When Easter means a time to Uprise!
This may sound hardcore to those who think Easter as all but a time to rejoice or a time to convert souls, hearts, and minds; but as realities brought each and everyone to face the abyss, may as well this Easter means the time to uprise the way Jesus Christ conquer death and rose from the grave.
What makes the message hardcore, if not rebellious? Just like the risen Christ, people should rise up from its slumber, seek light and inspiration from the divine word so as to continue the struggle along with the poor and downtrodden, all in pursuit of just society.
In the Old Testament, God urged Moses to liberate the enslaved Jews from Egyptian domination. The Jews were indeed redeemed as Moses and his followers finally left Egypt and observed the laws given to God through the commandments.
Later, once they had established in the Holy Land, wealthy and powerful Jews emerged, living affluent lives without regard for the plight of the poor. In reaction to their apathy, God called forth prophets to lament the condition of the poor and to summon the rich to repentance. In the name of God, the prophets of ancient Israel opposed what was occurring to people who were victims in an unfairly stratified society.
Even the Kings faced chiding from the prophets as their disobedience to God and to law been shown to its people. In an instance, King Ahab and his wife Jezebel are confronted by Elijah the prophet after they turned away from the Lord to worship pagan gods like Baal and Asherah. The prophet even instructed the king to gather the entire population of Israel and the prophets of Asherah and Baal to Mount Carmel. He approached the people, warning them that if they offered a sacrifice and invoked Baal, he would do the same and invoke the Lord. Whichever caught fire would then prove who the real God was. Baal's worshippers prepared their sacrifice and prayed to him all day long without receiving a response.
Then Elijah rebuilt the altar of the Lord, prepared the sacrifice, and poured four jugs of water on it. He called upon the Lord, and the Lord answered him:
“The Lord’s fire came down and devoured the burnt offering, wood, stones, and dust, and lapped up the water in the trench. Seeing this, all the people fell prostrate and said, “The Lord is God! The Lord is God!” (1 Kings 18:38-39)
So is the New Testament, when God sent Angel Gabriel to announce to Mary that she will give birth to the Messiah by stating that one day her soon-to-be-born son will be said:
“…He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich He hath sent away empty.” (Luke 1:51-53)
But that Messiah happens to be that of a redeemer of hearts than that of a sword-raising fighter as promised to the Jews, teaching every folk the value of faith, hope, and love as keys to redemption. In his sermons he declared that He has come to bring “good news for the poor” and to “preach deliverance to the captives” (Luke 4:18-19). He even healed the sick, raised the dead, fed the hungry as to show the world that God is with them.
But, he is also the same Christ who said:
"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send [or bring] peace, but a sword." (Matthew 10:34),
As well as how he expelled the moneylenders and vendors from the temple:
“And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.” ( Matthew 21:12–13).
Such actions would say provoked ire from the established order- and be constituted as a rebellion, leading to his passion and death.
But regardless of what the established order seen him as a rebel, the faithful rather saw in him a redeeming figure who wanted a “revolution of the heart” in order to bring change. That by his death this meant sacrifice to end sin, a “passover” in which humanity should be liberated from suffering, but in his resurrection he restored life after death; Indeed, the Jesus story is the poor person's tale, for God becomes poor and weak in Christ in order for the oppressed to be freed from poverty and helplessness. He chose to sacrifice himself as he endured the pain from his passion and crucifixion. But his quest for redemption doesn’t limit to that of the Jews who desired for a messiah but also to the world as they hear his message. He even descended into hell as he set free the captive souls before he rose up from his death thus conquering both sin and death by his resurrection. Again, it is a poor man’s story that desire for liberation, but Christ himself who resurrected from the dead shows an ultimate liberation- that of liberating from both sin and death as sin itself leads to death, both physical and spiritual.
For sure some would say that this note may justify rebellion as such but to bring closer to God means to rebel against unjust. Why is it? Does it mean to bear arms? Yes it is, even the heart of a Christian can be a weapon itself as to demand a revolution of the heart (no wonder why “setting the world on fire” is what Ignatius of Loyola ended his letters) if not a rebellion against unjust traditions, the way God always champions the cause of those who are poor and beaten down as they struggle for national and social liberation, as well as that of human dignity. Should a Christian remain silent when a government reduces funding for agriculture, education, or medical care for the poor in order to reduce taxes for the wealthy? People will perish as a result of the government's sin of upward wealth redistribution. Depriving starving people of food or making them illiterate in order to balance a stupid budget or pass judgment on their character is an evident evil that requires no additional explanation- if not the fact that this shows an attitude of callousness towards the very humanity of other people.
Perhaps, before this note would end, this writer would say that If Jesus can overcome death and sin, then the world can overcome poverty, disease, hunger, and oppression of human rights. All of these things come from human society structures, how humanity organizes its affairs, and not from God. This may sound “hardcore” as it urges the folk to “uprise” in this season of joy, but this Easter means the chance to liberate so as to liberate others as Christ urges each and everyone to be with God and to build his kingdom.