Spirituality: The powerlessness of Jesus

Jesus's powerlessness was rooted in freedom. God takes human freedom with the utmost seriousness and will not manipulate it, not even through subtle moral violence, which, as we know, is much worse than open coercion. Every form of coercion is foreign to the reign of God. It is no accident that on many occasions Jesus mistakenly set himself apart from the Jewish zealots, who wanted to bring about the reign of God by violence. The disciples he sent out were not allowed to carry weapons, or money, or a staff; they could not even be shod with sandals that might make it easier for them to attack swiftly or run away on Israel’s stony paths. 

 Gerhard Lohfink, Is This All There is? P. 111