And He opened His mouth and taught them, saying…

…“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Matthew 5: 2, 6-9

Codified violence in the time of Christ

Rome operated many corrupted systems as it transitioned from a republic to an empire just before the birth of Christ. These systems can be marked by their nature of violent extraction, and they were perpetuated by military repression. The Roman legions began as a Republican-era army of citizen-soldiers periodically called to protect the countryside, and in the century before Jesus’ birth they transformed into an Imperial professional fighting force which evolved a system of conquest and taxation to pay for operational fees and maintenance. Armies were kept in the field indefinitely, and that is wildly expensive. The way the Politician/Generals of the Empire offset this cost was to conquer so that wealth could be taken from other nations and peoples in a continuous cycle of expansion, expense, and and extraction. A famous Roman general and statesmen who oversaw this transition captured the essence of this system when he said “bellum se ipsum alet”, or “the war will feed itself.” Peace and prosperity within the empire was only maintained by war and destruction pushing outwards.

With this backdrop, Christ preached a sermon to a crowd telling them that this system does not align with the Reality of His Kingdom.

To “seek first the Kingdom of God,” we must have aligned value structures.

The Sermon on the Mount given to us in chapter 5 of the Book of Matthew outlines how the Kingdom of God is actually structured, and highlights how mis-aligned the Kingdom of this World has become. Jesus makes nine assertions in this sermon, commonly referred to as “Beatitudes.” These can be outlined as follows:

1. The first three deal with those who live life at the bottom of worldly power structures either for reasons beyond their control or because they choose not to engage in that system of lies.

2. The next four speak to our calling to seek Christ’s goodness and love regardless of our present standing in society.

3. The last two will encourage us when we are attacked and slandered because we acknowledge the Reality of the Kingdom.

Previously we looked at how the first set of teachings listed above spoke to those operating outside the halls of power: “the poor”, “those who mourn", and “the meek". Group 2 in our list speaks to those who might actually have the freedom and agency to operate within worldly institutions and systems of power, and the message is for them is to resist the pull of the Kingdom of this World towards violence and vengeance. Instead, while yearning for righteousness and purity, we must seek peace and give mercy.

Overcome the “Zero Sum Kingdom”

The Kingdom of this World forces a message of depraved zero sum thinking which harkens back to the Roman Imperial mantra of expansion and extraction. Economics is a zero sum calculation in which wealth is not created, but it is to be appropriated through taxation and devaluation to horde a larger piece of the pie and pay off a larger segment of voters. Decency and goodness are zero sum interactions, and the only way to lift our group up is to tear “the others” down. Peace is a zero sum battle maintained across borders, and the only way to defend our tribe is to press the attack against our adversary.

In the Kingdom of God, we adhere to systems which promote a totally different way of thinking. We give mercy in order to receive mercy, we make peace to create more peace, we strive for inner purity to amplify our outer righteousness before God. In this way we build systems of multiplying goodness and exponential blessing.

What can this mean for the ReformersNFT community?

This is not a call to action. This is a call to inspection. Search yourselves and discover which mindset you adhere to. Do you believe that gains for one must come at the expense of another? Do you live your life assuming that violence is necessary to keep the peace? Each of us has lived in the Kingdom of this World and been affected to some degree by its false teaching, so we must be refreshed by this Sermon periodically.

This Reformers community operates in the web3 space because we believe the tools which are available inherently align with this message. Digital wealth in the form of cryptocurrencies are produced by individuals, since that reflects the reality that individuals create wealth and don’t receive wealth from a central bank or government. Artistic endeavors are used to connect people, reward creativity, and maintain grassroots patronage in the form of NFTs since the growth of a community around a project demonstrates the additive value of art. The fact that this art can be replicated and shared infinitely is a feature of this system and not a bug, so please go ahead and “copy and paste” this jpeg all you want. Entire industries, economies, and societies are disrupted as a natural tendency towards growth. We seek and celebrate this growth, and we must be prepared for those entrenched at the top to resist with futile (though temporarily painful) strength- a strength which is naturally limited and perpetually depleted by their own design!

How might we build a community and society predicated on the idea that value is created and grown as we demonstrate righteousness, mercy, purity, and peace?j

(cover image courtesy of wikipedia.com)