Resurrection: The Ultimate Answer to Empire

Throughout history empires have preached a gospel of "peace and security" in order to convince people - and I quote from Walter Wink - "that they benefit from a system that is in fact harmful to them, that no other system is feasible, that God has placed the divine imprimatur on this system and no other."

Listen with me to the opening sentence of the Gospel of Mark: "The beginning of the good news, or gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." You see, the thing about what to us sounds like nothing more than one way to start a story is that Mark was telling this story in the context of the Roman Empire. And in the Roman Empire of Jesus' time and Mark's time the very word 'gospel' was associated with imperial propaganda, used most frequently in accounts of military victory. The victory of the emperor's forces in battle was told as gospel, good news because it meant the continuation of "peace and security," Pax Romana, never mind the death and destruction Roman armies left in their wake. Virgil, one of the Roman story-tellers and propagandists of the time, had proclaimed Emperor Augustus the "son of a god," the climax of history, the fulfillment of the will of the gods. And so it was that Mark began to tell a new story to people familiar with the gospel of empire: "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." And again in verses 14 and 15 of Mark's introduction in the first chapter: "... Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the gospel.'" Yes, the time that Isaiah had promised to a people hemmed in by the Assyrian Empire on one side and the Egyptian Empire on the other, a people later taken into exile by the Babylonian Empire, a people now oppressed by Rome, that time had come. The time for the fulfillment of the vision where God would swallow up death forever and wipe away all tears. The time had come and from the beginning, the gospel of Jesus was a direct challenge to the gospel of empire.

The first order of business in building the kingdom of God, the new community, was to call the disciples away from their occupations and away from their families, away from their economic and social security to join Jesus in solidarity with the poor, the sick, the social outcasts of Galilee, the people on the margins of empire. With each healing, each exorcism, and each teaching Jesus challenged the status quo of the day, the empire's system of domination and those of the Jewish temple-state that collaborated with the Romans either because they benefited enormously from the way things were, like the priests and scribes of Jerusalem, or because they didn't think the time was right to challenge the empire, like some of the Pharisees. Of course, Jesus and his followers were not alone in challenging the powers that be. There were the Zealots, those armed revolutionaries who were responsible for sporadic acts of resistance during Jesus' time and had turned their resistance into a full-scale, organized rebellion by the time Mark wrote his gospel.

Inevitably, Jesus' actions and teachings on the margins, i.e. in Galilee, would bring him into a direct confrontation with the authorities and so he turned his face toward Jerusalem, the center of power in Roman-occupied Palestine. As he did so, he called the disciples again, this time to join him on the journey that would lead to the cross: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." Then he added, "For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it." As Ron reminded us last week, the disciples never quite got it. But they stayed with him, not quite, but almost to the bitter end, no doubt hoping that somehow, miraculously, they would succeed in restoring David's kingdom and having Jesus crowned king. When Jesus was arrested, tried, and condemned to death, their worst fears were realized and their hopes turned into despair. Jesus, like all those who were considered rebels and criminals by the Roman Empire, was executed by crucifixion on a cross.

I don't know about you, but I can't quite imagine what the disciples felt like at that moment. What I do know is that when the vigils, prayers, fasts, and peaceful protests of millions of people in this country and around the world did not succeed in stopping the invasion of Iraq by the 21st century version of empire - an empire that makes the same promises empires have always made and in the name of God - I experienced a tremendous sense of sadness, anger, and at times the temptation to despair.

Back to the story of Jesus, the only ones who had not given in to despair were the women. It was the women that stayed with Jesus until he died and it was the women that went to the tomb at sunrise on the first day of the week. So it was the women who first witnessed the Resurrection, who saw the empty tomb, saw the young man, and heard his message: "...you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look... but go and tell his disciples that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him."

So the violence of the cross was not the end of the story. The Roman Empire did not have the last word. Jesus had been raised from the dead! Praise God! End of story? Not quite. It had started on the margins of empire in Galilee, with Jesus calling the disciples to follow him. When Jesus turned toward Jerusalem, he had called them to follow him to the cross. Now that Jesus had been raised from the dead, the disciples were told that in order to see him, they would have to go back to Galilee. Here then was the final call to follow Jesus. This time it was, Follow Jesus back to Galilee. Back to the margins. Back to where it all started. You see, the disciples needed to go back to Galilee in order for the story to come full circle. In order for the story of the Resurrection to go on, they were to take up their cross, not as a sign of defeat as it was for both Rome and the rebels fighting Rome, but as a sign of victory. Finally the disciples understood. The proof is in the book Acts, the Acts of the Apostles as opposed to the Acts of Augustus, another book of that time period. The same Spirit that had raised Jesus from the dead turned the sadness, the frustration, the anger, and the despair of the disciples into joy and courage and hope.

Yes, the disciples understood the greatest paradox of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus calls us to the way of the Cross, because the way of the Cross is the only way to the Resurrection. And the Resurrection always calls us back to the Cross. Thanks to the Resurrection death no longer has power over us. Like the disciples, we, too, now know that empire never has and never will have the last word. Resurrection is, indeed, the ultimate answer to empire, and followers of Jesus Christ have always understood this truth.

Pause...

No one understood this better than the Apostle Paul. Before his conversion he was busy arresting and imprisoning the followers of Jesus. Saul was a good Pharisee who believed in the coming of a Messiah. Like most Pharisees he probably looked forward to the time when David's kingdom would be restored and Palestine would no longer be under the thumb of the Roman Empire. But the time was not right and by preaching the gospel of Jesus who had been crucified by Rome for sedition and then raised from the dead, Jesus' followers were not only risking the wrath of the empire themselves, but they risked bringing the wrath of Rome down on their fellow Jews as well. Because of their minority status in many cities, Jews were often the scapegoats of other groups. In one instance during Paul's lifetime, the Jewish population of Alexandria had suffered a terrible pogrom and hundreds, if not thousands, were slaughtered. Pharisees like Saul were not particularly keen on losing their lives, not to mention their privileged status within the structures of empire.

What changed all that for Saul was his vision of the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus. When he realized that the Jesus who had been crucified by Rome had indeed been raised from the dead, his motives for persecuting the church were gone. Paul, like the women and the disciples, was a witness to the Resurrection and the Resurrection called him to follow the way of the Cross. In the beautiful hymn from Philippians 2 that we heard last week, Paul talked of Christ emptying himself of the power and privilege that was his. In chapter 3 of the same letter Paul makes it clear that conversion to a risen Christ meant giving up his status and privilege as a member of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, and a Pharisee blameless under the law. With one exception, it also meant giving up the privileges of Roman citizenship. Yes, Paul understood that believing in the Resurrection meant following the way of the Cross, sharing in Christ's suffering and death, because that was the only way to share in the Resurrection. Listen to what he writes as a prisoner of empire: "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead." Witnessing the Resurrection turned Paul from a tool of empire to a fellow sufferer with Jesus, the victim of empire, because now he knew. The answer to empire was the Resurrection.

Through the ages the power of the Resurrection has given hope to the suffering and the oppressed. It continues to do the same to this day. It is those followers of Jesus Christ on the margins of empire in this country and around the world, those without the power and privileges that most of us have, that know what it means to share in Christ's sufferings and is so doing, share in his resurrection.

I know I've told the following story before, but I want to tell it again, because it is an expression of the power of the Resurrection in the face of empire. The years 1990 to 1992 were exciting times in the Congo, then known as Zaïre. Under tremendous domestic and international pressure, President Mobutu, the western-backed dictator of the country finally allowed the holding of a national conference, a conference that brought together representatives from all parts of the country, every sector of society, and every political party to discuss the future. For the first time in decades, people were allowed a say in reflecting on the past, drawing up a new constitution, and preparing for democratic elections. Excitement filled the air and expectations were high when, at the beginning of 1992, the president suspended the National Conference because he felt things were getting out of hand. With that suspension, the hopes of many were dashed. In the capital city of Kinshasa and elsewhere, however, Christians decided that they had a responsibility to do something, so they began to organize. They organized a March of Hope for Sunday, February 16, 1992. On that day hundreds of thousands of Christians in every major city of the Congo marched peacefully for the very first time since Mobutu had come to power in 1965 in full view of the security forces. Catholics, Protestants and others marched, some carrying Bible and some wearing their crosses. In the city of Kananga where we lived at the time thousands marched without fear. They gathered at their churches for prayer and then marched into the center of town. One of the groups from a Catholic parish chanted while marching. The priest, who was in front, would say, "Jesus Christ is Lord," and the parishioners would respond, "We have no other." And so they marched, "Jesus Christ is Lord," "We have no other"... "Jesus Christ is Lord," "We have no other." Thankfully, no one was hurt in the city where we lived, but in Kinshasa that day dozens of Christians were shot and killed. They knew the risk that they were taking and they were willing to take it because they knew that empires never have the last word. Thanks to the Resurrection, nothing, not even death, could separate them from the love of God in Christ Jesus... Several months later, the National Conference resumed deliberations.

Sisters and brothers, today we are living in the belly of empire and I am convinced that the Gospel of Jesus Christ challenges the false gods of this empire just like it challenged the false gods of the Roman Empire in the first century. Today we celebrate the Resurrection, and rightly so. My prayer is that we, like Paul, will be prepared to empty ourselves, that we, too, might know Christ and the power of his resurrection. And when we start to get discouraged and lose hope, let us remember that Resurrection is always the ultimate answer to empire.

I will end with part of a poem written by Julia Esquivel, an exiled Guatemalan poet. The poem is entitled, "They Have Threatened Us with Resurrection."

 
There is something here within us
Which doesn't let us sleep, which doesn't let us rest,
Which doesn't stop pounding deep inside,
It is the silent, warm weeping of Indian women without their husbands,
It is the sad gaze of the children
Fixed there beyond memory,
In the very pupil of our eyes
Which during sleep, though closed, keep watch
With each contraction of the heart
In every wakening...
 
What keeps us from sleeping
Is that they have threatened us with resurrection!
Because at each nightfall,
Though exhausted from the endless inventory
Of killings since 1954,
Yet we continue to love life,
And do not accept their death!
 
...Because in this marathon of Hope,
there are always others to relieve us
in bearing the courage necessary
to arrive at the goal which lies beyond death...
 
Accompany us then on this vigil
And you will know what it is to dream!
You will then know how marvelous it is
To live threatened with resurrection!
To dream awake,
To keep watch asleep
To live while dying
And to already know oneself resurrected!