Remembering Jesus Amid Drumbeats of War

A Public Witness

by

This week has brought alarming news of a possible escalation of violent hostilities between Israel and Lebanon. For the last 11 months, it’s felt like the two nations are about to start another war. Hezbollah, a paramilitary group and political party in Lebanon, launched rockets at Israel on Oct. 8 as Israel started airstrikes on Gaza after Hamas terrorists attacked Israel and killed more than 1,100 people. Israel responded to Hezbollah with attacks in Lebanon.

During the 11 months since, rockets and artillery shells have frequently crossed the border. At least 137 civilians have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli strikes, and at least 25 civilians have been killed in Israel by Hezbollah attacks. An Oct. 13 attack by an Israeli tank targeted a group of journalists on the other side of the border in violation of international law, killing a Reuters photojournalist and wounding six others. Additionally, nearly 200,000 people from southern Lebanon and northern Israel have been displaced from their homes amid the violence.

There have been periods of increased violence over the past several months that threatened to shift the conflict to an outright war. This week has been one of those moments. On Tuesday (Sept. 17), Israeli forces detonated secret explosives inside thousands of pagers brought into Lebanon five months ago. The blasts killed at least 12 people — including two children — and wounded more than 2,800 others. More blasts occurred on Wednesday inside handheld walkie-talkies, killing at least 20 people and injuring more than 450 others. Because of fears that Israeli forces would track their cellphones, Hezbollah members have been using pagers and walkie-talkies to communicate. The blasts raise concerns about how Hezbollah will retaliate and if Israel is planning a larger military operation.

Literally caught in the crossfire is a historic Christian population. Christians in northern Israel and southern Lebanon are among those impacted by the last 11 months of conflict and displacement. Over 40% of Lebanon’s population is Christian, a number more than double any other Middle Eastern nation except for the island of Cyprus (which is almost all Christian).

Thimar, a Lebanese Baptist group that oversees several ministries, issued a statement and call to prayer Wednesday after the pager and walkie-talkie attacks. They mentioned immediate consequences disrupting life, like the closures of roads, schools, and public institutions. There’s also “the intangible dread, uncertainty, and anticipation of the next attack.”

“Psychological warfare has become as real as the tangible components of bombs and bullets,” Thimar added. “While there have been several notable flare ups in this conflict that appeared to bring it to the edge of a larger war, this time seems different.”

The leaders of Thimar understand what war could mean. They’ve lived through it before. A deadly Lebanese civil war from 1976-1990 brought violence to their churches, ministries, and neighborhoods. Israeli forces occupied parts of southern Lebanon from 1985-2000 while Syrian forces occupied much of eastern Lebanon from 1976-2005. Hezbollah was created as a response to the Israeli invasion in the early 1980s. Today, the group controls large swaths of Lebanon as a sort of state within a state.

When I visited Lebanon last September, I saw evidence of the civil war on some buildings as we drove through Beirut. But I also saw God’s people at work through the ministries of Thimar in this land with a rich biblical history. And I saw an image of Jesus that still haunts me. So as we hear more drumbeats of war this week, I’m sharing in this issue of A Public Witness a short reflection I wrote last year for a publication of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America (where I serve on the board of directors).

In Lebanon, Lessons from Jesus’s Broken Body

I keep thinking about a mural of Jesus in the oldest church in Beirut, Lebanon.

I visited Saint George Greek Orthodox Cathedral at the end of September 2023 during a week in the nation to see the transformative work of Lebanese Baptists in peacemaking, caring for refugees, education, and more. One evening we visited the ancient Orthodox church. In the sanctuary, Jesus stood with his arms tied as he’s judged on the night before his execution. It’s a fairly standard painting, except in this one there are holes in Jesus.

The holes are left over from the Lebanese Civil War, a reminder of that deadly conflict that tormented the nation and its people from 1975 until 1990. Badly damaged by shelling, and then vandalized and looted, the church spent years rebuilding. But they decided to leave some of the damage behind — including the holes in Jesus.

The church has been damaged and rebuilt several times since its founding in the 4th century. Earthquakes tore down ancient structures. But the violence that mars Jesus to this day came as Christian militias fought Muslim and Druze forces. For a quarter century, God’s people killed each other over political power and religious differences. The scars of that period remain. Many Lebanese Christians and others left the country and continue to live elsewhere. Religious and political tensions still exist in the nation, sparking the need for peacemaking and interfaith dialogue.

So it’s quite appropriate that Jesus bears the scars of that war more than three decades later. Standing there being prepared for an unjust and violent execution, the hole-y Jesus reminds us that what we do to the least of these we do to him. He stands there silently, being led like a sheep to slaughter to warn us that those who live by the sword die by the sword. He stands there being condemned by a profane mix of religious and political power to remind us we should love our enemies.

Not long after I returned home, another war erupted in the Middle East. Thousands of people made in the image of God have been killed. Churches have been damaged. Homes and hospitals have been leveled. All in a war cheered on by some Christians in North America.

Once again, we are breaking the body of Jesus in the Holy Land. Once again, we are handcuffing Jesus to silence his teachings. Once again, we are scarring the image of Christ in the world. So I imagine the Jesus in Beirut looking at us, beckoning us to put our hands in his war-torn side so that we may learn to follow the Prince of Peace.

As a public witness,

Brian Kaylor