Ceasar or Jesus?
Philippians 2:5-11
Luke 19:28-40
Good News and Bad News
This morning on Palm Sunday, when we live between a celebrative parade and the violence of the cross…With Easter on the far horizon, I will follow the revival preachers of the small town Baptist church of my childhood, and begin with the bad news, and then the sweet good news of God’s love softly and tenderly calling, O sinner come home…O nation come home…O heart be healed and learn to love again. We’ll have some theology – hopefully some good theology, theology that heals, because bad theology can hurt and kill, and traumatize and terrorize….
In words that describe the tension between love and power in the Christian tradition, the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, notes:
When the Western world accepted Christianity, Caesar conquered…The brief Galilean vision of humility flickered throughout the ages, uncertainly… But the deeper idolatry, of the fashioning of God in the image of the Egyptian, Persian, and Roman imperial rulers was retained. The Church gave unto God the attributes which belonged exclusively to Caesar.
“The Church gave unto God the attributes which belonged exclusively to Caesar.” One of the great tragedies of Christianity, then and now, has been our tradition’s abandoning the power of love in favor of the love of power. From the fourth century onward, when Constantine marched into Rome with the Christian flag of conquest, Christian leaders have sought to secure Christianity’s dominance over Western civilization and the planet. Many Christian leaders have traded the intimate and relational love of a personal and empathetic God for the unilateral and coercive power of a distant and demanding God and the institutional church and its political favorites chosen by Divine Fiat. Fueled by the quest for power and compelled by dogmatic certainty, sure that God was their side, the persecuted faith of the early church became the persecuting faith of the Holy Roman Empire and then the colonizing, evangelizing, and enslaving mandate of nations in the West.
The open-spirited faith of Jesus was reduced to closed minded dogma and the denial of the beauty of other cultures and their traditions.
The Power of Love or the Love of Power
Jesus’ power of love was exchanged for the love of power, embodied in inquisition, heresy hunting, crusade, colonization, imperialism, nationalism, slavery and today’s authoritarian marriage of white conservative and nationalistic Christianity and politics. Many Christians in the political realm believe that further marginalizing the LGBTQ+ community, deporting strangers from our soil, and minimizing and erasing the impact of women, persons of color, and other cultures is God’s will and will secure their dominance in the United States. That’s the bad news, and the marriage of a dominating church and dominating state is always bad news!
There is another way! One of my teachers, Bernard Loomer describes this tension in the difference between unilateral and relational power. Unilateral power is reflected in “my way or the highway,” in “retribution,” “bullying,” and acting without listening. In contrast, relational power – the relational power of Jesus – listens, empathizes, connects, and makes decisions, even tough decisions in business, personal life, and government, grounded in world loyalty, empathy, and healing rather than self-interest and destruction.
Remember Jesus’ words to a sight impaired man, “what do you want me to do for you?” Following Jesus means creativity and freedom in the light of the common good, and not repression or suppression to satisfy the lust for power of church leaders and politicians.
Peace or War?
On Palm Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a humble colt, the symbol of peacemaking. He had no honor guard, no Roman legion, no signs of political or military power, just everyday people shouting “Hosanna,” in recognition of the loving spirituality that radiated from him. Powerless compared to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, Jesus wielded the only power that endures, the “weak” power of love, like gravity, which is so great that even the stones will cry out if we try to suppress it.
Twenty-five years after Palm Sunday, the apostle Paul counseled the small community in Philippi to embrace the power of love rather than the love of power. Listen again:
Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death– even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
When the Philippians heard Paul’s words, two images came to mind, King Caesar and Lord Jesus. Caesar’s power was grounded in violence and coercion. You worshipped Caesar not out of love or respect, but to avoid punishment, death, and retribution…
Paul affirms another kind of power to describe God and the values we should follow in our households and relationships whether as citizens or professionals. “Have the mind of Jesus…who rules by sacrifice, empathy, relationship, and love. Who reaches out beyond borders to embrace diversity and sees power in terms of supporting rather defeating others.” The power that heals – that “yes” you belong regardless of past mistakes or present worries or your citizenship status. The power of saying I love you, the parental power of blessing a bruised knee and comforting a frightened child.
We bow down to Caesar out of fear, but when it comes to Jesus, every knee, all of us, Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, seekers, agnostics, and even atheists and political potentates – yes, every knee will bow out of love and gratitude for “amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I’m found, but blind but now I see.”
The Tale of Two Parades
Theologians and bible scholars Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan suggest that there were two parades on that first Palm Sunday. During Passover, the population of Jerusalem doubled to 400,000, a time of celebration but also potential threat to Roman occupation. At one of the gates of the city, Jesus entered on a colt, a donkey, a symbol of peace, greeted by palms and praises, and no swords or spears. On the other side of the city, Pilate entered: desiring to make a show of force to tamp down any threat of revolt, the governor was accompanied by “cavalry on horses, foot soldiers, leather armor, helmets, weapons, banners, golden eagles mounted on poles, sun glinting on metal and gold.”
Yet, at the end of history, love wins. The name of Jesus rings out over the ages, saving souls and healing cells, and Pilate is known only as a conflicted power monger.
Today, we are given the choice as we begin our Holy Week pilgrimage: Jesus or Caesar. Love or hate, reconciliation or retribution, power of love or the love of power, life or death, inclusion or exclusion, and choosing to see God’s presence in those whose views differ from ours and not just those who are like us in beliefs, ethnicity, and citizenship. As weak as the power of love seems in these troubled times, God’s love is so strong that even the stones will cry out if we try to silence it: it is the love of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Howard Thurman, John Lewis, Fannie Lou Hamer, Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, Oscar Romero, Ruby Bridges, Mother Teresa, Dorothy Day, and Desmond Tutu, and the love of Jesus Christ our Savior. The love that endures while potentates come and go: the love that casts out all fear, heals the sick, and gives hope to the hopeless, the love that faces the cross, knowing that beyond the cross is the crown of justice, peace, and shalom and life eternal in God’s Beloved Community for all of us.
Have this mind – the mind of Jesus, the spirit of Jesus. Seen as weak to demagogues and dictators, but the only spirit that matters – the spirit of love , the love that creates galaxies, little babies, and woke us up this morning to a day of possibility and adventure– a spirit that welcomes sinner and saint alike to God’s bountiful feast, now and in eternity, the spirit of love that saves our souls and enlivens our cells, a love so great in its power to heal and transform that all nature sings and creation rings with the music of the spheres, our spirits soar, and even the stones cry out! Thank you, Jesus! Glory hallelujah! God’s love is marching on!
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Bruce Epperly is Theologian in Residence at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ, Bethesda, MD (https://www.westmorelanducc.org/) and a professor in theology and spirituality at Wesley Theological Seminary. He is the author of over 80 books including: “Homegrown Mystics: Restoring the Soul of Our Nation through the Healing Wisdom of America’s Mystics” (Amazon.com: Homegrown Mystics: Restoring Our Nation with the Healing Wisdom of America’s Visionaries: 9781625249142: Epperly, Bruce: Books) “Jesus: Mystic, Healer, and Prophet “(Jesus: Mystic, Healer, and Prophet: Epperly, Bruce: 9781625248732: Amazon.com: Books Bruce Epperly is Theologian in Residence at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ, Bethesda, MD (https://www.westmorelanducc.org/) and a professor in theology and spirituality at Wesley Theological Seminary. He is the author of over 80 books including: “Homegrown Mystics: Restoring the Soul of Our Nation through the Healing Wisdom of America’s Mystics” (Amazon.com: Homegrown Mystics: Restoring Our Nation with the Healing Wisdom of America’s Visionaries: 9781625249142: Epperly, Bruce: Books) “Jesus: Mystic, Healer, and Prophet “(Jesus: Mystic, Healer, and Prophet: Epperly, Bruce: 9781625248732: Amazon.com: Books
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