lenten blog | March 6, 2024

Faith bought off by political favours

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for March 6th:  Psalm 84; Ezra 6:1-16; and Acts 15:36-41.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Ezra tells us today about the Persian kings Cyrus and Darius who allowed for the restoration of the Jerusalem Temple.  They offered money and platitudes to the defeated people of Israel.  This was a wise investment.  Before the Persian Empire, the Babylonians and Assyrians had a practice of deporting and repopulating conquered lands.  This kept the defeated nations off balance and ill prepared to offer organized resistance to the empires.  Persia conquered Babylon in 539 BC.  To garner good will among their inherited subjects, the Persians allowed for those in exile to return to their native lands. 

This did not mean that they were free of Persian rule, that they could become nation states once again.  With the case of the Jews and Jerusalem, we read today of Darius’ decree:  “‘Now you, Tattenai, governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and you, their associates, the envoys in the province Beyond the River, keep away; let the work on this house of God alone; let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site.’”  There are still no nations of Israel or Judah.  These have been erased from the political map, their names replaced by a province called Beyond the River. 

The Jerusalem Temple is restored.  Sacrifices resume.  However, the people remain subjugated and disenfranchised.  They once were under the thumb of Egypt’s Pharaoh and now under the control of Persia’s king.  Their Passover liberation has been denuded.  But Darius bought their good will by giving them their Temple building.  In this arrangement, Yahweh cannot act as Israel’s king, their leader and their guide.  Yahweh is confined within the Temple building.  But Darius bought the people’s acceptance of their servitude by giving them the Temple building:  “The people of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles, celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy.”

For the cost of this building, the Persians ruled over the People of God until Alexander the Great defeated them some two centuries later.  There may be a lesson here for people of faith to be wary of courting political favours.  Politicians may offer gifts to appease that are not all that dissimilar to the Persian’s gift of the Jerusalem Temple, and the religious can be blinded to greater issues of the faith.

Less than a week before the Roman empire that defeated the Greeks who had defeated the Persians who had defeated the Babylonians executed Jesus, Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan write of Palm Sunday. (The Last Week, chap 1)  Pontius Pilate marches into Jerusalem prior to the Passover from the west with powerful symbols of imperial power and theology.  From the east, Jesus enters riding on a donkey down from the Mount of Olives:  “Jesus’ procession deliberately countered what was happening on the other side of the city.  Pilate’s procession embodied the power, glory and violence of the empire that ruled the world.  Jesus’ procession embodied an alternative vision, the kingdom of God.” (p. 4) 

Lent is a reminder of the humbleness of our crucified Saviour.  Jesus persuades by His example and teaching.  Power is the antithesis of gospel.  To force religious beliefs on others who do not accept them is to disavow Jesus and the persuasive example of a sincerely lived faith.  To court political favours to enforce some strange conception of moral choice is not to walk into Jerusalem with Jesus from the east, but to be captivated by the pomp and glory of the show to the west.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.