As I write this article two presidents from two very different nations are sitting together in what may be considered the most unlikely of places: A baseball game between team Cuba and the Tampa Bay Rays. After more than half a century of bitterly cold relations between the United States and Cuba one wonders if reconciliation is really possible? Is forgiveness possible after so much has happened?
There is no better time to reflect upon geopolitical issues such as this than this week. It is Holy Week, of course: the holiest of all weeks on the Christian calendar. Palm Sunday has just past and Good Friday is moving in our direction. The two days are significantly tied together. Holy Week is the biggest week of the Christian year.
Yet Im fearful that many Christians will miss the broader historical implications of Palm Sunday and Good Friday. Let’s begin with Palm Sunday which kicks off Holy Week. In the words of the late New Testament scholar Marcus Borg here’s what was happening:
"On Sunday, Palm Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem from the east in a procession riding on a donkey cheered by his followers. At the same time, a Roman imperial procession of troops and cavalry entered the city from the west, headed by Pilate. Their purpose was to reinforce the Roman garrison stationed near the temple for the season of Passover, when tens (hundreds?) of thousands of Jewish pilgrims filled the city."
From the east one procession enters the city proclaiming a kingdom of peace and on the opposite side a procession announcing an Empire sustained by military force and brutal power. As Jesus rides on the back of a donkey his procession represents a kingdom founded on humility, whereas Pilate riding on a Roman warhorse represents the prideful power of Empire. The contrast is stunning but telling.
This is street theatre at its very best. Jesus is subversively mocking the power of Rome. He is announcing to his fellow Jews that his kingdom is not founded on bloodshed and brute military force. His role as Messiah will not look like Roman military power.
But then comes Good Friday, the culmination of Jesus’ Palm Sunday ride into Jerusalem. We must not forget other significant events such as Jesus driving out the money exchangers from the Temple court, or Jesus eating the last Passover meal with his disciples, or his agonizing prayer in the garden, or his arrest and trials which ultimately led him to the cross.
Now here’s our take away: This Friday Christians will gather for worship all over the world as they commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus. Pastors and priests from many different Christian traditions will most likely focus on the sacrificial death of Jesus as it pertains to the forgiveness of our individual sins.
In some traditions Good Friday will be reduced down to a Divinely foreordained event designed as a method to expiate our individual sins. There will be creative liturgies focusing on the individual benefits resulting from Jesus’ death on the cross.
While all thus may be true let’s think about Palm Sunday and Good Friday a bit differently:
What if the cross also represents Jesus answer to Empire? What if Jesus’ humble ride into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey was his way of announcing what God’s kingdom is really like? What it his obedient and willful journey to the cross was his way of saying: “My Father’s kingdom is built upon sacrificial love and not the brute military force of the Empire?”
What if we Christians gathered together this Good Friday as an opportunity to tell the world: God’s kingdom is a kingdom of peace, joy, love, faith, light, and life? What if we announced to our own government that God’s kingdom is not to be used as the participating agent of Empire to help further nationalistic agendas.
Look, we Christians are not going to change the way world governments do business. It is idealistic to assume that we can even change the way our own government organizes and operates as a nation. Empires act like Empires and that's the plain truth. You can’t change the spots on a leopard nor can one hope to change the way human governments operate. Nor should we try. Only God can change the heart of human government.
This is why the claim that America is a Christian nation is so ludicrously false. Quite frankly America does not act like a nation operating like God’s kingdom. For her to be a Christian nation she would have to submit to the kingdom values that Jesus demonstrated on Palm Sunday and Good Friday. Friends, this is not going to happen, so please stop referring to America as a Christian nation.
The Good News is this: God’s kingdom is available to each and every human being that hears the Gospel. The Good News is that Jesus came in order to demonstrate how God prefers his world to be organized and operated.
As Christians our responsibility is to faithfully reflect that Divine purpose in whatever context we find ourselves. Jesus obediently gave his life for the purpose of revealing how God wants us to live. The naked truth is that no earthly government is listening to this Palm Sunday/Good Friday message. Nor should we expect them to listen apart from the transformative power of God’s love filling the centers of governmental power.
I close with the words of Jesus to Pilate when asked if he was really the king of the Jews:
“My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here” (John 18:36).
The real power of Christ's kingdom is on the back of a donkey.
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