HEARTLESS AND CRUEL

Sunday's lection describes Jesus making a whip to drive out those responsible for turning the Temple in Jerusalem into a marketplace. Historians tell us that Jesus entered the city with 5000 men and went straight for the temple which, by that time, had become the symbol of the conjugal dictatorship of the Romans and the Jerusalem-based political and religious elite. Pontius Plate, the Roman Governor, and Joseph Caiaphas, the High Priest, were bosom buddies. Both were responsible for the execution of Jesus. Both were responsible for the murder of so many others who were deemed "enemies of the state."

Both were removed from office around 36 CE. Josephus described Caiaphas as "heartless" while Philo characterized Pilate's tenure as one of "ceaseless cruelty".

As long as there are heartless and cruel people who wield power, the murder of innocents and the massacre of defenseless peoples will continue. As long as there are heartless and cruel people who think that women and children are objects, that people are commodities, and that the Bible is a land title* the culture of impunity will continue. As long as there are heartless and cruel people enthroned and sustained by empire, patronage politics, and insatiable greed, the killings will not stop.

Dear Friends, the heartless and the cruel will not stop. In order for the killings to stop, in order for this culture of impunity to end, we need to stop the heartless and the cruel: Netanyahu, Biden, Trump, Marcos, and their ilk ... Now! We also need to dismantle the systems, the structures, and the culture that breed them.


* "The Bible is not a land title" is a quote from Prof. Atalia Omer.
+art, "Jesus drives out the merchants", JESUS MAFA 1973, Cameroon (from the Vanderbilt Divinity Library art collection).