Jesus As President: Politics For Ordinary Radicals, part two: A Different Kind of Commander In Chief (A Different Kind of Caeser)
“the construction of a set-apart
people into a living temple of blessing is going so-so. The solution: God puts
skin on to show the world what love looks like. But here’s the catch: the
Prince of Peace is born as a refugee in the middle of a genocide and is rescued
from the trash bin of imperial executions to stand at the pinnacle of this
peculiar people. A strange way to start a revolution…”
1.
The dangerous radical story of
Christmas, of Jesus birth...turning the words of Empire on its head: lord,
gospel, faith, savior, kingdom, peace. But Jesus didn’t want to climb on Caeser’s
throne. He didn’t pray for the world for governments to become more religious,
but for people to be a peculiar people in the culture to show the way of God,
not just be a better version of the kingdoms of the world.
2.
Politics of Jesus’ time: constant
uprisings, rebellions against Rome; the building of Sepphoris, taking land from
the peasants, next to Nazareth. Whole towns were destroyed as Jerusalem would
be in 66-70 war. Rebels were often violent too, as the Legion was. Some fled
and formed totally separate communities like Essenes. John the Baptist setting
up anti-Temple communities in the desert baptizing in the river as forgiveness
in opposition to the Temple’s rituals of forgiveness (like church and church
versions). Also non-violent protests, like the Israelites who protested the
introduction of Roman coins with Caeser’s image on them into Jerusalem.
Surrounded by soldiers they exposed their necks. The conflict back to time of
Alexander the Great’s Hellenistic conquering of the world. Herod the Great,
murdering to stay in power, collaborating with Rome. John the Baptist protest
against Herod, killed in response.
3.
People flocked to the edges of wilderness, the
margins of Empire, to be with John and with Jesus to get Rome out of their
system…
4.
Jesus went to the desert for
preparation before he began his public ministry. A vision quest. Tempted to be
powerful and influential Power-Over in the world….Tempted to produce quick
miracles of stones to bread in a time of starvation, but he says we do not live
by bread alone (think of that lesson for our work with food). Rome would give
out food to calm the masses and distract them with circuses…He was tempted to
be in charge of others, to take back the power from Rome, but he knew the
stories of his people when Kings became corrupted. Instead serve God, he said,
and so Jesus decides to enter his people’s story, identifying with them, not
ruling over them, sharing their blood sweat tears and hunger….Tempted to be
spectacular, to throw himself off and let angels save him, but he knew God
works not through drawing attention to himself but through others.
5.
Jesus would make for a bad candidate,
a bad president, a bad commander in chief, nevertheless he was political. He
returns from the desert and gives his commencement speech: Luke 4, wearing the
mantle of Isaiah: God’s kingdom in the poor, the prisoner, the blind, the
oppressed, the debtor. That was his campaign speech. His solution for the
people’s oppression by Rome: The sermon on the mount: an alternative economy: “folks
coming together, forming close-knit communities and meeting each other’s needs—no
kings, no major welfare systems, no presidents necessary. A practice for the
people of God, not suggestions for an Empire. Jesus takes his solution not just
for people of Israel but for all.
6.
Jesus’ third way response to Empire
force, between aggression and passivity, creative response nonviolently: turn
the other cheek, give the shirt as well as coat, walk an extra mile (look them
in the eye and make them look you in the eye)….letting the wheat grow up the
weeds, hard to distinguish the good and the bad, might destroy good in
destroying evil…Is realistic about the continuing presence of Empire and its
affects, like parable of the sower: so many seeds lost: but “the blessing of
the world through the people of God is not like a quick violent revolution that
takes over power; it starts small, grows silently, faces setbacks, but
nevertheless permeates the world with love.” Oppose discouragement and
cynicism. Mustard seed and leaven kingdom.
7.
To be born again is to be born again
into a new family, into a new kingdom, new spirit (moreso than an aspect of
personal only salvation). Not that his kingdom was not in this world just not
of it, but not out of it either, but differently, not apolitical but
differently political, in his kingdom we do not fight to maintain the kingdom.
There is a yoke to living in this kingdom, but there is a yoke to living in
Rome’s kingdom too; choose your yoke. Is your yoke suffering from the weight of
the American Dream?
8.
Jesus’ campaign trail: the healing,
exorcisms, meals on the shore of the sea of Galilee. People resisted the
transformation, tried to trap him with questions like whether to pay taxes or
not: give to caeser what is caeser and to God what is God’s: first, equating
the two was radical revolutionary stance; second, what was God’s? All of
Creation. You weren’t supposed to have Caeser’s coins, and so he exposes the
hypocrisy of the questioners….He preaches to his followers also, the disciples,
always arguing over who is favorite, all about their needs; jesus says need to
serve, rule with a towel to wash people’s feet in hospitality not with a sword;
his last prayer, in John, pray for followers to continue being peculiar set
apart, not for the world but for those you have given me.
9.
Jesus’ inauguration, not like Caeser’s
with pomp and circumstance and show of might and wealth and with displays of
religiousity and showing how God is in your side and not your enemies. Jesus’s
inauguration is the crucifixion which was written of in mock form to the
inauguration of a Caeser: the first evangelist as the Roman centurion in Mark,
just saw him at his most helpless, vulnerable, and says truly this is the son
of God. The cross is a completely different way of seeing the world. It is the
sign of the Empire, power-over; became the sign of God, forgive them, love
lasts not evil….The Temple as sign of power and collaboration is broken at time
of death, as it was destroyed by Rome soon; the new temple becomes the body,
the people, worship not in temples but in spirit and truth…The cross busted God
out of the temple, it reflects God as “the wildest being in existence” as
Wendell Berry described God.
10.
Resurrection Appearances as
Inauguration Speech: even those who abandoned him are still his, now go do as
he did, share the story and the love and grow others like him too, be the new
family, new temple, new polis. Be the body of the Anointed and Jesus lives in
them.
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