Of Empire and Liberation ©
Reverend Janet Parsons
Gloucester UU Church
April 13, 2025
This is the time of year when life begins to return, and the Spirit is moving.
In two of the world’s important religious traditions, Judaism and Christianity, ancient stories are told of people being moved to resistance, to rise up, to begin spiritual journeys that take them far into the unknown, toward liberation. Of course, I am speaking of Passover and Palm Sunday. And this year, we also see the Spirit moving here in the United States, with the massive protests that took place last weekend: millions of people getting to their feet, including some of you, and gathering all over the country to say “Hands Off!” to the many forms of oppression that are beginning to emerge.
Life begins to return, and the Spirit is moving.
At Passover, in ancient Judea, people always flocked to Jerusalem. They came to remember the story of their liberation from bondage in Egypt, and the long journey to the Promised Land. They crowded the temple, and paid for sacrifices. The city was full. And from the north, from Galilee, came a young man, Jesus, with his followers, entering the city on a donkey, with the crowds calling ‘Hosanna’ – or praise – and waving branches from palm trees. Word was spreading that this might be a new king, a leader who could liberate the Jews from Roman oppression.
In the first century of the Common Era, life was extraordinarily difficult for the people of Palestine. They had been occupied by the Romans, who had completely upended the traditional way of life for the Jewish farmers and peasants. Their society had always been an agricultural one; small villages and small farms.
But now, there were rulers put into place by the Roman oppressors, rulers such as King Herod and his sons, who started building palaces and large cities, and a huge temple in Jerusalem. To finance all this building, the rulers taxed the residents of Palestine. Some scholars estimate that upward of 40-50% of small farmers’ incomes were paid in taxes – to the Romans themselves, to the local rulers, and to maintain the Temple. And then there came a drought.
Within a generation, people began losing their land. Former landowners were forced to move to the new cities, and to become day laborers. Families were fragmented, as there was no longer enough property to pass down to other children after the oldest son. Younger children in families were cast off, and were known as ‘expendables’, forced to fend for themselves as best they could. *
It’s a story that suddenly feels much more relevant to us today, as we confront our own fears about our prosperity, and the impact of proposed draconian budget cuts on vulnerable people. As our own financial safety net is threatened, we can relate to the pain of people who experienced that thousands of years ago.
Now, the forces of empire were also present in Jerusalem during Passover. We can imagine that the rulers and their army would be watching closely for any indication of insurrection. In their book The Last Week, Biblical scholars Marcus Borg and John Domenic Crossan tell of the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, also entering Jerusalem in a separate procession, at the head of the imperial cavalry, with soldiers marching, banners and flags flying, drums beating. It would have been intended as a show of force, to remind people of the power over them. Imagine people watching the two processions: watching the imperial parade silently, resentfully, and fearfully. And coming from the other direction, on the other side of the city, others were joyfully waving palms to greet Jesus, riding simply on a donkey, without any of the trappings, the intimidation, of Pontius Pilate’s display of power. Think of the words of our reading earlier: a king as opposed to a prophet.
We know how jealous those who crave absolute power can be, how afraid of losing it. And so, we can imagine that Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem was watched very, very carefully. “Who is this?” people asked. “It is the Son of David, who comes in the name of the Lord,” came the responses. That would be a frightening claim to those in power. But the Spirit of Liberation was moving.
The Spirit has been moving all around us in recent days, as well.
Last Saturday millions marched and stood up for democracy, for freedom of speech, for freedom of assembly, and many other important rights and privileges. And I held my homemade sign high and cheered and chanted. It was energizing, and liberating. But I wondered, as I wonder each time, whether we will be allowed to continue to do this. So far, the response from the administration has been dismissive: ‘oh, those are paid protesters.’ But of course, we are not. I should only speak for myself – I certainly wasn’t paid to be at the Texas State Capitol last week. Were any of you paid?
But after such a huge nationwide protest, how afraid are the Pontius Pilates, the King Herods, becoming? How long will they ignore it?
This week, it was reported by the Associated Press that the Secret Service has been inquiring whether a military parade in Washington D.C. might be part of the Army’s celebration of its 250th anniversary. (https://apnews.com/article/military-parade-dc-trump-9ca70b018fe4f663ecaaf993d1b45a59)
The Army’s anniversary celebration is scheduled for this coming June 14th, which also happens to be the president’s 79th birthday. You might remember that the president had proposed a giant military parade during his first term in office, but the military and the city of Washington DC rejected the idea because of the wear and tear on the roads and the huge price tag. The idea appears to be emerging again.
Just think about the parallels between the two stories we are telling this morning: first, the ancient story about the struggle for power and liberation in the first century as symbolized by one man riding a donkey versus an imperial parade of cavalry and soldiers, and second, the events unfolding here in 2025; cheerful gatherings of large crowds on foot and a proposed parade with tanks and missiles.
It seems that truly there is nothing new under the sun. The Spirit was moving then, and the Spirit is moving now. For once again, there is that stark contrast between the peaceful protests against empire and power versus a possible display of military might.
With his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Jesus was offering people a vision of a new society, a dream of liberation. The people cheered and waved their palm branches. We need this sort of vision, these chances to rise up, to demand power and agency and freedom. In the Palm Sunday story as told in the Gospel of Luke, it was written that the Pharisees were made uncomfortable by the display of support for Jesus; the noise and enthusiasm. They said, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.” (Lk.19:39-40.)
In our reading earlier, scholar Walter Brueggemann wrote, “Kings want to organize public power without reference to the human dimension. The prophets keep insisting that if the king organizes public power without reference to the human dimension, he is going to bring death on himself and a lot of other people.” (from Fire in the Bones, p. 199)
Today, we have a president who wants to be a king. He seeks power without honoring the humanity of the citizens and residents of this country, and indeed, the rest of the world. We sense that we are pawns to him, or perhaps just inconveniences.
The Spirit always seems to move most in the spring.
Today we are remembering the liberation of the Israelites from their captivity in Egypt, and the efforts of Jesus, a prophet who tried to liberate the downtrodden people of Palestine from their Roman oppressors. But next weekend, we are also celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord. We grew up absorbing the stories of the Boston Tea Party, the Boston Massacre, and all of the resistance that led, step by step, to armed rebellion and ultimately to independence. And today we watch as our civil rights and First Amendment rights are threatened once again.
And so we rise up once again, we take to the streets, to once again insist on our collective liberation. If we are silent now, the stones would cry out.
It’s an old tradition to distribute palms on this Sunday, to remember Jesus’ courage and his journey through the week leading to Easter Sunday. Today, I would like to invite you to take a palm with you, to symbolize all of our work ahead, to remind us that together, we are working to maintain our freedom, and that together, we are strong enough to withstand empire.
May we feel the Spirit of Life moving in us, and among us, all around us this spring as we are called once again to participate in our liberation. And may all the old stories of uprisings in springs past inspire us and encourage us on our journey.
May it be so,
Amen.
* Source: Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, by Reza Aslan, (New York: Random House, 2013)
