Jesus is forced before Pilate who questions Jesus from a War Lord’s point of view. Pilate says, “Your own nation and chief priests handed you over to me.” But it is not Jesus’ own nation or chief priests. He never belonged to their world; it is the same world as Pilate’s. It is a world of fighting. Jesus rejected it to create a world of healing to which people could belong instead. But Pilate is a fool who assumes everyone belongs to his world of fighting. He thus assigns the role of “King” to Jesus. But Jesus dismisses Pilate’s folly, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over.” “But as it is, my kingdom is not here.”
Those who learn from Christ Jesus do not belong to the world War Lords devise and thus do not fight. People who do fight do belong to the War Lord’s world. They are anti-Christs and they are fools. They are the War Lords of every era. They fight year after year, century after century, millennia after millennia. 20 years is such a short period of time comparatively. But twenty years is a generation of fighting. It is a generation of children in the U.S. trained in fighting’s righteousness, justness, salvation. It is a generation of children in Afghanistan trained in fighting’s wickedness, madness, evil. A generation of fighting would seem to be enough fighting even for the most devoted of War Lords. It is close to being enough for Andrew Bacevich. Bacevich, who retired from the U.S. Army at the rank of Colonel, is still a War Lord, in the service of a supreme warlord, President Biden. But he advises other War Lords not be so foolish in their fighting. For example, he opposes the length and purpose of fighting in Afghanistan, “The folly and hubris of the policy makers… and (their) open-ended ‘global war on terror’… approached standards hitherto achieved only by slightly mad German warlords.” But of course, for the War Lords, the fighting is not folly nor hubris; it is calculated and lucrative. The folly and the hubris belong to the grunts and their supporters. They believe the lies War Lords tell about fighting and victory. In time, Bacevich learned the truth that fighting and its victories was itself a lie, “American warriors may not win wars, but they do perform the invaluable service of providing their countrymen with an excuse to avoid introspection. They make second thoughts unnecessary. In this way, the bravery of the warrior underwrites collective civic cowardice, while fostering a slack, insipid patriotism.” All of it enabling “a permanent arms industry… a major source of jobs and corporate profits.” A generation of fighting is close to being enough for Richard Ojeda. Ojeda, who retired from the U.S. Army at the rank of Major, is also still a War Lord in the service of the U.S.’s current supreme warlord, President Biden, though he voted for Trump in 2016. Ojeda too has learned the truth of his folly. He no longer believes what other War Lords say about fighting and victories, for example in Afghanistan, “2 trillion dollars to train and equip the Afghan military over the past 20 years. They fell in a week. It was never about real training. It was about military contractors and corporations raking in the profits.” The folly and the hubris of War Lords like Bacevich and Ojeda diminish as they get wise to the lies of the War Lord class and accept the truth of peacemakers. From Bacevich, “I began to appreciate that… any version of truth handed down from on high-whether by presidents, prime ministers, or archbishops-is inherently suspect.” From Ojeda, “It’s the truth! We’re going over there fighting, and dying, and being broken, so that they can make money hand-over-fist.” Of course, War Lords never tell the truth about fighting, in Jerusalem or Rome or Washington D.C. or Afghanistan or anywhere else. For truth, like peacemaking, also does not belong to the world of War Lords. Jesus knows this. It is the reason why Jesus ends his being interrogated by the lying War Lord Pilate by affirming the truth of peacemaking, “For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.”
“Come, Death, I’d have a word with thee;… They’re all at war! Yes, yes, their bodies go ‘Neath burning sun and icy star… Dragging cold cannon through a mud Of rain and blood;… eyes Wide with insanities!… On envy, hatred fed, Who kill, and die… “Why?” Thou silly thing, off to thy daisies go… Faintly their thin bones rattle… a world all mad… that foul Satan-mad, Who rots in his own head, And counts the dead.” (The Fool Rings His Bell – Walter de la Mare)
Prayer: Spirit of Peace, keep us wise about the folly of fighting.
Question: What is my folly as to the lies about fighting War Lords tell and I believe?
November 21, 2021 Gospel John 18:33-37 Feast of Christ the King