April 2, 2010

Glynn Cardy & Clay Nelson

Good Friday


Video available on YouTube, Facebook

Jesus was killed for disturbing the peace. This is somewhat ironic when his followers would later call him ‘The Prince of Peace’.

Peace is one of those words like love, hope or truth that can be interpreted very differently depending on where you are standing. 

Love, for the control conscious, can be a synonym for obedience. Hope, for the rich, can be policies that increase their wealth at the expense of others. Truth, for the powerful, can be whatever they think it is.

Love, for Jesus, was a synonym for generous self-giving. Hope, for Jesus, was policies that increase the wellbeing of the poor at the expense of everyone. Truth, for Jesus, was the path of compassion – the way to the heart.

Pilate, procurator of Palestine, knew what peace was. It was the absence of conflict. It was law-abiding activities. It was obedience to the authorities. It was Pax Romana.

Palestine, home of the Jews, was occupied and controlled by Rome for the sole purpose of benefiting Rome. It was a land to be subjugated and milked dry of any ‘honey’ or anything else of worth. In the process collaborators were rewarded, fear encouraged, and resisters severely punished.

Pilate’s duties entailed ensuring a compliant populace as Roman tax-collecting policies were implemented and carried out across Palestine. He was not a monster. He was an ordinary Roman governor with no regard for Jewish religious sensibilities and with brute force as his normal solution to even unarmed protesting or resisting crowds. [i]

Peace, for Pilate, meant obedience to the rule of Roman law and submission to its demands. 

Jesus had a different understanding of peace. It was a visionary and aspirational understanding. His vision didn’t politically exist, save in his own person. He lived his vision, and for his vision he was killed.

His vision had 4 elements.

Firstly, it entailed knowing one was free in one’s own soul. Jesus had an inner freedom, a liberated soul that gave him an inner power.

In countries where an oppressive regime holds sway it is not uncommon for the populace to internalize that oppression. As their rulers treat them with disdain, so they begin to treat both their neighbours and themselves with similar disdain. 

We see this too in families where an overbearing and abusive adult treats children as incompetent and worthless. In time those children learn to treat their siblings and peers in the same way. They also understand themselves to be incompetent and worthless. 

Steve Biko’s major contribution to the anti-apartheid struggle was not so much in political maneuvering, organization, or clandestine activities. His contribution was reaching the minds and hearts of his fellow black South Africans. He called it psychological liberation. His message was ‘You are worthy’, ‘You are lovely’, and ‘You are free’. So, treat yourself and your fellows as worthy, loved, and free.

Biko said, “Whites must be made to realize that they are only human, not superior. Same with Blacks. They must be made to realize that they are also human, not inferior.” [ii]

Jesus said in effect, ‘The powerful must be made to realize that they are only human, not superior. Same with the powerless. They must be made to realize they are also human, not inferior.’

It was a message to die for. Like Jesus, Steve was murdered for disturbing the peace. In 1977 he was beaten to death in a police cell.

So, peace is firstly something that is in the mind and heart of an individual intimately linked with empowerment.

Secondly, peace is not so much about belief. It’s about behaviour. It is not so much about an ordered and orderly society where there is no conflict, but about relationships of mutuality.

Pilate saw himself as a peacemaker. He was in favour of order. The powerful usually are. They want their society to run smoothly and efficiently. Dissent affects the economy.

Some modern-day politicians are similar. They are in favour of assisting the poor in order that good order and a good economy are maintained. Social welfare, like law enforcement, is a tool to ensure that the privileged retain their privileges, and the impoverished grumble but don’t revolt.

Jesus’ peace was about how we treat one another. It was about innate equality, mutual inter-dependence, and freedom to thrive. It was symbolized by a table fellowship where anyone could come, as long as they didn’t mind who they sat next to. It was a meal where you could eat whatever was on offer, as long as you didn’t mind who’d brought it. It was a fellowship where the distinction between masters and servants, and men and women, was deemed of little importance; and masters and men had to have the ego-strength to endure the relegation to equality.

It therefore was implicitly critical of all hierarchical systems that sought to discriminate between the worthy and the unworthy, deserving and the undeserving, the pure and the impure. It was critical of discrimination of gender, class, race, sexual orientation, and age. And those with a stake in maintaining hierarchical systems for the sake of good order, personal power and security, or institutional gain saw Jesus and the early Christians as a threat to be, if necessary, eliminated.

Peace for Jesus was about forging mutual relationships where others were empowered to be more fully who they could be. The acts of befriending, loving, and making justice incarnate the peace of God among us.

Lastly, peace for Jesus was about choosing a less travelled road of offering one’s own vulnerability as a source of resistance. Remaining non-violent in the face of overwhelming personal and structural violence takes an amazing resilence and strength of soul.

Matthew records Jesus as saying: “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. (Matt 5:38-44)

It is a mistake to think that Jesus was advocating passivity, a roll-over approach to the oppression of Rome. Rather it was the non-violent strategy perfected much later by the likes of Te Whiti, Ghandi, and Martin Luther King. It is grounded in maintaining your dignity and appealing to the humanity hidden within your enemy. When he strikes you don’t retaliate but stand your ground. Yes, he may strike you again but has also seen the strength of your determination.

When he bullies you into forcibly taking his gear one mile, offer to take it two. Don’t let his violence take away your generosity of spirit.

Admittedly, it is not an easy thing to do. Our old “lizard” brain at the base of our skull and atop the spine is wired to take flight or fight in the face of threats. As our species evolved we developed the neo-cortex. With it we are capable of considering other options – including nonviolent resistance. But primal fear can still over-ride this higher functioning. The cross is our reminder of our freedom. Fear does not have to have the final word. But it is not overcome by simply choosing not to be afraid or proclaiming the cross has made us free. It won’t just happen. It has to be painstakingly learned and practiced. It has to be lived. And it can’t be done alone. It is learned through our relationships. There is no other way of attaining that higher consciousness that knows everyone is one with all that is. It is that awareness that leads to a fearless life disturbing the peace with hope, love, and truth.

It is a life of resisting violence actively but not violently; by resisting retaliation, working for reconciliation; by overcoming evil with good; by loving out enemies; by loving our neighbours – even when different or foreigners; by accepting and absorbing hostility; by working for justice and by healing imaginatively without the use of force.

The cross is our reminder that there is an alternative to Pilate’s authoritarian understanding of us-them social and relational power, both inside and outside the church. The cross is our reminder of Stephen Biko’s understanding of mutuality: You are worthy, I am worthy; you are loved, I am loved; you are free, I am free. The cross is our reminder that healing a broken world, is not a private or individualistic task. We can’t do it alone nor can anyone do it for us. Fortunately there are enough crosses to go around. Disturbing? Yes. But until we know Jesus’ peace we will know no peace.

[i] Crossan, J. D. Jesus: A revolutionary biography, p.140