The Cross as a Symbol of Non-Violence

St. Paul wrote that “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8),”the ungodly” (5:6) who had made ourselves enemies of God according to our sin (5:10) that we might come to repentance (2:4).

Empowered by the love of God in him, Christ allowed himself to be killed because he desired his persecutors to repent and be reconciled to God, which is why he forgave them with his last breath. Christ could have called down legions of angels to defend him, but faced his death without threats of violence, without responding to violence with counter-violence. Instead, through active peacemaking, he proved his innocence and exposed his killers for the villains they were. Thus the cross should be seen as a non-violent act by which God attempts to bring us to repentance by exposing our guilt in the death of the innocent. This is Christian non-violence, and we see it rooted in the very ideas of the incarnation and crucifixion of Jesus. So why aren't more Christians practitioners of non-violence?