beatitudes of Thomas Jefferson
Jefferson 1:1 Blessed are those who refuse to be impoverished by taxes to England for theirs is the nation of America. 2 Blessed are those who fight and shed blood of tyrants for they shall inherit the land of America. 3 Blessed are the assertive and aggressive for they shall enrich their children. 4 Blessed are they who hunger for liberty for they shall water the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants. 5 Blessed are the warmakers for they shall win their freedom. 6 Cursed are you if you are persecuted by tyrants. Do something about that if you want to inherit America. 7 Cursed are you when men revile you and curse you, fight back and become a Patriot before they do something far worse. Be afraid, be willing to shed blood if you want freedom.
Hypothetical Beatitudes of Thomas Jefferson
One might argue that I am being ridiculous and that Jesus was not talking about offenses on a national scale. And that they were ok to start a war to be independent of England. But I’d argue that Jesus expected his beatitudes to be followed on a national scale. I know this because of how he reacted to the Israeli patriots who wanted to fight back against the brutal and unfair Romans.
To be fair, what Jefferson saw in his day was probably extreme, had I been there I’m sure I may have been fighting along side him. Most people, in their natural fallen state, have a point beyond which they wont tolerate more abuse.
But the Jesus-follower has no such point, unto death we follow our Lord. We don’t kill, we don’t hit back. We take the hits, we absorb the abuse. And we look to Jesus alone for retaliation, for justice and for liberty.
