Kin-dom and Empire Pt. 2

By Rev. John Jackson

Professor Jerome Clayton Ross, a Hebrew bible scholar at the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University, once pointed out that the bible addresses people who are navigating through five episodes of oppression by empires from Genesis to Revelation. The people who have faith in Yahweh are either dealing with “Egyptian oppression, Babylonian oppression, Persian oppression, Greek oppression or Roman oppression.”

The potentates of these empires all have megalomaniacal tendencies and see themselves either as god, or son of god, or the absolute determiner of human destiny. We see this in the sacred text of the Judeo/Christian faiths.

In Egypt, it was quite possible Pharaoh Thutmose III; in Babylon, it was Nebuchadnezzar; in Persia, it was King Cyrus and King Xerxes; in Greece, it was Alexander and a line of Seleucid Kings; and in Rome, during the time of the writing of Revelation, it was Caesar Nero and Domitian. All had mammoth egos, all were tyrants who craved the conquest of other people, and all saw themselves as a deity in human form.

That is the context in which the book of Revelation was written. It is a document of non-violent resistance and protest against a cruel empire and a diabolical emperor. The Caesars even named themselves “lord,” and or “son of god.” They were determined to have obedience from their subjects and to be worshiped by all under their rulership.

Any Roman citizen or person colonized by Rome was expected to bow before Caesar and voice their affirmation that Caesar is lord and god. One could not advance or even have a meaningful career without paying Caesar the proper tribute of lord and god.

In the book of revelation, the writer exhorts the believers in the seven churches to resist paying homage and tribute to Caesar even if it cost them their livelihood, their safety or their lives. The writer himself was banished and exiled to the prison island of Patmos for proclaiming that Jesus alone is Lord and God. Emperor Nero who was perhaps the most incompetent Emperor there ever was tried to cover up his ineptitude by blaming and scapegoating the problems of the empire on the Christian immigrant community thus he stirred up the people with deadly distractions like a burning Christians alive and using them as street lights lining the path to his palace or feeding them to beast to be eaten alive as a form of entertainment in the coliseum.

The late Dr. Frederick G. Sampson used to say that the “bible anticipates us.” When we see our present-day potentates publicly state that they never repent or have never had to regret anything, remember that the Bible has a way of anticipating us. When we witness potentates equating themselves with Jesus the Christ and who demand that all who work in the government must be loyal without fault to them, just remember that the Bible anticipates us. When we are shocked to our souls about the heinous and inhuman treatment of people who happen not to have a particular form of documentation being placed in a concentration camp called “alligator Alcatraz,” remember that the Bible anticipates us.

The command and challenge of Jesus to those in Revelation was to be more human than the emperor and the empire by publicly witnessing that only Jesus is Lord and God, and that all people were to be valued as humans who were made in the Imago Dei, the image of God. Remember that the bible anticipates us.

Be authentic, Be aware and Stay Woke! Uhuru Sassa!!!    

The Rev. Dr. John E. Jackson, Sr. is the Senior Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ-Gary, 1276 W. 20th Ave. in Gary. “We are not just another church but we are a culturally conscious, Christ-centered church, committed to the community; we are unashamedly Black and unapologetically Christian.” Contact the church by email at [email protected] or by phone at 219-944-0500.