Nov 26 | Resistance Lectionary Part 22: I have set my face like flint

Today’s Citation: John 18:28-38

Studying the Gospel of John is a difficult task, for few works of literature can claim such beauty and such terror. John, one of the masterpieces of any language, is also a work of staggering bitterness, and has been cited by many theologians over the years as license to murder, maim, and massacre the Jewish people. Never mind the fact that the church was not as of yet a faith wholly separate from Judaism when this astonishing text was written. It was enough that the writer used the phrase “the Jews” to set the followers of Jesus against the established religious authorities and thereby set the stage for generations of torment. We have much to atone for.

This is important to mention because the encounter described (in part) in this passage is laden with problematic editorial decisions on the part of the writer, most especially the glaring hypocrisy of the crowd in their chanting of “We have no king but Caesar,” something that no self-respecting Jewish person of that era would dare to have uttered. Likewise the very fact that John’s Pilate unwittingly understands far more about Jesus than Jesus’ own people shows us that John has consigned the crowd to “the darkness,” a fate worse than hell itself.

As responsible theologians of a resistance lectionary, we cannot neglect to name these issues.

But, as stated above, alongside the seeds of bitterness grow blossoms of extraordinary beauty and defiance.

Source: Wikipedia

The encounter between Pilate and Jesus, as problematic as it is, is stunning as a work of art. There’s drama and subtext. There’s confusion and mystery. And there’s Jesus, standing before the hammer of empire like a clenched fist held aloft.

He is so beyond the quibbling of this despot, so beyond the attempts to box him in. There is no fear, no groveling, no capitulation.

I have seen the same steely resolve on the faces of land and water protectors, on the front lines and in court. I have seen it on the faces of Black Lives Matter activists and protestors shouting, “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” and “Who do you protect? Who do you serve?” I have seen it on the faces of Idle No More and Standing Rock warriors, demanding justice for their people and the earth itself.

Inside all of us is this spirit of resolve, and it can be co-opted just as easily as any tool.

All of us could stand to use it more often…and all of us are called to discern deeply what merits its use.

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