The Centurion.

 

The Centurion.

The tiny Jewish nation in Judea was looking for a Savior who would be a genius military leader able to unite them and beat the Romans. Yes, two little Jewish tribes beat the Roman Empire. The Maccabees did that with the Greeks, but it didn’t last. You don’t get freedom if you don’t have enough soldiers to defend it, unless…

You may have freedom if there is nobody who wants to take it away. Humans can look after each other and not use force to subjugate those with less power. Big nations could be like a big brother taking care of family. We don’t have to starve anyone into submission. The Jewish nation who believed in one invisible God came up with a person preaching love instead of force. Sharing instead of hoarding.

That dangerous man, who said we are all sons and daughters of the one God, had to die. He had dangerous “lefty” ideas. Nothing changed. If we listened to Him and evenly distributed the resources that we all need to survive, we would have peace. All human efforts could be directed toward the betterment of humankind. This is possible but not feasible. Human nature is such that all good things are taken by the most capable and others are deprived. There is some need for rules, laws, and enforcement.

When Jesus (Yeshua) gave up his spirit on the cross, things happened. One was that His teachings didn’t disappear into the fog of history. Dedicated followers brought His message to the world and His following grew. Still growing to this day. (Even with all the scandals.)

The second was that a woman who loved Him bravely broadcasted that He was alive. She saw the evidence and didn’t just shy away, but told the people. She could have been denounced as a liar, but she insisted and told the truth. That was Mary Magdalene who declared the resurrection and started Easter.

Third, a hardened killer, a man of arms, the Centurion, who was a foreigner, said at the foot of the cross, “we have just killed God.” He wasn’t the kind of man that someone would laugh at or dismiss as an idiot. He brought in the enforcement part. A man that would fight for the good side. Those of us who believe in peace know the value of peacekeepers. I wish we didn’t need force, but this year taught me that we do. Peace, harmony, and equality are not possible without setting rules and having the means to enforce them. Evil doesn’t die, it only goes away to rejuvenate and attack again.

In 2022, we see much proof of it. I believe no one wins wars, but we will have wars unless we have strength against aggression. It began with a pandemic that killed a million people on our continent alone. We had talented people working to eliminate it, but a noticeable minority wished to make money off the suffering and delay the end of it. A well-coordinated campaign against measures to contain the sickness flared up.

A couple of months into the year, another disaster struck. The distribution of food and goods was halted. First by a blockage of a main transportation corridor, followed by a shortage of workers to do the essential distribution work, and then by people, misguided by false information on social media, trying to take over governing the country. At this point, energy producers saw an opportunity to raise prices and sink the attempted economic recovery deeper. Energy-producing countries did not cushion their citizens from the blow.

The world of humans is speeding towards the moment called the “final judgment.” Life exists on energy and humans spoiled themselves by using stored energy to do their work. Yes, we are addicts and addicts are always finishing the addiction with death. The stored energy in the form of fuels is now owned and controlled by a relatively small portion of humanity, who also controls politics. They are fighting amongst themselves. Sharing and helping all humans seems to be out of the picture.

However, we have a picture in our minds of a hill topped by a cross with a human body hanging on it. He was against “the winner takes it all” and for all people being their brother’s keepers. In His view, we can only move forward and survive when we all move together. He ended up executed on a cross, but His theory remained the best theory ever invented. Under the cross were some women, soldiers, and a centurion.

The few who own and control stored energy, mostly oil, are using it to rule the world and will not give up easily. They will stir up trouble with the folks who refuse to use our medical knowledge, with big nations attacking smaller ones, and religions fighting each other. They will keep hiring people to promote using up the Earth’s resources fast without consideration for future generations. There is a need for people like the centurion. People must make rules and people must enforce them.

Now the billions of people who are not on the top of the pile are losing ground. Global warming, threats from major world powers, and reduced resources to help the impoverished squeeze them. First, they try to flee or migrate and if they can’t, they will fight. The more fortunate people increase defense spending and the danger becomes more acute.

A man died on the cross because He threatened the establishment. The leaders of his society didn’t want him to convince common folks that sharing wealth is the right way. They wanted to hoard it and have power. He showed them that you can’t win by killing for long.

The conflict is still going on to this day. We remember it every Easter if we focus on the message, not the characters as we have been doing.