Gentle Jesus meek and mild - I don't think so

wayseer · #1 30th May 2009, 09:52 AM

The small town of Nazareth is located in the rugged hills in Galilee. It was a troubled land, nestled as it were between the major trade routes flowing from the east and the south towards the north of the west. The land, as far as Judaism were concerned, was called Israel and formed part of the Northern Kingdom when the the nation spilt. It didn't last long and was swallowed up by the Assyrians in 721 BC. Many of the people were carried away as slaves but some stuck to the hills. However, without the Temple, which was located far in Jerusalem, they had nothing to keep their heritage alive. They were too busy keeping themselves alive to worry about the niceties of religion.

The remnant hung on but became alienated from the southern Kingdom. Over time the name Galilee became synonymous with interbreeding and lost heritage - thus the notion of the 'lost tribes'. They became collectively known as Samarians - a racial compromised collection of people who had no place of worship and did not practice proper food keeping laws.

That is not say they had lost their oral traditions - they still knew who they were even though they had suffered the alienation effects of history. This tradition was to become important when the Romans took over. A fearless tradition one might suppose grew up in those bleak hills knowing they had no friends in Jerusalem and even less in Rome, they looked to their own.

There was also another tradition - another narrative that imposed itself on the people of those hills - the Maccabean uprisings against the Hellenization of Palestine. The sense of freedom was short lived and eventually the Priests and rabbis were replaced by he Pharisees who formed an unholy alliance with Herod and his court.

But the experience of rebellion lay not so dormant in the Galilean hills. Banditry was rife. Trade caravans attacked. Terrorist attacks carried out on isolated groups of Romans soldiers. And into this heady mix of culture, religion and competing geopolitical interests stepped a man named John, John the Baptist. Camped on the edge of the desert alongside a small stream he created an army of little time bombs set loose into Palestine.

Many Jews were seeking some answer to the dire situation in which they found themselves. The word 'messiah' was not far from anyone lips. And John made full use of this need. Those coming out of the desert, out of Egypt as it were, were baptized in the Jordan, the image of crossing the Red Sea as had their forefathers, and pointed westward, towards the Promised Land with the promise, 'the Messiah is coming'. A steady stream of true believers, all with one purpose, to usher in the Messianic Kingdom.

It was only natural then that a Galilean named Jesus, appalled as to what was going on, sought the solitude of the desert to find God. On his return he crossed the Jordan and found John. Shortly after he found other like minded Galileans and together formed a roving band of rebels intent on undermining the pervasive and corrosive effects of accommodating the foreigner - be they Romans, Greeks or Herodians.

They had swords and one was a Zealot. These were hard bitten men of a beaten people - they knew how precarious life was at the best of times. Neither they were not fools on a fools errand. They were Jews first. And they knew the countryside - and they knew the message of God. And as they went they gathered more followers until on that day, when their leader rode into Jerusalem, the knew the mob were with them. The time was near - the time when the Messiah would lead the Jews in an uprising that would rid the foreigners from their lands.

Only it didn't happen. Their leader back away at the last moment. Right there in the Temple, as he took the whips to the money changers, it was about happen. The crowds were with hims- he had only to say the word. But, No, he dropped the whips, turned and walked out of the Temple. Whatever had been about to happened was over.

Judas, the Zealot, was furious. He confronted the leader and demanded what was going on. Peter was waving his sword under. What was their leader up to? Why the back down. None of his band understood. This is why they had left their homes, such as they were, to bring about the new era - this had been their goal. Now what were they to do? They did not understand then as they do not understand now.

Their leader went to his death as his followers went and hid.

No peace can be won through victory, not matter how nobel the cause. Victory can only come through justice - through the application of love, of compassion, of equality. This is a tough love - a love that demands a total commitment - a commitment unto death. It was a commitment born in the Galilean hills and played out in the dust of the market place, the halls of Kings and the degradation of death on a cross. I sometimes wonder if it could happen again.