In other words, Jesus agrees with El Salvador's Oscar Romero and with Brazil's Dom Helder Camara that revolutionary violence, though understandable (and justifiable on the grounds of just war theory), is imprudent at the very least.
This is because when faced with a vicious, overwhelmingly armed oppressor (like the Zionist state) resistance inevitably leads to state terrorism -- to the war crime of collective punishment impacting women, children, the elderly and disabled. At the very least, that's why Jesus eschews Zealot violence.
How then respond to illegal occupation like Rome's in the 1 st century or Israel's over the last more than 60 years?
Jesus' response? Be like mustard plant, he says. Be like yeast in flour. Both puzzling recommendations are relevant not only to Palestinians, but to Christians who wish to help their brothers and sisters in Palestine against the Zionists-turned-Nazis.
First of all think of the puzzlement that must have struck Jesus' listeners. Jews didn't have much use for yeast. They preferred unleavened bread. Neither would any farmer sow mustard seeds in her field or garden. The mustard plant was like kudzu -- itself a kind of weed that eventually can take over entire fields and mountainsides while choking out other plants weeds or not. The mustard plant was unstoppable.
So Jesus is saying:
The Romans are weeds in your garden.
Don't try to uproot them.
That will only lead to slaughter of the innocent.
Rather become weeds yourselves -- like the mustard plant which is much more powerful than simple Roman (or Zionist) weeds.
Resist the Romans by embodying the Spirit of God that is slow to anger, good, forgiving, abounding in kindness.
Only imitation of Wisdom's God can defeat the evil of imperialism.
What does that mean for Christians wishing to express solidarity with Palestinians against their cruel oppressors? At least the following:
Reject U.S. militarism in general as counterproductive, since fully 90% of the casualties it inflicts in war are civilians.
To bring about change, be instead like the yeast a homemaker puts into 60 pounds of flour, "infecting" the greater culture by non-violent resistance rather than seeking to destroy enemies.
Recognize the Zionists for what they are: an outlaw European "settler society" illegally occupying Palestinian land.
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