It appeared that the religious leaders and the government had won. Their uneasy alliance--their marriage of convenience--had conspired to exercise the power they had to eliminate distractions--distractions that could potentially become more than distractions, that could even escalate into civic unrest. This Jesus was causing them no end of difficulties, and so they made an end of the difficulties he was causing by making an end of him. State-sanctioned, legally-permitted execution ended Jesus' life, and the more powerful in the equation won out. Jesus was eliminated. The power of the influential and the politically positioned saw to it.
We live in a world that still plays by those rules. "It's not what you know; it's who you know." "The one with the most toys when they die wins." "Greed is good." Even if we don't necessarily "buy in" to all of these aphorisms, we really have to admit that they are still profoundly at work. And if we're honest, we also have to admit that there is a different system of justice for those who are well-off and "connected" than for those who are not either of those things. What killed Jesus is still active, and still doing its worst.
But Jesus was raised to new life, by a power that transcends the power that killed him. A power that can conquer hate. A power that can restore life. A power that affirms that no matter how invaluable you are in the usual hierarchy of power, you are supremely valuable in the eyes of the One who created the world and sustains life.
How do we live embracing this power, in the face of our usual sense of feeling powerless? As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said in his "I Have a Dream" speech:
“In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.”
Soul force is the love that conquers hate. Soul force is the compassion that stands up for the powerless, and speaks for the voiceless. Soul force is the power of God that raises to new life.
Easter changes things. It changes our understanding of power, and it changes the way we live because of it.
GOSPEL John 19:8-11
8 Now when Pilate heard this, he was more afraid than ever. 9 He entered his headquarters again and asked Jesus, ‘Where are you from?’ But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 Pilate therefore said to him, ‘Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?’ 11 Jesus answered him, ‘You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above; therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.’
NEW TESTAMENT Philippians 2:5-8
5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
6 who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
7 but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
8 he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
NEW TESTAMENT Romans 8:38-39
38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.