Monday, March 17, 2025

The Terror of the State

     We have a general sense of the precarious times in which Jesus lived.  The authorities were out to get him, almost from Day 1, because Jesus was a threat to the balance of permission that existed in that land, at that time.  I had written originally 'the balance of power' in that time.  But that does not fit the circumstance.  In our passage last week, the Pharisees warned Jesus that King Herod was out to get him.

    But Herod was not the king except by the permission of the Romans.  The Romans are the overlords of the whole empire.  They maintain the "Pax Romana", the Peace of Rome from one end of the empire to the other if two conditions are met. The first condition is the payment of taxes.  The second is not to cause a stink whose odor will waft back to Rome.  When the taxes are feeding the Imperium, people permitted to hold power can get away with just about anything.  Until it gets too smelly or it affects the profit margin.

    The Peace of Rome was then enforced by marching in and killing the peace-breakers until they were no more.  Like in the lands of the gospel some 40 years after Jesus.  The single largest army assembled by the Romans to that moment was not on the borders, not for an invasion, it was to put down the revolt whose smell had gotten back to Rome.

    I opened this post by saying a 'general sense' because we do not get too many specific details of the precarious times.  Yes, we read about Herod beheading John, but that was no so much King Herod suppressing opposition-the Bible tells us that Herod liked listening to John.  No, he was suckered into it by making a promise to a pretty girl that turned his head, a pretty girl who conspired with her mother to set these circumstances up.  And John the Baptizer paid the price.

    But our passage for this Sunday is very specific.  "...there were some present who told him (Jesus) about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices."

    This is Pontius Pilate, who will soon be judging Jesus.  He is the Roman governor, the true power in the land.  We shall hear from him in the events of Holy Week, where, generally, he does not come off as a tyrant.  He does not want to kill Jesus, he even tries to save him from death "knowing it was from jealousy" that this death plot had been hatched.  

    Derived from the second law of the Peace of Rome, "do not cause a stink that will waft back to Rome", the Romans reserved the application of the death penalty for themselves.  

    What else we can glean from this headline is that there were people from Galilee (like Jesus and the majority of his disciples) who'd come to the temple in Jerusalem to offer sacrifice.  This is the universal custom of worship for the Jews in this country.  Come to the holiest spot in Judaism for the offer of sacrifice according to the law of Moses.

    To commit these acts, Pilate must have invaded the temple precinct.  Sacrilege number 1, defiling the temple because he is not Jewish.  This was a custom the Romans were fastidious about observing otherwise.  The Romans had a fortress built overlooking the Temple, but their soldiers did not go into the temple...until they did.  Sacrilege number 2, executing these Galileans at worship.  Like coming into our sanctuary on a Sunday morning.  Sacrilege number 3, defiling their bodies to obtain their blood.  Sacrilege number 4, taking their blood and mingling it with the blood of their sacrifices.  In the law of Moses, blood=life.  When culling animals to be eaten, their blood is drained.  In the sacrificial practices of the temple, blood was shed on the altar as an atonement for the sins of the people (something else we will talk a lot more about during Holy Week).  This practice was deliberate, demeaning, and disgusting in its execution.  

    So, while it was a mockery of a trial, Jesus still had a trial.  For the Jews, the niceties had to be observed, the facade of due process acknowledged.  For the Romans, this illusion was fine and dandy as long as it maintained control.  A subdued population was as desirable as (or maybe even preferred to) a peaceful population, so long as the taxes flowed and the odor manageable.  But in an instance, the precarious nature of the whole system could shift and hideous atrocities committed, because its the Romans.  

    It was a dangerous time in which Jesus lived and taught.  It is not too often that the bible gives us more than a glimpse of just how dangerous it was.

Peace,
Pastor Peter

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