Note: This is a response by Matt Horan to an earlier post I had written, Profoundly Winter. I thought it significant enough that it would lose its impact if left in a response box, so I’m including it here as a separate article. Please refer back to Profoundly Winter for context for Matt’s response.
Thanks to Matt, and enjoy!
-d
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I think that Easter can’t arrive in its fullness without Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
At the dawn of the 1st century, the Roman Empire dominated Europe. Their reach extended from present day Portugal, all the way east to Israel, and from Germany in the north to the coast of northern Africa in the south. It is 40 years since the assassination of Julius Caesar, and after a struggle for power, Octavian becomes Caesar Augustus. He is named Emperor, and is given the title “Pontifex Maximus,” meaning that the leadership all government and religion in the Roman Empire is centered on one person.
The leaders of Israel responded to Roman rule in a variety of ways. Some collaborated with the Romans, striking deals of allegiance so that they might have some leeway to continue their Jewish customs. These were called the Sadducees.
Others continually urged the Jews to a revival of holiness through strict adherence to the rituals that they performed at the temple in Jerusalem. If the Jews would be more righteous and closer to God, then perhaps the Romans would be miraculously cast out of Israel. These were called the Pharisees.
Still others plotted together to violently overthrow the Roman government and expel them from Israel by force. They dreamed that a Messiah would come and lead them to military victory. Some, called the Sicarii, would carry long knives with them in hopes of finding opportunity to carry out assassinations of Roman officials. These advocates of violent revolution were called the Zealots.
To keep these groups in line, the Romans dealt with them shrewdly. They worked with the Sadducees in order to enlist their help in obtaining allegiance from the Jews. The Pharisees also were allowed to operate so long as they did not take up arms to resist the Roman occupation.
These insurrectionist Zealots, however, received the full force of Roman discipline. If caught, they would be tortured mercilessly, stripped naked, and hung on a cross outside the city, so that anyone entering the city would know what happens to those who refuse to accept Roman rule. They would be left there indefinitely, long after death mercifully came. Eventually their body would fall from the cross by itself from decay or visits by vultures. Once on the ground, they would become food for roaming packs of dogs. A dim fate awaited those who would upset the careful balance of power in first-century Roman Palestine.
About 25 years into the first century, a new Jewish Rabbi began teaching in the region surrounding the Sea of Galilee. He was called Jesus of Nazareth. He was followed by twelve faithful men, but they were not a typical group of rabbinical students. Two former students of John the Baptist, Andrew and John. A tax collector who, like the Sadducees, collaborated with the Empire, Matthew. A known Zealot named Simon. Judas, known as “Iscariot,” meaning, “of the Sicarii.” Nathaniel, likely with allegiance to the Pharisees. Even common fishermen became this rabbi’s disciples.
News about him spread, because he seemed to be performing astonishing miracles. He cured the lame and the blind, cast out demons, and even raised a little girl and a grown man from the dead. Not long into his ministry he began to draw great crowds.
The different factions became alarmed by his notoriety, and sought to discern his loyalties. They asked him questions about taxation to see if he was a Sadducee.
They asked him questions about the Sabbath to see if he was a Pharisee.
They asked him if he was the promised Messiah-King to see if he would join the Zealots and lead them to military victory over their oppressors. Despite their questions, they could not get him to declare his allegiance. The only loyalty he would claim was to the “Kingdom of God.”
He repeatedly puzzled his disciples, but he was so loving, so compassionate, so wise. He taught unlike anyone that they’d ever heard before. They sometimes didn’t understand him, but there was no arguing that he was someone different. The lame walked, and the blind saw, and those in bondage to demons and addictions were set free. His disciples became his friends, his brothers. Formerly outcast and impoverished Jews began to have hope that God had not forgotten them.
But the Sadducees didn’t like all of his talk about people being set free. The Pharisees didn’t like his healing on the Sabbath. The Zealots didn’t like his peaceful, forgiving methods. All three groups saw him as a threat to their systems. They saw that he might upset the careful balance of power. They began to see ways to arrest him and kill him.
When a woman used expensive oils to anoint Jesus, instead of selling them to use the money for their ministry, one impatient Zealot had seen enough. Judas left Jesus and the disciples, and agreed to help turn Jesus over to the Romans as a revolutionary.
They brought Jesus before the Roman governor. His name was Pontius Pilate. He listened to their accusations, but could not find a reason to execute Jesus. He did not seem like a dangerous revolutionary. When they persisted and whipped up support from their constituencies in Jerusalem, Pilate held up next to him a known violent revolutionary, Barabbas. He asked the crowd, “Now which one should I release?”
The crowds demanded, “Give us Barabbas!”
Pilate thought that surely this would get him out of executing Jesus, but his plan backfired. In order to keep peace, he gave in and set Barabbas free, and handed Jesus over to be tortured and executed as a revolutionary. Most of his followers scattered and denied even knowing him. Now that he was guilty of such treason, any who collaborated with him might face the same sentence. Since everyone knew what happened to such traitors, they were deathly afraid, and stayed hidden in Jerusalem.
Jesus was marched out with two others guilty of plotting insurrection. Like any other revolutionary plotting against the Empire, he was tortured, stripped, and hung on the cross as an example outside the city. Many hours later, he was dead.
He was spared the many months that bodies were normally left there, however. Aware of Pontius Pilate’s desire to avoid executing Jesus, two men who had been secret followers of Jesus, named Joseph and Nicodemus, asked if they could take his body down and give him a burial. Pilate agreed. They took him down and laid him in a tomb owned by Joseph, and rolled a large stone over the front. No one knew what to make of this teacher who’d shown so much promise, yet was now dead like so many others who had claimed to be the Messiah. He had been different, and all they knew was that they didn’t want him left up there to be destroyed by the sun, birds, and dogs. Now he could rest in peace.
His followers remained hidden. They had been rejected by every possible faction of their religion, and now they were collaborators with a man crucified for treason. They had no one to turn to. No one they could trust. Even his betrayer came from within their group-could they even trust each other? They were sad. They were afraid. They were alone.
In their minds, what would have been their best case scenario? Getting out of town undiscovered? Fortunately, God is capable of far more than any best case scenario that we might dream up. Into this aloneness and despair came a risen Jesus Christ.
