God's anti-empire

"When the crowds on this day so many years ago shouted Hosanna! to Jesus, they were certainly expecting great things politically, and perhaps militarily, from his arrival on the scene. They were buying into the notion that empire can and will offer them salvation of a certain type. They did not believe that Rome was capable of offering this salvation, since Rome was a nation that had many gods rather than the One. Only God’s anointed could rule God’s people with justice and righteousness. There are some who still await the coming of such a one.

The problem is that though they offer the right words, the hosannas that they sing invoke a salvation that is no solution to the world’s problems. A consistent witness of the Old Testament prophets was their condemnation of “empire” as a way of being God’s people in the world. Empire is the way of Egypt and its Pharoahs. Empire is the way of Babylon and Assyria. Empire is the way of Greece and the Seleucid Greek monarchs of Syria. Empire is Rome’s way of being in the world.

God’s people were established as a kind of anti-empire. They were formed in the Sinai wilderness around a covenant with a God whose desire was the restoration of a broken humanity. Israel was formed as an alternative to the pyramid class society of Egypt, with God dwelling among the people as sovereign, not an emperor or king. The people were seen as having equal standing, not with some occupying higher or lower status on the ladder. The power of empire to kill those who opposed it, supported by military might and religious belief was to give way to a power to attract all nations to the light of God, given in love to this special people. The hosannas of this day are misplaced when they expect a new Judean kingdom to supplant, but not replace the Roman Empire. Just as with the kingdom of Israel of old, the empire way would not work again.

The good news is that Jesus comes with a different set of expectations then we have, then the Judean crowd. Jesus comes not with a replacement empire, but to replace the claims and the authority of empire itself. If empire’s power lies in the threat of death to those who oppose it, then destroying the power of death trumps empire’s claim. Empire offers salvation to those lucky enough to be at the top of the pyramid. Love and forgiveness are for all humanity. Empires can and do fail. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Our problem is that our worldview is too small. Jesus has nothing but the restoration of all creation in his sights. We think of ourselves, our security in life, our personal vindication in death. Jesus thinks of others and their needs first, and finally the restoration of all things into right relationship with the Father."

http://www.predigten.uni-goettingen.de/archiv-7/050320-4-e.html