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The Prophetic Imagination of Jesus: Challenging Empire Through Compassion · Faith at Work

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  SPEAKER_00: We are going to be talking about the prophetic imagination of Jesus.
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  It is a term that Walter Brueggemann uses in his book,
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  The Prophetic Imagination.
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  SPEAKER_00: There's a note in your bulletin about what that is.
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  SPEAKER_00: But to understand the prophetic imagination of Jesus,
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  SPEAKER_00: we really need to understand the four to 500 years that
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  SPEAKER_00: led up to Jesus coming and working his message out through empire.
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  All this culminated in Jesus' ministry of,
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  you heard it said,
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  but I say unto you.
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  And it was summarized in the Beatitudes that we just read in
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  Matthew chapter 5.
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  SPEAKER_00: So when Malachi prophesied in 460 BC,
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  SPEAKER_00: Judah was just a small Persian province in Judah called Yehu,
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  SPEAKER_00: and it was about,
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  SPEAKER_00: as I said last week,
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  SPEAKER_00: about 30,000 to 50,000 people.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that lasted until 332 BC.
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  SPEAKER_00: So,
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  SPEAKER_00: if you want to follow along with this,
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  SPEAKER_00: it's on page 7 of your bulletin,
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  SPEAKER_00: and it's also up here on the screen.
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  SPEAKER_00: In 332 BC,
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  SPEAKER_00: Alexander the Great conquered the region,
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  SPEAKER_00: bringing new rulers and an entirely new cultural force.
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  SPEAKER_00: It was called Hellenism.
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  SPEAKER_00: And the Greek language, philosophy, gymnasiums,
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  in the nude,
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  by the way,
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  and theaters spread throughout the Mediterranean.
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  SPEAKER_00: Greek culture began seeping into the Jewish lifestyle,
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  SPEAKER_00: both socially,
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  SPEAKER_00: culturally,
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  SPEAKER_00: religiously,
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  SPEAKER_00: and politically,
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  SPEAKER_00: especially among the urban elite of the time.
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  SPEAKER_00: Then in 200 BC, Syria's Seleucid Empire took control.
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  SPEAKER_00: This was Assyria coming back into play.
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  SPEAKER_00: And in 167 BC, a guy named Antiochus IV Epiphanes, sorry about that,
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  SPEAKER_00: outlawed Jewish practices.
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  SPEAKER_00: So there was no Sabbath, there was no circumcision.
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  SPEAKER_00: And if you remember,
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  these were the markers of the Mosaic and the Abrahamic
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  covenants that established
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  SPEAKER_00: everything in Judaism at that time.
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  SPEAKER_00: Antiochus went even farther than outlawing the Jewish religion.
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  SPEAKER_00: He actually desecrated the temple by sacrificing a pig
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  SPEAKER_00: on the altar.
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  SPEAKER_00: Well,
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  SPEAKER_00: just that's gross,
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  SPEAKER_00: but of course,
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  swine was like something that the Jewish people were not
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  supposed to be involved
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  SPEAKER_00: with at all.
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  And so sacrificing a pig on the altar was just a slap in the
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  Jewish cultural faith.
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  SPEAKER_00: So he sacrificed a pig on the altar,
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  SPEAKER_00: and then he consecrated the temple to Zeus,
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  SPEAKER_00: which was a Greek god.
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  SPEAKER_00: This sparked what was called the Maccabean Revolt.
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  SPEAKER_00: Thanks guys.
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  The Maccabeans were a priestly family that led the religious
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  orders of that time.
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  SPEAKER_00: And so this priestly family led what was called the Maccabean Revolt.
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  If you remember a few weeks ago,
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  I said,
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  we're going to be talking about the Maccabean Revolt.
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  SPEAKER_00: Well, here it is.
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  SPEAKER_00: So a guy named Judah the Hammer Maccabee,
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  SPEAKER_00: For real, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: So I guess he was a Jewish wrestler.
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  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
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  SPEAKER_00: But Judah the Hammer Maccabee led a priestly violent revolt,
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  SPEAKER_00: initiating guerrilla warfare against Epiphanes and actually won.
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  SPEAKER_00: Pushed them out.
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  SPEAKER_00: And in 164, they rededicated the temple.
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  SPEAKER_00: 164 BC, before Christ, okay?
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  And this event,
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  this rededication of the temple is what is celebrated by the
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  festival Hanukkah.
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  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
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  So that's where Hanukkah comes from,
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  the Maccabean revolt and this rededication of the temple.
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  The Maccabees established the first independent Jewish state in
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  over 400 years.
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  SPEAKER_00: So the Jews are back in power.
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  There's now a Jewish nation state that is in control of Judah
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  and Jerusalem.
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  SPEAKER_00: But...
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  SPEAKER_00: It didn't last.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Hesmonian,
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  SPEAKER_00: which was the way that it was talked about,
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  SPEAKER_00: the Hesmonian leadership at that time,
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  SPEAKER_00: it didn't last because they got corrupted.
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  SPEAKER_00: They got Hellenized, it's called, and they got power-hungry.
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  So the dream of independence just became another version of
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  what we're talking
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  SPEAKER_00: about as royal consciousness,
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  SPEAKER_00: just in a different form.
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  SPEAKER_00: Then in 63 BCE, so again 63 years before Jesus is born, right?
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  Rome's general Pompey marches into Jerusalem and Jewish
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  independence is ended once again.
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  SPEAKER_00: Rome appoints Herod the Great as...
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  SPEAKER_00: Literally, the king of the Jews in 37 BC.
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  SPEAKER_00: And Herod, he was a brilliant builder, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: And really a brilliant politician.
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  SPEAKER_00: He made the second temple magnificent,
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  SPEAKER_00: glorious,
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  SPEAKER_00: by adding large additions,
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  SPEAKER_00: huge retaining walls,
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  SPEAKER_00: and adorning a temple with marble and gold.
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  SPEAKER_00: Literally making it the largest temple in the ancient world.
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  SPEAKER_00: But he was brutal.
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  He was so power hungry that in order to keep power,
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  he killed his family to stay in power.
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  SPEAKER_00: And as we know in the scripture,
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  SPEAKER_00: when he heard about a newborn king of the Jews,
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  it was not a huge leap for him to begin to massacre all of
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  these newborn infants in
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  SPEAKER_00: Bethlehem.
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  SPEAKER_00: That is royal consciousness.
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  A king so desperate to preserve power that he sacrifices the
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  vulnerable without grief.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now, after Herod died in 4 BC, so four years after Jesus was born...
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  Rome divided his kingdom among his various sons,
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  all called different Herods.
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  SPEAKER_00: And by the time that Jesus began his ministry around 27,
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  SPEAKER_00: 29 CE,
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  Judah was completely under the direct Roman rule through
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  governors like Pontius
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  SPEAKER_00: Pilate,
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  and through Herod Antipas,
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  who would execute John the Baptist,
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  who was controlling Galilee.
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  So,
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  by Jesus' day,
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  the Jewish people had lived under foreign empires for nearly
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  600 years.
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  SPEAKER_00: The temple, well, it stood magnificent.
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  But it had become an economic institution extracting wealth
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  from the poor.
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  SPEAKER_00: The priesthood was appointed by Rome.
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  SPEAKER_00: And within this whole tapestry of things,
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  SPEAKER_00: as always happens,
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  SPEAKER_00: multiple religious groups had emerged among the Jews.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Sadducees, these were the priestly aristocracy.
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  SPEAKER_00: They collaborated with Rome.
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  SPEAKER_00: They were the ones that were appointed by Rome.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees, you've heard of them.
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  Well,
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  they tried to make holiness accessible through careful Torah
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  observance.
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  SPEAKER_00: For us, that's the first five books of the Bible.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Essenes,
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  SPEAKER_00: Well,
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  SPEAKER_00: they withdrew to the desert into separatist communities,
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  SPEAKER_00: sort of like the monks that we'll hear about in a couple of weeks.
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  SPEAKER_00: Some people believe that John the Baptist comes out of this tradition,
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  and some also think that Jesus had a lot of influence from the
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  Essenes and how they
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  SPEAKER_00: viewed the world,
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  SPEAKER_00: society,
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  SPEAKER_00: and God among them.
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  SPEAKER_00: The zealots, well, they advocated armed resistance.
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  SPEAKER_00: They were the guerrillas,
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  SPEAKER_00: they were the militants,
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  they were the ones that thought God was behind them and they
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  needed to oust Rome
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  SPEAKER_00: through violence.
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  And then there was the crowd,
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  the numbed peasantry who was crushed by taxation,
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  debt,
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  and abuse.
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  SPEAKER_00: Roman occupation was everywhere.
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  SPEAKER_00: Legions,
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  SPEAKER_00: governors,
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  and crucifixions lining the roads that declared that if you go
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  against Pax Romana,
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  SPEAKER_00: Roman peace,
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  SPEAKER_00: you're gonna end up along the road on a cross.
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  SPEAKER_00: That peace was a peace that came from domination maintained by violence.
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  And it is into this world that Jesus came announcing the
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  kingdom of God has come.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not Rome's kingdom, not Herod's,
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  Not the temple system,
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  not even Malachi's kingdom vision that we heard about last
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  week.
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  SPEAKER_00: God's kingdom,
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  a new alternative imagination that would challenge every
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  religious and imperial
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  SPEAKER_00: assumption the people had learned to accept as normal.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now,
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  SPEAKER_00: before we look at how Jesus addressed all of this,
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  SPEAKER_00: we need to understand what Brueggemann means,
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  SPEAKER_00: and I mean by royal consciousness.
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  SPEAKER_00: Okay, it's a term that...
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  SPEAKER_00: I have recently learned about reading the prophetic imagination,
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  SPEAKER_00: and I know,
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  SPEAKER_00: of course,
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  SPEAKER_00: probably something that's new to you.
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  SPEAKER_00: So what is royal consciousness?
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  Well,
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  royal consciousness is empire in the form of a consciousness,
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  ideology,
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  or civil religion.
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  It's a story that power tells about what is normal,
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  acceptable,
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  and justifiable.
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  It's the belief that order must be preserved even if it
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  requires casualties.
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  SPEAKER_00: The system does not count.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's the habit of calling pain the price we pay.
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  SPEAKER_00: and then learning not to look closely at who pays the price.
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  SPEAKER_00: Royal consciousness trains whole communities,
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  SPEAKER_00: whole nations,
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  SPEAKER_00: to stop feeling,
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  SPEAKER_00: to stop grieving,
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  SPEAKER_00: to stop noticing what suffering costs.
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  And when numbness becomes a civic virtue,
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  truth becomes a threat to empire.
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  According to Brueggemann,
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  Jesus presented the ultimate criticism to royal consciousness.
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  And the way of that criticism was decisive solidarity with
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  marginal people.
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  SPEAKER_00: including the vulnerability required by that solitary.
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  Jesus does not critique empire or the situation as it was as a
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  commentator.
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  He critiques it as someone who refuses its numbness and enters
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  the pain it creates.
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  SPEAKER_00: He makes the hurt visible.
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  SPEAKER_00: He makes the groans audible.
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  And he does this not as a technique,
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  but as a way of life and a way of dying.
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  SPEAKER_00: In the book, The Prophetic Imagination, chapter 4...
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  is really what sort of motivated me to talk about this and the
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  next ideas that I'm
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  SPEAKER_00: going to be sharing.
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  SPEAKER_00: They are shared very much in brief.
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  SPEAKER_00: If you want to learn more,
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  SPEAKER_00: there are more of these,
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  and they are in chapter four of The Prophetic Imagination if
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  you want to read that.
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  I have a link to your article on my Substack if you want to read
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  that.
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  SPEAKER_00: But in brief, let's share five.
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  SPEAKER_00: ways that Jesus worked at addressing the royal consciousness,
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  SPEAKER_00: empire,
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  SPEAKER_00: the abuses that were happening in his time.
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  SPEAKER_00: First, he made suffering visible and audible.
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  SPEAKER_00: Royal consciousness,
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  SPEAKER_00: whether it's Persian or Greek or Roman or any other,
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  SPEAKER_00: trains people to stop feeling,
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  SPEAKER_00: to stop grieving,
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  SPEAKER_00: to stop noticing what suffering costs.
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  SPEAKER_00: And when numbness becomes a civic virtue,
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  SPEAKER_00: truth,
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  SPEAKER_00: like what Jesus spoke,
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  SPEAKER_00: becomes a threat to the empire.
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  SPEAKER_00: Jesus refused that numbness.
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  SPEAKER_00: He touched lepers when purity codes said, don't do that.
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  SPEAKER_00: He healed on the Sabbath when religious leaders said, no, wait.
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  SPEAKER_00: He wept over Jerusalem even as it prepared to kill him.
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  SPEAKER_00: He made the groans of the marginalized impossible to ignore by everyone.
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  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, he practiced solidarity, not commentary.
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  Jesus ate with the tax collectors and sinners,
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  the people society had written off.
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  SPEAKER_00: He dignified women in a patriarchal culture.
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  SPEAKER_00: He welcomed children when disciples tried to shoo them away.
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  SPEAKER_00: He crossed ethnic boundaries.
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  SPEAKER_00: And this wasn't charity that keeps emotional distance, right?
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  This is solidarity that accepts the vulnerability that comes
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  with solidarity.
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  SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't just serve the marginalized.
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  He identified with them so completely that when he told his
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  disciples to help the least of them,
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  SPEAKER_00: He said that we were helping him.
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  SPEAKER_00: Why?
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  SPEAKER_00: Because he was in the soup line too, literally at that time.
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  SPEAKER_00: Third, he confronted debt as a spiritual and a political reality.
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  SPEAKER_00: Jesus' language about debt wasn't metaphorical.
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  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said,
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  SPEAKER_00: forgive our debts,
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  SPEAKER_00: and he meant actual economic debt that was crushing peasant families.
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  SPEAKER_00: Debt is empire's most powerful tool of quiet domination.
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  SPEAKER_00: It disciplines imagination and it limits futures.
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  Jesus instead imagined Jubilee,
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  the biblical vision of debt cancellation and economic reset.
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  SPEAKER_00: He challenged the temple system that profited from the poor.
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  SPEAKER_00: He talked about treasure in heaven versus treasure on earth.
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  SPEAKER_00: He confronted an economy that treats human beings as a revenue stream.
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  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, he refused civil religions guarantee.
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  SPEAKER_00: The temple had become a guarantee.
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  SPEAKER_00: God's presence was assured, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: The nation was chosen.
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  SPEAKER_00: Violence in God's name was righteous.
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  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus disrupted that.
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  He prophesied that the temple would be destroyed,
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  i.e.,
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  the demise of civil religion.
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  SPEAKER_00: He said God could raise up children of Abraham from stones, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: I.e., you're just citizens at this point.
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  He challenged assumptions that religious infrastructure equals
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  God's presence.
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  SPEAKER_00: I.e., you need to follow the way I'm doing it.
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  SPEAKER_00: Civil religion in America offers the same guarantee.
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  We are chosen,
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  we are destined,
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  our violence is righteous,
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  our prosperity is proof.
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  SPEAKER_00: The gospel of Jesus Christ doesn't offer national guarantee.
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  SPEAKER_00: It offers the cross and it offers the hope of resurrection.
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  SPEAKER_00: It offers truth that dismantles illusions.
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  SPEAKER_00: And lastly, he centered grief as public speech.
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  In Matthew's birth narrative,
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  Brueggemann highlights the juxtaposition that is happening.
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  SPEAKER_00: Herod's rage and Rachel's grief.
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  SPEAKER_00: The royal apparatus, it cannot or perhaps will not grieve.
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  SPEAKER_00: But the prophet, the prophet must grieve because grief tells the truth.
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  SPEAKER_00: Empire needs us all not to tell.
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  SPEAKER_00: Jesus wept over Jerusalem.
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  SPEAKER_00: He pronounced woes over the powerful while blessing the mourners.
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  SPEAKER_00: His entire ministry moved towards a cross,
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  the ultimate act of human solidarity by entering suffering
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  rather than denying it.
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  SPEAKER_00: And grief isn't sentimental, by the way.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's political in the deepest sense.
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  SPEAKER_00: because grief names what empire needs us not to name.
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  SPEAKER_00: A little heady, I know.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is deep stuff, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: So what does it mean for us?
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  Well,
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  Brueggemann claims this,
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  that compassion constitutes a radical form of criticism.
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  Now,
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  it's interesting to note that empires can easily accommodate
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  charity.
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  SPEAKER_00: They fund or defund charity as crowd control.
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  SPEAKER_00: They can celebrate service as long as service never questions the system.
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  SPEAKER_00: But solidarity with pain,
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  SPEAKER_00: the willingness to be made vulnerable by suffering with others,
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  SPEAKER_00: well,
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  SPEAKER_00: that's harder to manage.
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  We practice Jesus-modeled prophetic imagination when we refuse
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  numbness by making
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  SPEAKER_00: suffering visible,
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  SPEAKER_00: by practicing grief as public,
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  SPEAKER_00: truthful worship.
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  SPEAKER_00: By offering solidarity that accepts vulnerability.
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  SPEAKER_00: By building tables where enemies become neighbors.
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  SPEAKER_00: By practicing forgiveness as social liberation.
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  SPEAKER_00: By protecting Sabbath as freedom for all.
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  SPEAKER_00: By confronting debt as spiritual wound and a political tool.
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  by rejecting civil religion's guarantee and returning to a
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  cross-shaped imagination of Jesus.
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  The question is this,
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  can the church become the place where the groans are heard?
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  If the groans become audible,
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  the consciousness of domination is already jeopardized.
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  SPEAKER_00: In a time when strength is celebrated and vulnerability is mocked,
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  the Church has a unique and holy opportunity to practice the
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  politics of Jesus,
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  SPEAKER_00: which looks like solidarity,
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  SPEAKER_00: forgiveness,
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  SPEAKER_00: Sabbath freedom,
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  SPEAKER_00: and tables big enough to threaten the entire
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  SPEAKER_00: Simply by eating a meal together.
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  SPEAKER_00: Amen.