While people were allowed to worship their own gods, the Roman Empire had zero tolerance for anyone they believed was opposing its rule. One major instrument of intimidation was the cross. Theologian Elizabeth Johnson tells us that the cross was "a form of punishment used specifically to execute those who were guilty of threatening the state either by direct rebellion or by inciting others. In addition to ensuring a torturous and ignominious death for the rebel, crucifixion was a spectacle of warning to others. Its cruelty was meant to serve as a deterrent to those who might consider acts of treason against the empire."
(From her latest book "Creation and the Cross.") Under Roman rule in the first century, literally thousands of Jews, both rebels and the innocent, were crucified.
It's important to remember that Jesus was the Jewish victim of Roman violence. Jesus was Jewish in the biological, ethnic, cultural, and religious sense. After all, he was born of a Jewish mother. Johnson reminds us:
"The gospels depict his parents as observant Jews; they gave him a popular Jewish name and followed Torah instruction about the birth of a male child, including the ritual of circumcision. The gospels also depict the family celebrating the annual feast of Passover, at times making pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the feast, which their first-born son continued to do in his adult life.
"Jesus taught in synagogues, or Jewish halls for meetings and prayer, throughout the northern province of Galilee. He also taught in the temple in Jerusalem...He honored the Sabbath and kept it holy, at times arguing about its proper observance, arguments common at this time among people who wanted to understand how best to follow God's holy law. In obedience to Torah he even dressed Jewish. A woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and, seeking healing, 'touched the fringe of his cloak' (Matt 9:20). These are twisted cords tied on the four corners of the outer garment, as called for in the Torah....The purpose was to remind the wearer of the teachings of YHWH, 'who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God' (Num 15: 38-41)....
"When challenged to choose the greatest commandment, this prophet from Nazareth quoted the Torah's book of Deuteronomy: 'The first is, 'Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength' (Mk 12:29-30, citing Deut. 6:4-5). To this, he added another Torah commandment that flows powerfully from belief in this God: 'The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' No other commandment is greater than these' (Mk 12:31, citing Leviticus 19:18). To even make such a choice Jesus had to be familiar with Torah, and to have spent time mulling its meaning in his own life." (From "Creation and the Cross.")
Jesus was Jewish to the core, practicing his faith, praying with the Psalms, living securely among his own beloved family and friends, in his beloved country that he wandered throughout, preaching to and healing his countrymen. Son of Mary and Son of God, he listened to his heavenly Father's Voice, and showed his Father's Face of justice and mercy to all, teaching all to follow Jewish spirituality and call God "Father." Calling YHWH "Father" is part of the Jewish tradition, as is belief in the resurrection of the body. As is belief in the coming of the Messiah. In a time of great political unrest and occasional armed confrontation, Jesus accepted his mission from his Heavenly Father, and taught that he was the promised Messiah who would inaugurate the coming of the reign of God, a time of justice and mercy for all people, a reign diametrically opposed to the selfish, arrogant, violent reign of Rome.
"From an historical point of view it is true to say that Jesus died as a result of his mission to which he stayed faithful with a courage that would not quit. His words and deeds sharpened hope in the reign of God that spelled salvation for all, especially for suffering and marginalized people. Going up to Jerusalem (the capital city) for the festival of Passover signaled that Jesus was bringing passionate hope for God's saving reign into the very center of the nation. In first-century Israel dominated by Rome, this was a dangerous thing to do. Jesus died as a consequence of fidelity to his ministry." (from "Creation and the Cross.")
Pilate was a mean man, angry, inflexible, stubborn, cruel, abusive, the architect of frequent executions of untried prisoners. Rome ultimately removed him from office because he stirred up so much trouble with his belligerence. Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, crowds hailing him as Messiah - a title with both religious and political significance - and his overturning of the tables of the moneychangers in the temple - brought him to the attention of the jealous high priests, who hated Jesus, and knew they'd find an ally in Pilate. After all, anyone who was hailed as a Messiah who preached the coming of God's Kingdom, was a huge challenge and danger to imperial domination! Crucifixion seems the inevitable result of Jesus' ministry.
And where is this devout, faithful Jew crucified? On Golgotha, otherwise known as the Place of the Skull, outside the walls of his beloved city Jerusalem, the Jerusalem he preached in, the city he wept over because he could foresee its eventual destruction. Why outside the walls? Golgotha/Calvary, according to some scholars, is located just outside the Damascus Gate and faces the major east-west road that runs just north of old Jerusalem. It is precisely the type of public location where the Romans liked to crucify rebels so that their gruesome handiwork could scare the passing travelers and deter future rebels against Rome.
But, in addition to horrific pain, what a sense of rejection and alienation Jesus must have suffered, realizing that he has been shamed and taken "outside the walls" of protection of his own Jewish people, some of whom called for his crucifixion, and "outside the walls" of protection of his own Jewish religious leaders, who have rejected him and given him to Pilate for execution. In the Letter to the Hebrews, the author compares Jesus, the slain Lamb of God, to the animals used in Jewish ritual, such as during the great Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur): "the bodies of the animals whose blood the high priest brings into the sanctuary as a sin offering are burned outside the camp" even as Jesus is slain outside the walls. "Therefore, Jesus suffered outside the gate, to consecrate the people by his own blood." (Hebrews 13: 11-12).
But - from a different perspective - during his time of ministry, wasn't Jesus always experimenting with "going outside the walls," outside the common experience and culture, of his own Jewish people? He ministered to outcasts, like the lepers, or the woman caught in adultery, to the demon-possessed, to Samaritans, to the Syro-Phoenician woman, to the Roman centurion, to the often-forgotten children. He spoke alone with a woman, the Samaritan woman, and many of his disciples were women, especially Mary of Magdala, whom he graced with a Resurrection appearance, and whom we call the "apostle to the apostles" because she brought the good news of Jesus' Resurrection to the male apostles. We could even say that Jesus loved his own people "within the walls" so much that he taught his followers how to go "outside the walls," outside the rigidity of "staying with your own tribe" and "staying away from the different." Jesus, so particularly a Jew, yearned in his final prayer that "all may be one." He prayed for us to, above all, Follow Him. Follow Him outside the walls to heal, to bring others to faith, hope, and love.
From this viewpoint, Hebrews 13:13 has a special, specific resonance for us: "Let us then go to him outside the camp, bearing the reproach that he bore." Where will we find Jesus today? Outside the camp! Outside the walls that we build. Among the reviled and rejected. Among the suffering refugees, who are not allowed inside the walls of the Promised Place of Refuge, America. Among those who have been cast outside the walls of acceptability and/or the walls of churches because their sexual orientation is different. Among the suffering outside the safe walls of Healthcare who die because their insurance doesn't cover the drugs they need to live. Among those who are outside the walls of acceptance because others think their skin color or their disability makes them inferior, even useless. Among the unborn, in danger of abortion, or the aged in inferior nursing homes.
Like Jesus, you too are called by our Father to embrace your calling. In your own specific identity, within your own specific nationality, culture, gender, age, sexual orientation, neighborhood, church community, you know whom the people "outside the walls" are. You know the specific people God calls you to go to, to love. There among them is where you will see the Face of Christ.
Jesus the Christ - "Christ" means "The Anointed One," the "Messiah," - was and is not only the slain Lamb of God, but also the Good Shepherd, the One Who gathers His sheep together, who brings them from outside the walls back into the safe walls of His sheepfold, His own transcendent Body. "In fact, all of Jesus’ ministry would be an invitation for all kinds of people to come together and rejoin the fold—the healed leper could now live with his family again, the woman at the well could be the town hero instead of a pariah. How will you honor the Good Shepherd, who gathers people together instead of driving them apart?" ("Take Five for Faith," for Wed. Sept. 25).
God calls us as individuals to live as Good Shepherds, faithful to our own unique ministry until death, as Jesus was. Being faithful to caring for those who are often rejected can end with our being rejected also. Can we say, with St. Paul, that "in life and death, we are the Lord's"? Are we strong enough in his Holy Spirit to "bear the reproach that he bore"? We have been called by the Father, by Christ, the Crucified One, by the flaming love of the Holy Spirit, to heal wounds, to unite what has fallen apart, to bring home those who have lost their way.
In the world today, if we open our eyes to see, we can see the ways in which our own nations, our own politicians, are as arrogant, selfish, and violent (at least verbally) as imperial Rome. We can see that many of God's people are not valued, are even brutally rejected, when they are doing the right thing. We see, for example, courageous teenage activist sixteen year old Greta Thunberg, who has ignited world-wide peaceful protests calling for climate change action, and is being sneered at, called "a spoiled child", or "mentally ill" by the politicians and rich ultra-rightists throughout the world because she is a "mere" child and has Asperger's syndrome (which is a developmental disability, NOT a mental illness.) She has gone "outside the walls" of her family, her country, her age, even the "walls" of her disability, because she believes that she must do this - alert people to the reality of destructive climate change. Even if it means being cruelly persecuted. She says, bluntly - and humbly -
"There is one other argument that I can’t do anything about. And that is the fact that I’m 'just a child and we shouldn’t be listening to children.' But that is easily fixed - just start to listen to the rock solid science instead. Because if everyone listened to the scientists and the facts that I constantly refer to - then no one would have to listen to me or any of the other hundreds of thousands of school children on strike for the climate across the world. Then we could all go back to school.
"I am just a messenger, and yet I get all this hate. I am not saying anything new, I am just saying what scientists have repeatedly said for decades. And I agree with you, I’m too young to do this. We children shouldn’t have to do this. But since almost no one is doing anything, and our very future is at risk, we feel like we have to continue."
I have no idea whether Greta is a Christian or not, but she has the right idea. We are all only messengers. We don't live for ourselves, we live to deliver the Truth, in words and actions. Do we have the courage to step forward and answer the call to vocation, to ministry, in spite of insults, or even danger? Bishop Robert Barron tells us,
"We are light by which people around us come to see what is worth seeing. By the very quality and integrity of our lives, we shed light, illumining what is beautiful and revealing what is ugly. The clear implication is that without vibrant Christians the world is a much worse place. Let me illustrate this principle with an example. One of the most painful truths of the last century is that the weakness of Christian witness allows some of the worst elements in society to flourish.
"Think of the rise of the evil powers that created World War II. Christianity had become so weak, so uncompelling, so attenuated that great evil was allowed to flourish. Yes, indeed there were a handful of powerful Christian resisters, but let’s face it: the overwhelmingly vast majority of Christians either supported Hitler or remained in silence, out of either fear or indifference." (Daily Gospel Reflection for Sept. 23.)
The choice we have to make is clear. Do we choose silence because of fear or indifference? Or do we daily listen to God's Voice? "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself." Who is your neighbor? The weak, the oppressed, the grieving, the suffering, the discriminated against, the poor, the imprisoned, the ignorant, the neglected, the lonely, the rejected. All those people our God of Justice wants to free and gather to His heart. Can we be so faithful in ministry to these "little ones" whom God loves that we can freely follow Jesus outside the walls to the rejection of the cross? Can we be faithful to the death? The death of our own egos? Can we be Good Shepherds in Jesus' Name to bring the suffering back inside the walls so that all God's people become One People?
If we faithfully follow the Good Shepherd outside the walls all the way to our deaths, we will be drawn into the great reunification of the Resurrection, when all will be one - all of creation, made new, gloriously, eternally new by the Light of God's Face. And there will be NO MORE WALLS!