Returning to a more familiar image, the third stanza presents Christ as the promised Prince of Peace (which means both peaceful by nature and peace-bringing through action—Isaiah 9:6). His coming is hailed as bringing "peace on earth, goodwill to all in whom God delights" (Luke 2:14). By refusing to use force to pursue his goals and calling his followers to be peacemakers, showing mercy instead of vindictiveness, and suffering pain and evil instead of perpetuating the cycle of grievance and revenge (see, for example, Matthew 5), Christ challenges our embedded myths of supposedly righteous violence as necessary and redemptive. Because the myth of redemptive violence exercises such fascination in our culture,² it is appropriate to describe the cross of Christ as breaking its spell, just as Isaac Watts, in his magnificent hymn "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," testifies that "all the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood." I refer to Watts's hymn to demonstrate that my phrase, "break the spell," though resonant with recent popular literature, has a classic hymnological antecedent. The stanza reads:

Christ is the peaceful Prince,
accepting pain and loss
to break the spell of violence
in anguish, on the Cross;
whose healing power outlives
revenge and righteous hate,
till we forgive as Christ forgives,
and better hopes create.

The hymn concludes with another familiar image, Christ as teacher, expounding an understanding of Christ's pedagogy that is biblical, yet not in Western terms traditional. "Teacher" reflects the title "Rabbi," which even Jesus' opponents ascribed to him. Good teachers (and good rabbis) not only instruct (as Jesus did, in his parables, sayings, and behavioral directives), but discover, nurture, and bring out the gifts of their students, and accompany as much as lead (as Christ does, promising, as Emmanuel, God with us, to accompany us until the end of the age; Matthew 28:20). It is as teacher that Christ has authority over us—the authority not of fame, wealth, prestige, coercive power, or noble birth, but of consistent character, uniquely and completely revealing God:

Christ is the Teacher true,
who leads, yet walks beside,
to nurture gifts and visions new,
suggest, correct, and guide;
whose earthly life displays
the depth of love divine;
to whom our witness and our praise
for ever shall combine.
 
            Brian Wren, Christ our Hope

[Copyright © Hope Publishing Company, Carol Stream, IL 60188. All rights reserved. Used by permission]

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