|
Dear Folks
“Christians participate in the only major religious tradition whose founder was executed by the established authority.” 1 Jesus’ death was political; he was killed for proclaiming that, rather than the Emperor and Empire being king and kingdom, God was the king and God’s kingdom was just. This is both heretical to the Roman religion that worshipped the emperor and treasonous to the empire that supported this belief. Jesus’ death, exacted by the powerful Romans, was “…the domination system’s ‘no’ to Jesus….Easter is God’s ‘yes’ to Jesus and his vision, and God’s ‘no’ to the domination system.” 2
Easter is meaningless without Good Friday and the events leading up to it. Resurrection can only happen after death. God’s vindication occurs after the domination system’s crucifixion. God said “yes” to the living message of Jesus’ life, a life that healed the sick, fed the hungry, brought honor where there was only shame, and returned people living in socially- forced exile back into community.
Good Friday is the reminder that illness, hunger, shame and exile belong to the world we live in. Good Friday reminds us that domination systems divide people into “us” and “them”, those who belong and those who don’t. Good Friday points us to an ending, a dark tomb barricaded, a finality locked into a place of no escape. Easter reminds us that God’s kingdom is possible, there is still work to do, and that Jesus will help us along with that work. Easter unites us in Jesus who teaches us to see “them” as truly “us”, and to welcome even those who don’t exactly seem to belong. Easter points us to an unblocking of the barricade, opening the tomb, bringing light in the darkness and an opening to new life.
“The political meaning of Good Friday and Easter sees the human problem as injustice, and the solution as God’s justice.” 3 The theological meaning of Good Friday and Easter is anti-imperial; if Jesus is Lord, then Caesar is not. No matter how powerful the government is, God is more powerful. Whatever the powers that be declare and do God declares a new kind of kingdom and God does works that bring everyone along to the new kingdom.
As we approach Holy Week, I wish blessings on your experience of Good Friday and Easter Sunday. May these days give you strength to live as Jesus: bring healing where there is sickness, offer food where there is hunger, give honor where there is shame, and return the exiled back into community.
In peace and prayer,
Pastor Tony
1 Borg, Marcus J., The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith,
(NY: HarperSanFrancisco, 2003), p138.
2 Ibid.
3 Borg, Marcus J. and Crossan, John Dominic, The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’ Final Days in Jerusalem, (NY: Harper One, 2006), p.211
| 
