The Exploiters and Oppressors

On Palm Sunday, Jesus led a parade on his way to publicly confront the exploiters and oppressors in Jerusalem. In fact, many of his followers along the route were day laborers waving leafy branches cut from the fields where they were exploited and oppressed from nine-to-five. Unfortunately, many Christians worship a Jesus who avoids politics. I get it. The polarization is real. There’s just so much disinformation and division driven by the culture war. The good news is that, in the Gospels, Jesus was dedicated to a different kind of political fight. 

The politics of Palm Sunday side-eyes a culture war sponsored by the exploiters and oppressors. Instead, we can spend our time turning over the tables with Jesus. Because the system will never protect and serve those being exploited and oppressed unless it is transformed. Is this politics of collective liberation polarizing? Absolutely. Because a large portion of the Christian population supports (and/or benefits from) the exploitation and oppression - including most of those who “avoid politics” or “stay neutral” so they won’t offend their friends and family. 

A Christian politics of collective liberation springs from a subversive spirituality that binds our worth and identity to Something Else. I know that I will never be able to muster the courage and strength to break rank with exploitation and oppression unless I breathe with a Power of love that’s greater than the supremacy stories that have taught me to avoid conflict to maintain my social respectability and financial security. These strong tendencies enable exploitation and oppression in fields and factories and ghettos and Gaza – and atrophy my soul at the same time.