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A New Yorker magazine comic shows people dressed to the hilt in ostentatious luxurious fashion as they pour out of a Christian church after worship one fine Sunday morning. In the background, the smiling pastor shakes hands with his parishioners as they leave the sanctuary. In the foreground, one of the extravagantly dressed people turns to another and says, "it must be awfully difficult for him not to offend us."
How different this inoffensive pastor is from Jesus, a preacher who has no difficulty offending people.
The gospels portray Jesus as remarkably undiplomatic when addressing people who are pretentious or full of themselves because of their wealth or power, or for that matter, people who are pretentious or full of themselves for any reason whatsoever.
When he encounters people who think themselves smarter than he just because they have advanced further in their formal academic training, or people who consider themselves holier than he just because they hold some formal position in a culturally-sanctioned religious institution, or people who think themselves more worthy of respect than he just because they were born with a better social pedigree, this lower-class, rough-hewn, straight-talking fellow named Jesus of Nazareth can be downright rude.
In the gospels, there is a particular ensemble of characteristics that coalesce within certain individuals or groups of people that agitates Jesus immensely, a combination of wealth, intellectual arrogance, class-consciousness, self-righteousness, and power--all cleverly masked by an air of social respectability and powerfully legitimated by a belief in natural entitlement by virtue of birth.
These are characteristics that move people to insist they are wealthy because they are meant to be wealthy, they are powerful because they are meant to be powerful, they are smarter because they are meant to be smarter, and they are more righteous than others because they are meant to be more righteous. These are characteristics that move people to insist those "beneath them" should admire, honor, and obey them because they are meant to be admired, honored, and obeyed. Jesus gets quite agitated when people insist these things about themselves are true because he knows none of them are true.
But what troubles Jesus even more is when spiritually arrogant, self-righteous, powerful people place themselves between God and the people they view beneath them, when spiritually arrogant, self-righteous, powerful people insist they represent God, speak for God, and further God's interests on earth, when they insist that God has entrusted to them, and to them alone, the power and the authority to pass God's judgment on everyone else, the power and the authority to declare who is and who is not acceptable to God, the power and the authority to carry out God's will against those who offend God.
What troubles Jesus even more is when people claim to possess this immense religious power and authority by virtue of the family to which they were born, the priestly clan to which they belong, the formal training they have received at some academy, the religious title placed before their name, or the expensive vestment they wear. Jesus is deeply troubled when spiritually arrogant, self-righteous, powerful people stand between God and the people they view beneath them because Jesus knows these spiritually arrogant, self-righteous, powerful people are simply standing in the way.
Jesus does not allow such people to stand in his way. Jesus does not allow such people to stand between him and God.
And Jesus does not admire, honor, or obey those who look down their noses at him. Jesus will not bend his knee to adopt a posture of submission to those who view him as beneath them. Jesus submits to God and to God alone.
Nor does Jesus mince words with such people. Jesus tells them, clearly, directly, and to their face what is on his mind, which often amounts to a stinging critique that exposes some pretentious phoniness, or a sharp-tongued barb that takes them down a notch or two. In speaking openly like this, Jesus offends many well-dressed, well-fed, well-educated, well-connected, well-endowed, socially polished, culturally validated, powerful people, people who think very highly of themselves, and in the end, it is these people who decide that they have had quite enough of Jesus and that it is well worth their time and energy to kill him.
From the perspective of those who kill Jesus, Jesus has to die. He deserves to die. He has brought it on himself. He is on the offensive against them all the time and they have a duty to defend themselves. As the people in charge of everything, as the people who are meant to be in charge of everything, they have an obligation to defend themselves, to defend their interests, to defend their way of life, to defend the way things are supposed to be from Jesus' offensive words and antics. For the sake of the city, for the sake of the nation, for the sake of the empire, for the sake of God, these people must stop Jesus' offensive behavior.
From the perspective of those who kill Jesus, Jesus has to die.
It is not easy to preserve law and order, to maintain the status quo, to keep everything running the way it's supposed to run. It is not easy controlling a big bustling city like Jerusalem, an occupied nation like Judea, or a whole Empire like Rome, especially when you have subversive malcontents on the loose stirring up the pot, throwing sand in the gears, plotting to tear everything down, threatening to rearrange the way things are meant to be, calling for the end of the world. It is not easy keeping a lid on things, especially when you have an out-of-control messianic false prophet running around the Temple just before Passover, up-ending the tables of money-changers, disrupting the Temple's sacrificial business, and mouthing off rude blasphemies to the upholders of everything sacred, all in front of big crowds of pilgrims who are like hay to a match--all too easy to set on fire and next to impossible to stamp out once burning.
From the perspective of those who kill Jesus, Jesus has to die.
And the crucifixion of Jesus is a triumph. With some quick plotting, deft maneuvering, back-rooming dealing, money under the table, and skilled manipulation of the crowds, they capture him, torture and interrogate him, put him on trial, find him guilty, nail him to a cross, and make just about everybody believe the world is a safer place without Jesus of Nazareth in it.
The crucifixion of Jesus is a triumph.
The crucifixion of Jesus is a triumph for those who insist they are wealthier, more powerful, smarter, more righteous, and more holy because they are meant to be.
The crucifixion of Jesus is a triumph for those who insist they are meant to be in control of everything.
The crucifixion of Jesus is a triumph for those who insist they speak for God and kill for God.
The crucifixion of Jesus is a triumph for those whom Jesus offended.
The crucifixion of Jesus is a triumph renewed today.
The crucifixion of Jesus is a triumph renewed today when pretentious people dressed to the hilt in ostentatious luxurious fashion pour out of Christian churches and say of their pastor, "it must be awfully difficult for him not to offend us."
The crucifixion of Jesus is a triumph renewed today whenever a pastor, a Christian, or a church is afraid to offend people, people who are full of themselves because of their wealth or their power, people who are full of themselves for any reason whatsoever, people who insist on things Christians know in their heart agitate and trouble Jesus.
The crucifixion of Jesus is a triumph renewed today whenever a pastor, a Christian, or a church decides it is nicer or safer to be diplomatic than it is to be faithful to Jesus, that it is easier or safer to mince words than it is to speak directly and clearly, that it is better and safer to get along and submit to those in charge than it is to offend them.
The crucifixion of Jesus is a triumph renewed today. As disciples of Jesus, let us not participate in or celebrate this triumph today
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