Confessions of an Ambidextrous Idiot

The temptation of believing in "Peace through Strength"

Jul 01, 2025

I’m left-handed

Well, kind of. When I am writing or eating, I use my left hand. When I am playing an instrument, throwing a ball, or shooting a gun, I do those things right-handed. Everything else I can do with both hands; swinging a hammer, bowling, using a shovel. I am one of those guys who can simultaneously sign his name with both hands in opposite directions. You might think that being ambidextrous has its upsides but it really means that I just struggle with everything equally. The same goes for my spirituality.

Right vs Left

According to the reformer, Martin Luther, there is such a thing as right-handed and left-handed power. Before we proceed, remember that this is not about the American political right and left.

Right-handed power is described as “straight-line power”. You use the force you need to get the result you want and it can be harsh and judgmental. Rev. Kenny Benge, (whose sermon inspired this whole essay), says that a lot of what happens in the world is the result of right-handed power.1

Left-handed power, however, is the opposite and it’s the power that we are called to through Christ. Left-handed power paradoxically shows power through weakness. Jesus does this constantly and ultimately on the cross. He died to defeat death. Weird, right?

“Of course, from a theological perspective, God has all the power he needs to achieve his ends, but that's not very helpful in understanding what the Bible actually says. As we believe and confess, God has shown up in the person of Jesus Christ, announced he was bringing the kingdom, and accomplishing his eternal purposes for the world. But at the end of all this, he disappeared, ascending into heaven, leaving no visible king or kingdom to make the world straighten up and fly right.
The kingdom of God began as a mystery, and to this day continues to function as a mystery. God evidently has no interest in using right-handed power to fix the world. Left-handed power again is 180 degrees opposite right-handed power.
It's paradoxical power, power that looks like weakness. Unlike right-handed power, left-handed power doesn't force or coerce. It doesn't threaten or bully.”2

If this is hard enough for me to grasp, I cannot imagine how mind-bending it was for the disciples. During Christ’s time, the Jews were oppressed by Rome and they wanted a messiah who would defeat Rome on a white horse with a sword held above his head. Jesus instead rides into Jerusalem on a lowly, borrowed donkey on Palm Sunday; a week before his death and resurrection. There’s a theory that suggests that Judas betrayed Jesus as a means to jumpstart the revolution. He hoped that holding the messiah’s feet to the fire so to say, would force Jesus to rebel and revolt. Judas had his countrymen in mind, not the gospel. Judas wanted right-handed power. Judas wanted peace through violence.

That is not the gospel.

The Pause in Chaos.

A veteran once told me that peace is the moment of reloading after firing a rifle. That is to say that peace is just a pause in chaos. This is a cynical, hopeless view of peace. An inverted view of this example is to say that chaos is created in the pause of peace. This perspective holds chaos higher than peace and is still a cynical, hopeless view of peace. This is a view that I see many western Christians holding. They view peace as something to uphold and something to maintain. The ship will sink if they remove their thumbs from the leaks in the hull. Right-handed power is peace through strength.

In the wilderness, Jesus was tempted with the very same right-handed power.

“Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! for it is written,
“Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him.””3

Christians are currently being faced with the same temptation to exercise right-handed power as a means to maintain worldly peace. Some American Christians are calling for violence as a means to jumpstart the second coming of Christ. They are yearning for the end times, tribulation, and the antichrist, and they are falling into temptation and becoming anti Christ themselves. They're following the lead of Satan and the example of Judas. Not Jesus.

What is Peace?

In Matthew, chapter five, Jesus relays a series of blessings that would later be known as the Beatitudes. In verse nine, Jesus says,

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”4

What does it mean to make peace? I appreciate how Brett A. Berger of Grand Canyon University breaks it down:

“The first thing is that the peacemakers must commit. Peacemaking is not being nice. Peacemaking may be kind, but it is not passive. It demands that we step into conflict. Peacemakers in the Bible would step between two warring parties. The peacemaker initiates reconciliation when others have wronged them. The peacemaker is quick to repent when they have wronged others.”5

Berger goes on to describe a peacemaker as someone who is “committed to the truth”and “someone who pursues meaningful relationships”. And surely by now we know how Jesus feels about meaningful relationships.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”6

You cannot call for the violence of other people groups and fulfill Christ’s command of being a peacemaker. Peace does not come from right-handed power. There’s no such thing as “peace through strength” in the gospel. The ship is sinking and you only have so many fingers to plug up the leaks.

Conclusion

My favorite symbol of Christ’s left-handed power is in Revelation. In chapter five, John continues his vision with the vivid imagery of a throne room and seated at the right hand of the “one seated on the throne” is someone holding a sealed scroll. An angel asks the haunting question, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?”

No one answers. No one in heaven, on earth, or even under the earth is worthy. John begins to weep bitterly until an elder tells him to stop weeping. “See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”

The worthy one appears and John describes the being as a slaughtered lamb. The lamb takes the scroll from the one seated at the right hand and everyone in the throne room falls before him. Then, they “sing a new song”.

“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals, for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God saints from every tribe and language and people and nation;
you have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving our God,
and they will reign on earth.”7

John looks around and hears the voices of angels, elders, and all the living creatures; what he describes as “myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands” singing with a full voice:

“Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!”

Christ appears as weakness to portray the strongest of strengths. Peacemaking is paradoxical. It’s radical. It’s hard for us to wrap our mind and our hearts around it but we must because we cannot force the second coming of Christ. Jumpstarting a war because the conflict is deemed prophetic is missing the entirety of the gospel and is no different than any other extremist religion inciting global terror and violence. Eastern Christians are becoming martyrs through conflict voted on, prayed for, and celebrated by western Christians8. Christ have mercy on our souls! We cannot help how global authorities practice peace making but we do have control over how we react, what we celebrate, and for whom and what we pray for.

We cannot be spiritually ambidextrous and be children of God.

Let us not forget that.

Peace,

Caleb Christopher Edwards