The Strong One

The Strong One--April 15, 2019

"Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters, and they gathered the whole cohort around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on his head. They put a reed in his right hand and knelt before him and mocked him, saying, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' They spat on him, and took the reed and struck him on the head. After mocking him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they let him away to crucify him." [Matthew 27:27-31]

Jesus is the strong one here.  Set this down and make no mistake about it.  

For all the ways that Rome tries to impress by flexing some imperial muscle here with the torture and mocking of Jesus, he is really the one who embodies true strength.  

Rome thought these kinds of shows of force revealed its strength and its power. This kind of abuse wasn't something they hid in the shadows or covered up; the empire intentionally did this to prisoners to break both them and the people who watched these public scenes.  This wasn't a scandal that Pilate would have to apologize for--this was a deliberate tactic meant to make people afraid.  Nor was this a case of just "a few bad eggs" here mocking Jesus, dressing him up, and smacking him around--this was exactly what you would expect from an empire that used its efficiency and brutality to keep people in line. This violence and insulting was what they were trained to do.  The soldiers, following the lead of the bully Roman governor Pilate, who himself was only following the lead set by the cruel and arrogant Caesar, all try to intimidate Jesus, to goad him into lashing out, and to break his spirit. But that is the one thing about Jesus that proves to be utterly unbreakable--the spirit of courage and love that fills him and flows from him, the same Spirit that once brooded over the chaos in the beginning and said, "Let there be light."

Now, we could talk here about how bad this scene makes the Empire look, too.  We could talk about how this scene of brutality revealed just how hollow and terrible Rome had become at this point. Regardless of however noble the republic had once been, or however rich the culture of the Romans and the Greeks before them might have been in learning, art, and architecture once upon a time, here as these imperial soldiers mock Jesus they are nothing more than bullies. This scene just takes all the masks off and reveals that underneath all the gilded facades and banners waving in the wind, the Empire was just a system of organized ruthlessness. Whatever its official party line and mottos said about bringing "eternal peace" and civilization to the world, here the ways of Empire are shown for what they really were all along--just a means to crush conquered peoples, take what was theirs, and make public examples out of their troublemakers.  

And that was the thing--if the Empire could get the people to think that the ones getting flogged were the real troublemakers, no one would object to the whipping. If the Empire could make people think that the ones being tortured and mocked were the real dangers, it could get the crowds cheering in support of the torture and mockery.  It is worth remembering, after all, that when the Respectable Religious Folk bring their accusations about Jesus to Pontius Pilate, they accuse Jesus of "perverting our nation" (see Luke 23:2).  What a move--if you want to get the people to hate someone, just drop the mere suggestion that they don't love apple pie and fireworks on the Fourth of July.  Just give the slightest hint that someone is attacking your cherished national values, and watch how the crowd turns on them, too. Dehumanize your opponent so it makes it easier to treat them inhumanely.  Demonize your opponent so that you can persuade everyone you are doing a public service to get rid of them. That makes it easy to cheer for their blood.  And it makes the ones who spill that blood--even if it's an occupying empire--look strong, impressive, and powerful.  

And that was Rome's play here. Rome thought this was what "greatness" looked like, but it really only exposed how empty and insecure their whole system was.  Empires are like that, no matter the letterhead.

But in the face of all this brutality, Jesus is really the strong one.  He will not give his tormentors the satisfaction of answering their hatred with his own.  He will not accept their terms and fight back against them or whip and mock his tormentors.  Neither will he give them ammunition for them to use against him to cast him as a dangerous, violent trouble-maker.  Jesus refuses to do any of those things. And his refusal exposes the hollowness of the soldiers' cause and the empire they serve, while also showing a love for his enemies that they have not extended to him.  This is Jesus' strength--when the powers of the day try and goad him into answering their hatred with hatred, their mockery with insults of his own, their violence with violence, Jesus refuses to give in or accept those terms.

Even when the powers of the day have done their worst, labeling Jesus a dangerous "perverter of the nation" and mocking him as a prelude to torturing him to deal, Jesus does not let himself be goaded into sinking to their level.  Even when the empire stirs up the people's hatred and provokes them all to hate troublemakers like this rabbi from Nazareth, Jesus does not answer their provocations with threats or violence of his own.  And that's just it: Rome thinks that stripping, mocking, and beating Jesus (and encouraging this kind of action toward others they have labeled as "perverters of the nation") shows its own power and strength, while Jesus is convinced that his refusal to sink to those levels is actually what makes him stronger than the empire.

We should be very careful in this life whom we allow to rile us up, and whom we allow ourselves to be provoked into hating and dehumanizing.  We should be mindful of whom we give ourselves permission to ignore while they are intimidated, threatened, or attacked.  And we should pay attention to how we respond when we are feeling provoked, too, because it is always easy to let ourselves get sucked into answering evil with evil.  And there will be times we blow it--when we take the bait and get drawn into the games that empires play. 

But here is good news: even when we fail, even when we give into that weakness, Jesus never did, and he still never does.  Jesus' kind of strength outlasts us all.  He is strong enough that even when his body gets broken, his courage and love never do.

Lord Jesus, give us strength like yours, and the ability to lean on your strength when we fail.