Merry Christmas to everyone from Irans President.

The usual stuff we’ve come to expect from him, but this stood out for me:

Frankly, if Jesus Christ – the Messiah (peace be upon Him) was present today, how would He react? And whom would He stand with and against

I can’t claim to know exactly how a person who lived 2,000 years ago would have reacted, but the most obvious things we can take from his teachings would be:

  • He was a messenger of peace, not a symbol to claim as “on your side” to justify acts of violence.
  • The whole “love and forgiveness” thing would kind of imply he wouldn’t “pick a side,” at least not for the purposes of destroying the other.

I do think it is effective in some cases to pose the question of what decision Jesus might have made. Specifically in cases like decisions for war, helping the poor and discrimination. But, there are limits to this, and using it in a case to further a confrontation between countries is invalid because it supposes he’d want to align with either side.