Disciples are alive with the Spirit of the Risen Christ. They are giving witness to a free and revolutionary way that disturbs the system and those who arrange for its undisturbed dominance. Those dominating the system during Jesus’ time included the Sanhedrin, rabbis who ruled ancient Israel. When Jesus’ peaceful revolution started disturbing those rulers, they ordered him murdered. However, the Sanhedrin were themselves dominated by Roman War Lords and so made supplication to Rome to carry out their death sentence. It was Rome’s soldiers who then submitted to the Empire’s order and murdered Jesus. Jesus’ disciples are now disturbing the Jewish rulers who are trying to order them around. Like Jesus, the disciples are not obeying the rulers’ orders. “We gave you strict orders, did we not, to stop teaching in (Jesus’) name? Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching.”
As Jesus did not obey military rulers, neither did the disciples. Disciples still do not subordinate themselves to the orders of the military. Military orders, such as those from an abuser, from the priesthood, from capitalist plunderers, or from the military itself, have their efficacy only when another person is subservient. The subservient person can accurately be identified as a slave, a prostitute, or a soldier. All have their origins in the military. Ancient War Lords used captured men as slaves – either in their fields or in their troops. War Lords used captured women as prostitutes for their troops. A slave, meaning a person taken and held as property, owes their condition to force and to exploitation. So too does a prostitute. But a soldier too is one whose body is taken and held as property and owes their condition to force and to exploitation as well. Unlike the slave or the prostitute, is the soldier willing to be subordinated? Perhaps he is willingly used for delusions of dominance, hero worship. Willingly, yet perhaps unawares, the soldier has been subordinated to the orders of another more dominant person who has their way with them. The slave and the prostitute are knowingly treated inhumanely. The rest of us are groomed to look upon them inhumanely. The soldier too is treated inhumanely, in boot camp and beyond. Yet we are groomed to look upon the soldier differently. It is oddly the case that the soldier, especially if they have obeyed an order to kill, is looked upon heroically. It is especially odd for those who call themselves Christian to regard soldiers as heroes. Such self-titled Christians subservient to Militarism’s hero worship, can ask themselves why they have rejected Jesus as a hero for being his own man and not being a soldier subservient to another man. Why do self titled Christians follow the orders of rulers, thereby violating Jesus’ witness of integrity, yet give themselves Jesus’ name? Are they slaves, prostitutes, soldiers?
The modern world is unfortunately still ordered as the ancient world. It still has people forcing other people into slavery and prostitution. It also still has courageous people and groups working to free them. They include Anti-Slavery International, Child Soldiers International, and Save the Children. As disciples around the world attempt to free slaves and prostitutes from their bondage, let us also do what we can to free soldiers from their bondage. We can live as free revolutionaries and can help soldiers do the same. We ought not be surprised though should soldiers, in their bondage, obey orders to do to us what they have done to so many others, as Jesus predicted to Peter, “you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will … lead you where you do not want to go.’ He said this signifying by what kind of death Peter would (undergo). And when Jesus had said this, he called to him, “Follow me.'”
Prayer: Spirit of Freedom, we vow creativity for a peaceful revolution, no matter the persecution ordered against us.
Question: In what ways am I a slave, a prostitute, a soldier?
May 5, 2019 Gospel John 21:1-19 Third Sunday of Easter