Home Engagement
Lent and Easter 2015 |

Jesus and the politics of power

 This sermon was one in a series from Lent 2015 on how we might understand Jesus through the Lenten readings (John 2:13-22) 
Stephen Jacobi

Only logged in users can comment on a video.

Jesus and the politics of power

Transcript
It's a long walk. I have to tell you from the Pew to the pulpit. And now I stand before you mindful of those who have preceded me in this place. In speaking words of love and grace to both powerless and Powerful. May, what I have to say today, be worthy of this place. And of the God who creates who redeems and who sustains In the temple, he found people selling cattle sheep and doves and the money changers, seated at their tables, making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle, he also pulled out poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who are selling the doves, take these things out of here. Stop making my father's This house a Marketplace. This is not Jesus Meek and Mild. The Babe, has left the manger and it's an Angry Young Man Who displays at last the zealotry, his followers followers, hoped he would show, but which for three long years, he had kept under control, this is Jesus, the Revolutionary Jesus, the activists Jesus, the protester, Last year's production of Jesus Christ Superstar by the Auckland Theater Company portrayed this scene. Particularly? Well, we in the audience were given Temple money and as the chorus sang and danced, they paraded pictures of the temple authorities and we dutifully filled up their offer tree plates, roll on up for my prices down. Come on in for the best in town, take your pick of the finest. Wine. Lay your bets on this bird of mine. Jesus had come up From Galilee to Jerusalem the center of Jewish, political, and spiritual identity. He was at the Great temple, the place where Yahweh dwelled in the holy of holies. This was the place that Jesus had come as a child with his parents. We had been recognized as the Messiah by Simeon and Anna. We're even as a child, he had become engrossed in conversation with the temple teachers. But some 30 years later, these Pleasant conversations in the temple shade. Now, give way to a different kind of speech. Jesus throughout his ministry, always reserved his harshest, judgment for the religious authorities as we read in st. Matthew's gospel, you brood of vipers. How can you speak? Good things when you are evil for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks? And certainly, their hypocrisy is on Full display at the temple. There were businesses as Helen explained earlier, there were businesses established in the temple, courts, doves and sacrificial animals were sold to the faithful and the money had to be changed since Roman coins. With Caesars head on them could not be used in the temple. Precinct, what seems to rile Jesus? Is that the religious observance of the Temple. Taken second or even third place to these more commercial Endeavors and worse. These had eclipsed the practice of justice justice, especially for the alien the orphan. And the Widow that was Central to do, Ash belief and its religious system. But Jesus protest is not simply about religion. John Dominic crossan in his very good book, God. And Empire puts it like this. Jesus protest was not against the temple as such. And not against the high priest as such. It was a protest from the legal and prophetic heart of Judaism against Jewish religious cooperation with Roman Imperial control. Cross and says that Jesus protest was carefully. Timed and staged for the Maximum Impact and Jesus Target wasn't just Jerusalem. It was also Rome. Now, it's impossible to understand Jesus of the gospels without understanding that country and time in which he lived. Jesus was born in extraordinarily violent, times much, like, the Middle East today. Jesus, hometown of Nazareth, is not far from sepphoris a city completely destroyed by the Romans and it's 30,000, inhabitants either killed or sold into slavery around the time of Jesus birth. As razor Aslan describes in his book. Zealot. Jesus must have known about this as he grew up the Palestine of Jesus was occupied by the Romans and the Roman peace. So called the Pax Romana, which settled over the country was very much a double-edged sword. The Romans political power over the country was enforced by the harsh, military discipline of Roman Legions. A military force quite unlike anything that had preceded. It At the same time, the Romans ideological power derived from the cult of Caesar and the practice of Imperial religion. The Cult of Caesar required subjugated people's to acknowledge that the Roman Emperor was a god. Who's many titles sound remarkably familiar to us today? He was the Divine, the Son of God. God from God. Lord Redeemer, even savior of the world. Now the Romans didn't require much observance beyond the construction of temples and occasional sacrifices. They didn't themselves have much truck with religion, but this obedience and submission was Central to Imperial control. Of course, this was an anathema to religious Jews for whom even to mention the name of God was a blasphemy, but the religious authorities had found the means to engage in uneasy but idolatrous, coexistence With the Roman occupying power and this made Jesus very, very angry. Earlier as heads that been recounted in Mark's gospel, Jesus had addressed the religious basis of this coexistence when some Pharisees and herodians with all the obsequiousness, they could muster asked him, what appeared a simple question, is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor? The question was a trap because taxes were paid with those coins with the god, impress head on them, which were exchanged at the temple. And Jesus response was to ask for one of those coins a Denarius and to give an answer which while ambiguous is also full of implication. Give to the emperor, the things that are the empress says Jesus, And to God the things that are gods. Marcus Borg in his very last book before he died convictions interprets Jesus words in this way. And what belongs to God? The takes does not answer this question at the answer, is obvious, everything belongs to God. The Earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof as Psalm, 24, puts it. And if everything belongs to God, nothing belongs to Caesar. Now, these words of Jesus are sometimes misinterpreted to assume that Christians need not be concerned about politics. In fact, they point to quite the opposite in Jesus time. These words were seditious and the belief behind them is ultimately what put Jesus on a collision path with Imperial power and the religious authorities of his time. We see the same issues at play in the reading. We heard from st. Paul's letter. To the Colossians Paul is writing to the early Christian Community in Collis. I in modern day. Turkey still living at that time under Pax. Romana his words describing Jesus need to be decoded to reveal the extent of the challenge. They pose to Rome for in him all things in heaven and on Earth were created things visible and invisible with a Thrones, or dominions or rulers or Powers. All things have been created through him and for him, he himself is before all things. And in him all things, hold together. He is the head of the body, the church, he is the beginning the firstborn from the dead so that he might come to have first place in everything. When Paul refers here to Thrones dominions rulers and Powers, he is referring in particular to Caesar who has seen as subject to Christ and whose power and authority. That is Christ's, power and authority flow directly from God. And when he talks Of Crisis, having the first place in everything he is directly challenging Caesar. This is not just religion. This is politics and like Jesus, it is ultimately what leads? Paul to execution Jesus was an enemy of Rome. Not simply because he challenged the Jewish leaders and certainly not, because he could in any way threatened, the Romans military occupation. But because his words and he claimed these as words from God, these words struck at the very heart of Pax. Romana and the Imperial ideology later, Saint Paul, and the followers of what became to be known, as the way spread across Israel Palestine and to the Gentile communities around the Mediterranean and ultimately even To Rome itself and when they proclaimed in their baptism Service as we do today. Jesus is Lord, they could easily have rewarded it to say Jesus is Lord and Caesar isn't for us today. The prayer book even put that response in capital letters just so we get it. I know here at Saint Matthews. We prefer not to use the Lord language, it has overtones of patriarchy and a notion of Noodles Supremacy, which makes us uncomfortable, but I hope we don't forget the underlying message. Jesus is Sovereign over all things and Cesar most definitely isn't And indeed, what of us, we modern-day followers of the way. What does this radical notion of the sovereignty of God of the rejection of competing ideologies, and the embracing of a new kind of power mean for us, and what does it say? In particular to the powerful amongst us? I'm sure the vicar asked me to speak to you today because I'm someone who in my career, as a business consultant spends, most of my time, with the power wielders and the power hungry. She has to be admired for her sense of humor. Although, might I say, the ordained do not get a free pass either when it comes to Jesus criticism of those in authority. Jesus words to the powerful of our day. I know different from Jesus words to the powerful of his time. Everything belongs to God, the whole world and our lives within it. And this is something that has to be constantly born in Mind by those who hold power with a politicians or Business Leaders or Community leaders. As Micah reminds us. So well with watch like come before the Lord and bow myself. Before God on high, shall I come before him with burnt offerings with calves. A year old. He has told you oh mortal what is good and what does the Lord require of you? But to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God. The gospels do not provide us with a simple model to follow in terms of a political Manifesto or a set of policies or a business plan, which can be applied in this post-enlightenment post, modern globalized. Highly technological world that we live in in the 21st century, but what Jesus does is lay out some Eternal truth. This is the ultimate big picture. It is tempting for those in power. And for those desperate to overturn, the powerful to seek, to co-op Jesus, to support their political, political particular system of beliefs, or policies, or courses of action. But Jesus defied, co-option in his own time, refusing to be drawn to becoming the sort of revolutionary leader. The sort of Zeller that his own followers, expected off him, someone who would free them immediately from Roman rule and the bondage of Imperial servitude Rather, Jesus, seeks to give back to God. What is God's? Jesus followers of Jesus reminds all followers of the way with a powerful or powerless. That this is the measure, the, yardstick the performance indicator, by which, their actions will be judged. And those who acknowledge Jesus as the one who is before all things and who holds all things together as Saint. Paul reminds us need, always remember this, in, whatever roles they are call to play in society and on If a side of the barricades, they happen to stand. in his own day as Here and Now against the politics of power, Jesus sets the power of God's Eternal Word. Against the requirements of a religious code. Jesus offers a new kind of sacrifice, Against the idolatry of Caesars rule, Jesus represents a new kind of sovereignty ahead of all political objectives, business plans, and campaign strategies. Jesus holds out nothing less than the promise of a new way. One firmly based on love of God and on love of humankind could oriya, Kita, Ottawa Harmony