Jesus: Enemy of the State
I am back to reading the life of the Messiah Jesus. It is so full of rich, political overtones. I am so thankful to be reading this text now in an election year, as I’m considering the major shifts this country and world are undergoing. I am ready to expand my imagination on who Jesus was in his day, and who he is in this day. He was called “Lord” when Cesar was “Lord,” but today in this country might Jesus be known as the “Commander in Chief”? He certainly seems to cause chaos and fears of revolution even on the cusp of his birth. Herod the Great, the Roman’s puppet King for the area, was troubled, as was the whole city of Jerusalem, when the wise men of Persia came to Herod to see and worship his newest son and next king of the Jews. The only problem was, Herod had not just had a child; which confused and troubled everyone present. I can imagine Herod thinking, “Who is this so-called King? Where is he? If he is allowed to live, he will be a threat to me and my dynasty.”
Joseph and Mary smuggle Jesus out of town just before the infanticide of a terrified Herod. After crossing bandit and desert country, they arrive as refugees in Egypt, and stay there until Herod’s rule is past. The writer Matthew eloquently connects this with the fulfilled prophecy, “Out of Egypt, I will call my son.”
“Come out,” is used all over the Bible as a rallying cry to Israelites who draw back on the imagery of the Exodus. In Jesus’ life and times in Egypt, and his leaving, he is participating in the largest mythos of the Israelite people. Only Jesus turns their common narrative on its head. Now the oppressive regime is not in Egypt, but in the Holy Land of Bethlehem. The very city of David of which Jesus is a descendant and rightful heir to the throne, is now calling for his blood. Israel, co-opted with the Roman Empire under Herod, has become the evil Egypt in the fullest sense. Jesus’ Promised Land is in exile – living in Egypt as a refugee. Jesus’ return to Israel several years later brings him back as a special ops agent of God. Still a young child, Jesus returns to the flock of Israel as the Anointed One, prepared to reinterpret their history as the people of God on his own terms, and prepared to address the “Egypt” of Rome under which all Israelites were afflicted. He brought a message that was not “spiritualized” “privatized” or “apolitical.”
Jesus was not interested in violently overthrowing the pervasive Roman regime as were so many contemporary zealots and revolutionaries of his day. Nor was he going to, like the Essenes, retreat to the hinterlands and set up a new society completely “off the grid.” His plan was to be subordinate to and then creatively subvert the laws, and paradigms of Roman authority, Jewish Priestly authority, and even his own diverse followers. He came proclaiming another Kingdom that was intriguing, much like Martin Luther King’s dream, it was so real and yet seemed so far from the current reality. It would take trust in this crazy Jesus to follow him out of the Matrix and into a new world where there was “enough for everyone’s need by not enough for everyone’s greed.”
Jesus was a revolutionary. He brought a message that spoke to the political issues of the day, and offered an alternative. To some it seemed foolish, to many it seemed dangerous. But to a few it seemed like the only chance at a life of complete peace from all the tumult of high gas prices, outsourced slavery, broken families, a war with no end, abortion, and the crisis of immigration.
The events surrounding his birth set him on a course to become an “enemy of the state” before he could even walk. His life, and his death was a statement against the path of empires and corporations – the bottom line and the bloodshed of desperately grabbing at power and fighting to hold on to it. Jesus’ message wasn’t, and isn’t, a message relegated to the “self-help” or “religion” section of the bookstore. It impacts every aspect of our lives.
chris, 
Sean and 3 others are discussing. 
Trey is discussing. 
I was doing some research and I googled; “enemy of the state / Jesus” and I found your post.
I would just like to share what I wrote today. Unpolished but just an idea really – that I’m exploring.
Jesus a huppy, a bohemian, a counter-culture, antiestablishment revolutionary? Maybe.
The idea of truth, love, and peace are anti-establishment really. These concepts challenge a certain fews security.
Not that history repeats itself- but more that people act simularly under simular circumstances. What happens when there is a conflict between these two ideologies?
That is an easy one really-eliminate diseent. (If you want to even call it that – I feel like a better word with not such a negative denotation should be used really.)
If the people are not locked up, or on a self destructive spiraling downward path – they are murdered.
They did the same thing to Socrates along with the Kenedy brothers, MLK Jr, John Lennon, as well as Jesus.
All that John Lennon was saying is let’s give peace a chance, B. Kennedy thought that we could do better, MLK Jr. thought it was important to love when others hated, and Jesus was about peace and love.
For some reason a lot of times bad people, do not like good people. I know that the better of a person that I am – the more that people dislike me.
This is what I wonder however; who is next???