Yoder on the Cross of Jesus

If you are a reader of Inhabitatio Dei, you are surely familiar with the work of the late Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder. And if you are not, you should be--on both accounts. Early in my life I was introduced to Yoder's classic text The Politics of Jesus through a friend of mine who is now pursuing doctoral work in the ethics of the Church fathers. Now, some years later, I have picked up Yoder again and I am making my way through bit-by-bit. It is hard not to like The Politics of Jesus, especially reading it now with theological hermeneutic shaped by liberation theologies.

"Here at the cross is the man who loves his enemies, the man whose righteousness is greater than that of the Pharisees, who being rich became poor, who gives his robe to those who took his cloak, who prays for those who despitefully use him. The cross is not a detour or a hurdle on the way to the kingdom, nor is it even the way to the kingdom; it is the kingdom."

Yoder, The Politics of Jesus, p. 51.