Today’s readings really speak to me of where we often find ourselves as a collective in today’s world.
In the first reading from Ezekiel (37), God is talking about a future time when the divided nation of Israel will become one again and the people will be cleansed so that they find their way home to God and to each other. God says, “I will make with them a covenant of peace…I will be their God and they will be my people.”
What a beautiful vision.
In the the gospel, the “chief priests and Pharisees” notice that Jesus is gaining in popularity and renown. They are not sure what to do with him. They are quoted as saying what I think is one of the most profound lines in the gospels, “If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our land and our nation (Jn 11).” It is right after this is said that they begin to think about a plan to kill him.
My heart just sinks when I read this passage.
It’s my guess that people like the chief priests and Pharisees, as much as they were sometimes opposed to and annoyed by Jesus, actually shared Jesus’ vision for unity and peace (as articulated in Ezekiel 37). Sure they may have been a bit more legalistic or had different interpretations on things, but they, too, wanted peace and prosperity for Israel.
And they, too, were living in an occupied land. It is this Roman military occupation and the violence and fear that it generated that really influenced them. Listen to their concerns about the Romans taking away their land and their political power. They seem less concerned about what Jesus will do so much as what the Romans will do if Jesus’ activity interrupts the status quo.
One of the dynamics that is witnessed in situations of violence and oppression is called “lateral violence” (or lateral oppression). This is a form of violence that emerges out of situations of oppression whereby the oppressed end up unleashing anger and violence against one another versus against the source of the oppression.
Lateral violence/oppression can take a lot of forms. It can show up as forms of social exclusion, bullying, self-policing and physical violence (to name a few). And part of the reason it emerges is that some members of the oppressed group have tried to align somehow with the dominant group as a strategy of survival.
As far as I can tell, Jesus was not interested in assimilation or playing along with the Romans in any way. The chief priests and Pharisees, however, probably saw assimilation of some kind as their means of collective survival. John’s gospel reveals that their fear of losing what little they had in an already oppressive system drove their decision making.
We see this so often in our world – where people affected by oppression engage in forms of lateral violence against people in their own group or against other marginalized groups. It is so painful to witness (and not always easy to identify) and the end result is that the oppressive powers remain intact while the oppressed tear each other down or apart.
Where do you witness this happening in today’s world?
Building our awareness as to how lateral oppression and violence work is one of the first steps towards dismantling the structures of oppression in our world. Part of that awareness includes exploring the messages that we have internalized as well – messages about ourselves, messages about other groups, messages about how power works in the world.
There are many scholars who would say that Jesus – instead of trying to establish a church – was more likely laying the foundation for a movement “whose purpose was and is to change the face of the earth from the nightmare it often is into the dream that God intends (Episcopalian Bishop Michael Curry).” The movement brought together people who were all outsiders somehow and helped them join together to create a more just and equitable world. In his movement work, I am guessing that Jesus was careful to not replicate any forms of lateral vilence or oppression but instead helped people recognize and devlop their common humanity (what Jesus called the kin-dom of God).
Our ongoing work as “church” must also do likewise.