Power…What is Power?
My friend Y and I was at Starbucks the other. I must admit that I have been a little stressed up from work these days (and the news of Anwar’s arrest didn’t help at all) and wanted a breather and some good coffee…and Y was a great company, as usual.
We chatted from politics to philosophy to religion to morality. Old questions, but as we converse, new insights sometimes from him, sometimes from me. Even when it comes from me, I was pleasantly surprised from the momentary thoughts which developed as we chatted. Probably that’s why we need to talk to one another, there’s value in dialogues.
Anyway, we came to the question, what is power?
This morning, while parking my car at the State Assembly, one Parlimentarian who went with me to observe the proceeding reminded me that I am not only in the corridor of “power” but I am in the “room of power”. Gulp….
But what is power? Again and again, against this question, I am so powerless…
Y asked me about Jesus the other when we spoke about power…what was so powerful in Jesus? I thought about Jesus and his exciting times…
The little stripe of land in ancient Palestine were a contention of many powers, a situation not unlike today there and everywhere in the world. And perhaps now more critically in Malaysia. Powers contend, everywhere. Different interests compete with one another.
There were the Herodians, local rulers, well-connected royals and aristocrats, who flexed their muscles in rebuilding the magnificient temple of Solomon (some said Herod’s temple was more beautiful than the ones built in former times). As if that wasn’t enough, the Herod the Great even ordered the massacre of the innocence to demonstrate his power over the life and death of his serfdom. Half blood and irreligious, it didn’t matter, they were the true Israel, in the shadow of Israel’s legendary kings, David and his temple building son, Solomon.
There were the Zealots, angry and religious, a dangerous combination; ever ready in the tradition of the Maccabean warrior-martyrs of old to push YAHWEH’s kingdom agenda. Real power comes from might of the priest-warriors who were ever ready to die and kill. Power of the Kingdom grows out of the end of the sword - if Mao Ze Dong was a Zealot. They were the true Israel, whose swords were sharpened to bring about god’s Kingdom.
There were the Pharisees, a caste of their own, protector of the purity of the Jewish people and religion. Staying in power is to stay clean, to stay pure, to stay out. It’s “we against them” and the winner will be the party which is able to assert themselves above the others. Boundaries were drawn, demarcation of the national identity of the Jewish people against the polution from other race and nations. It was a power struggle of the preservation, no, the survival of the Jewish identity. And the law abidding Pharisees, they were the true Israel.
And then there were the the Qumran Community, the cultic groups who rejected Jerusalem and all that was in her and retreated quietly to the caves. They setup their own Priesthood over and against the High Priest of Jerusalem. They were the true Israel quietly awaiting the day when the true King will rise among them to lead the holy community into the power struggle.
And against all these (and perhaps many other power-claims), stood Rome and all her glory. Yes, Rome was tens of thousands of miles away, but looming over the Temple in Jerusalem were the Emperor’s idolatrous emblem. If that was not enough to let Jerusalem understand who was in charge, then one would probably just walk a few steps outside the city gate. There the shadow of the towering crosses used to hang Rome’s enemy, breaker of Roman laws together with the stench of blood and the gory picture memories of human bodies nailed to the crude wood and left to a painful slow death all served as a powerful reminder to the Jews, Rome was in charge, not the Temple, not the High Priest, not even the Jewish god.
Who was in charge? Who was in power? Who has the power?
…another day…
