No King But the Emperor

Friday in Holy Week
April 10, 2009
John 18.1-19.42

“We have no king but the emperor.” (John 18.15)

There is a contest going on here, between those who uphold the status quo and those who want something different—the people of Israel, living under the occupation of the Roman army want new life. The temple authorities were an integral part of the power structure that ruled Palestine in the first century. This is how it worked: the Roman governor left much of the governance to the king, Herod, and the temple authorities. So long as they could keep the peace and the taxes coming in, the Romans were happy, their army well provided for. Because he wanted to keep the Romans happy, Caiaphas had said earlier that it was better to have one person die for the people (John 11.50). Someone had to preserve order and Jesus, with all his parading through Jerusalem on the donkey, was riling the people up as they shouted “Hosanna” and cried out for freedom.

The present-day occupants of Jerusalem and its surrounding towns also cry out for new life. The Jews long for peace and an end to the threats of suicide bombers; they long for a state where they can feel safe, a state of their own, where they are protected from persecution and hate crimes. The Palestinians long for restoration of their lands—a country without walls and checkpoints and travel permits, a country where they can live in their homes without fear of eviction and bulldozers.

For the residents of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem, the threat of eviction is a daily reality. Their story is reported this week in ei, the Electronic Intifada news. "’We are like the roots of a tree. The Israelis may cut us in places, but we will never die. We will not be transplanted from Jerusalem. I will not leave this house,’ Maher Hanun tells a crowded room of Palestinian community members supported by Israeli and international solidarity activists. Hanun is one of 51 residents of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem living in two housing units that are facing imminent eviction by Israeli authorities….

The people living in these housing units, belonging to the al-Ghawe and Hanun families, are due to be forcibly removed from their homes this week….The courts have justified these evictions by saying that the land that the houses are built on is disputed. Yet, the houses were built under a joint construction project by the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) and the Jordanian government in 1956, 11 years before Israel occupied East Jerusalem. The houses were given to the families, both made refugees in 1948 after Palestinians living in what became the state of Israel were expelled and dispossessed during what Palestinians call the Nakba, or catastrophe.Now these families are threatened with another Nakba. Israeli settlers that have moved into Sheikh Jarrah have falsified documents claiming ownership of the land. The Hanun and al-Ghawe families have presented their legitimate documents and an Israeli judge has not yet ruled on the legality of these papers. Yet the eviction orders are still proceeding, even though no official decision has been reached as to whom the Israeli courts recognize as the true owners.Both the Hanun and al-Ghawe families were forcibly evicted once before in 2002….” Read more….

A member of the al-Ghawe family stands beside a poster inside his threatened house in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

O God, your cross reminds us that your suffering is the way of the world. As we look upon your cross today, help us to be bearers of the suffering of others—in our own neighborhoods and on the other side of the world. Amen.