Jesus or Barabbas?

Jesus or Barabbas?

These next installments I’ll call the bad, the good, and the better. Or; I’ve got some good news and some bad news what do ya want to hear first? The bad news, OK here it is. Now Barabbas will represent the “bad” news and Jesus will represent the “good news” two ways.

Jesus answered, “My kingdom doesn’t belong to this world. If it did, my followers would have fought to keep me from being handed over to our leaders. No, my kingdom doesn’t belong to this world.” John 18.36 [CEV]

“Indeed, an hour is coming, and has come, when each of you will be scattered to his own home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the [this] world.” John 16:32, 33

I’m leaving you at peace. I’m giving you my own peace. I’m not giving it to you as the world gives. So don’t let your hearts be troubled, and don’t be afraid. John 14:27

In my previous post on Easter Sunday I quoted the above verses which I believe speak to the message of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus and why he came into “this world.”

But first a disclaimer. John 18.36 has nothing to do with the Jewish people themselves as most translations put it, the Leaders the the nation of Israel just happened to be next in line after the Romans and in league with them. The Roman/Jewish authorities are a type for all the powers in this world of whatever heritage, who keep power via the enslavement of others. Slavery was huge in the societies of all the world before written history to the present. In some “civilized” societies 70% of the populace were under the iron yoke of slavery to the ruling elites, also it was so common a lot of the regular populace owned at least one slave. So no this is not an anti-Semitic verse even though it and others like it have been used to justify and not only enslave but slaughter millions of Jews throughout history.

This is the world that Jesus conquered/overcame. If “God so loved the world” as Jn 3.16 states why did Jesus need to “overcome” it? Why does John say in 1 John 2.15“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If any one loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.” Just something to think about.

The choice between Jesus and Barabbas is the choice between two worlds. The world of Barabbas is one of religious/political dominance thru battles, struggle, divisiveness, hatred, killing, oppression, greed, prejudice, power, lust and the lust for power and control. “This world” is one of constant uncertainty, gut wrenching fear sponsored by religious fervor—the politics of religion the religion of the powerful—no one here is ever free of the fear of death. In “this world” only the body is real and is under constant attack. In this world even theologies which claim to follow peaceful founders battle with one another for supremacy. This religion always chooses Barabbas.

As we know all choices have results, what are the results of choosing the way of Barabbas? The following quotes from the book: After Jesus Before Christianity are a chilling reminder of the consequences of following the way of Barabbas.

“Following the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, almost one hundred thousand Judeans were sent to Rome to be enslaved. Many of these enslaved people built the Colosseum, the amphitheater still central to tourism in central Rome today. In addition to the huge number of enslaved people doing manual labor, many people of high social rank or status from the nations Rome seized were enslaved to help administer Roman affairs and imperial networks. They were displaced throughout the empire to staff remote villas and become the bureaucratic scribes who churned out the writing that managed the empire. The economy of the empire was built on, driven by, and grew by enslaving more and more people.

The empire’s good news is that the elite rule over the rest of the world with an iron fist by divine fiat.

The final act in this retaking of Judea was the siege and sacking of Jerusalem and then the destruction of the Temple of the Judeans. Since so little survives from the ancient world, that this arch [The Arch of Titus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arch_of_Titus%5D of all arches should have endured into the twenty-first century is telling. This “accomplishment” of the emperor is carved into the surface of the arch, offering a concrete and complex depiction of Roman power and Israel’s political disappearance for 1,950 years.

The Jewish War, more than one million people were killed during the attack on and destruction of Jerusalem, and around one hundred thousand were enslaved. Numbers are very unreliable in ancient accounts, but it is clear that the number of people killed during this siege was extreme. The Roman troops captured those fleeing from the city to gather food and began to crucify them before the city walls. According to Josephus, they crucified five hundred Judeans a day, so many that there was a shortage of wood in the area. Josephus is at pains to indicate Titus’s pity for those suffering, but nevertheless the slaughter continued. His story is an interesting mix of both honoring Rome and pitying the suffering Judeans. The sole purpose of these massive numbers of crucifixions, Josephus tells us, is to terrorize those remaining in the city.

[Titus’s] main reason for not stopping the crucifixions was the hope that the spectacle might perhaps induce the Jews to surrender, for fear that continued resistance would involve them in a similar fate. The soldiers out of rage and hatred amused themselves by nailing their prisoners in different postures; and so great was their number, that space could not be found for the crosses nor crosses for the bodies. (The Jewish War V.449–451)

Vearncombe, Erin; Scott, Brandon; Taussig, Hal; Westar Institute, The. After Jesus Before Christianity. HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

I find it interesting that so many of the historical monuments are castles, defenses, forts, canons, battleships on and on and on, non-stop fear and the need for protection. Is there ever a time when this world was at peace? Not since I’ve been on the planet. There are short periods of respite sorta like boxers taking their corners between rounds. Lets add to that what? You name it. How about throwing in a pandemic or two or three and natural disasters, mass shootings—in this country; “wars and rumors of wars,” “You will have suffering in this world….”

Now for some Good News

I have found it difficult to write about the good not because there is any lack of those things we call good but precisely because there is so much good in this world. All the atrocities mentioned above are really the low hanging fruit readily visible and and now in our modern time we are inundated via the media to such an extent we may think this world is a horrible place to live. “If it bleeds it leads” I was told in my media class. Or as Leonard Cohen put it “The rich have their channels in the bedrooms of the poor”

Turn off the news and watch less or no violence and within a few days you will find yourselves, sleeping better and breathing easier. Maybe we will be less vulnerable and less afraid if we don’t listen to the alarmist pundits.

How many of us realize that good and bad require each other. Even good people hurt others and evil people are kind to others. I’ve heard it said only hurting people hurt others and maybe their striking out is the only way they know to ask for help.

This from The Course in Miracles; “The only judgment involved is the Holy Spirit’s one division into two categories; one of love, and the other the call for love. ²You cannot safely make this division, for you are much too confused either to recognize love, or to believe that everything else is nothing but a call for love. (ACIM, T-14.X.7:1-2)

Jesus saw a world of hurting people, from the lowliest to the most powerful he knew the Goodness of God and he gave it away to whoever would receive it.

“Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him. “Nobody is good except for one—God.” (Luke 18:19 and Mark 10:18)

What a thing for a person—like Jesus who maybe described as the best person who ever lived, so much so that some people consider him God in flesh. So what hope do we have of ever being given such an appellation? But for now lets come back down to where the rest of us live—in “this world.” Now Jesus did “reside” in “this world” for a short time and even at his trial he did not lash out or even protest.

Every religion I have studied gives us directions on how to live a “good life”. However it looks to us, as individuals we might agree the “Ten commandments” would be a good place to start or the “golden rule” after all these were given to help people live together with the least amount of conflict. Jesus reduced them to two which covers all the law and the prophets when he said—Love God and prove it by loving your fellow human and all life, really? Yes really.

It really bothers me that those who claim to be followers of Jesus so readily pick up the sword of prejudice and anger. Hurting people hurt others. Hurting people need love to. Two categories “…one of love, and the other the call for love.”

See what Paul says in Romans 12:17-21 (v18) “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live in peace with all people.” “Conquer evil with good” (21b) This is not a fighting fire with fire solution doing so will burn down the whole world.

Jesus says resist not evil. Matt.5.39 “This world” is not and never has been ready for this solution for kill or be killed is it’s motto. Jesus says no it’s kill and be killed. But in the eyes of the world this is an unthinkable reaction highly impractical and unworkable.

Do no harm.

But why is it so difficult to do so? Everyone wants to be treated with Love, Kindness and Respect.

OK, OK, I’m supposed to be talking about the good.

I do think most of the people in this world do try to be good, whatever good means to them. I don’t like using generalizations as such however this may be one place it applies.

“This world” that Jesus and every other sage I’ve read, in Christian terminology, wants to take us way back before the qualities of “The tree of good and evil” were eaten. Eating being the metaphor for sustaining, nourishing of our being. However not heeding the warning, not to eat this fruit, the human race ingested a poison we now call duality—good and evil.

In contrast Jesus tells the world right before his passion to eat of his body the “Tree of Life”. So instead of being exiles and alienated from God we can leave the world of duality and wake up to life. A life where there is only One Good—“there is none good but God.” See John 17. Can any prayer of Jesus ever go unanswered? If you answer no to that question then we must look elsewhere for evidence of a non-dual Life which is the only Life there is and eat of that tree. Why must we look elsewhere because obviously Jesus’ prayers were not answered at any time in this world. Is there another world? The hint is Jesus oft taught message of Kingdom of God—“My kingdom doesn’t belong to this world.”

But we must put down our swords first. Stop fighting each other. This would be the purification needed before we can see the sunshine. Matthew 26:51-52

Not only did Jesus NOT ask his dad to send down legions of angels he also taught his disciples to not use the weapons of “this world or the weapons of this age” to fight for Truth. Love your enemies and do Good to those who abuse and persecute you. This point of view is anathema in “this world and this age”.

The Truth needs no defense, and the false will disappear like the wrong answer to a math problem once the correct answer is provided. It is strange that religion is the only place where the correct answer is debated as untenable.

I do think people are good and want to be good and for sure want others to be good to them. There is only a small minority who think they have the answers to the worlds issues and attempt to force others into their camp. Unfortunately some of those make it into high office.

The “golden rule” is not a rule at all it is actually a Law a spiritual law, like gravity applies to everyone. “What we do to others will be done to us.” it is another way of expressing the law of karma; we will get the fruit of the seed we plant.