HEARD AT CHURCH

In the beginning, the elohim created skies and earth.

Welcome back.  Let's think about public relations.

Today is Palm Sunday, or Passion Sunday, and the sermon I heard my pastor preach was about Jesus’s "triumphant entrance" into Jerusalem.

This triumph was largely symbolic.  The gospel writer makes it so by connecting Jesus’s arrival to Jerusalem with Zechariah 9:9.  

Look, your king, comes to you, 

Triumphant and victorious,

Humble and riding on an ass, 

On a colt, the foal of an ass.

Mark also alludes to Psalm 118: 25-26 in the exclamations for salvation resounding in the meaning of the word "Hosanna."

From the standpoint of Roman standards of victory, there was nothing triumphant about Jesus.  The Romans would have considered him an ass riding an ass.   What spoils had he brought to Rome?  What triumphs could he proclaim? 

This Jew offered nothing compared to Caesar Augustus, victor of the civil war after Julius Caesar's death; victor of a wide swath of territory encircling the Mediterranean Sea, and victor of the Pax Romana that lasted two centuries.  

In the minds of most Romans, a Jew from Nowheresburg in Judah riding on a donkey to signify some symbolic victory would have been laughable.

Furthermore, Rome wrecked a ton of havoc against Jesus.  Rome crucified him.  Rome also killed most of the first generation of Christians living in Judah.  Rome killed Paul, Peter, and Jesus' brother, James.  

It amazes me how nearly invisible the Roman Empire is in the Christian Bible.  I imagine writers were terrified of and wrote about the Romans in code or by implication. 

In our American empire, we blow up a country that has not attacked us, and then we are so kind to help them rebuild.  I have not heard if we have invented a way to replace the loved ones who suffered the peril of collateral damage.  However, we live in an age when people can burn our flag and our president in effigy.

There was no such fearlessness expressed in the Christian Bible.  In fact, Luke seems to want to persuade the empire that God just loves the heck out of them...which God does, actually...but in a noncritical way of not requiring repentance for their atrocities.

Ephesians 6:12 speaks of the "world rulers of this present darkness," which would be a criticism of Rome without saying it directly.  With empire comes darkness and light.  

It took a while for Christianity to appeal to the Roman masses.  Three centuries passed before Constantine and the Edict of Milan made it legal throughout the Roman Empire.

The perception of Jesus also transformed in three hundred years.  At least, his public relations changed. We have John of Patmos to thank for that.  

He wrote an apocalypse around 95 to 100 A.D. with three intentions: to persuade churches to remain faithful despite persecution, to slaughter Rome symbolically, and to cast Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ on a colt, as Augustus Jesus, the Christ on a white horse. 

Thus, the Prince of Peace transformed into a world conqueror, victor of God's dominion over Rome, code named Babylon, victor of Jews assuming their rightful place in Jerusalem over Gentiles, and victor of the Pax Christiana that would last a thousand years.

Augustus Jesus was a Christ for the hoi polloi.  Augustus Jesus appeals strongly to many Christians today.  The messiah riding into Jerusalem on a donkey glitters about as much as...well...any old ordinary ass.

Not to me.  That donkey stubbornly resists the world’s definition of triumph.  My love compels me to settle for nothing less than the Prince of Peace.  On this day, and for the rest of my life, I shall continue to join the noisy throng who shouted, "Hosanna!"  

Blessings...