Was Jesus a pacifist?

(Just a quick post here on something I've been kicking around with a friend of mine.)

The most violent thing we have Jesus doing ON EARTH that I can think of is driving the corrupt merchants out of the temple. And in that act, he certainly was violent to an extent. On the other hand, nothing he did would have caused permanent physical damage...so it would be a long shot to try to use that to justify war or something.

I had a professor at Trevecca once say, "I'm pretty sure Jesus was a pacifist and that I should be too, but I'm not brave enough...at least not yet." (Henry Spaulding)

I resonate with that. On the one hand, I've let someone spit in my face before and others call me names without retaliating with violence...but try to hurt my kids or wife and I'll likely beat the crap out of you.

And yet, God says via the bible that vengeance is his--not ours to take. And He promises protection to those who love him. I'm not sure it's always literal, but what if it is? What if I'm afraid to be a pacifist because of things like the fear that if someone would break into my house and hurt my family I'd ideologically be obligated to not harm/kill them...when all along God may be saying, "Uh, pray about it, and I'll keep that from happening!"

I believe it was G.K. Chesterton who said that the tragedy in life was not that Christianity had been tried and found to be wanting, but that it had been left untried.

On a related note, my grandfather who still has shrapnel in his body and a missing finger from fighting in WWII (after being the kind of tough leader they make movies of) would you think be like, "Yeah, we whupped up in WWII and saved the day, just like we should today!" But he's exactly the opposite....totally against war whatsoever if it can in any possible way prevented.

Stanley Hauerwas says that Romans 13 was used by the Allies AND the Nazis (many of whom had Christian upbringings, remember, and considered themselves Christian) to kill each other; but had they used Romans 12 as their ideology they would have spent the years trying to overcome each other by doing good!

Anyway...thought I'd throw this on here and see if it brought out any wisdom from you all. Any pacifists out there who can explain how they deal with it?

Nathan