adminTHE Son of Man rises today; he has conquered hell and resealed our covenant with the maker, his father.
He has destroyed and rebuilt the temple in three days. This is exactly what led to his crucifixion — blasphemy — to his political opponents; the Pharisees and Sadducees. They were men of little faith but full of anarchist religious displays. To them, the Son of Man was nothing but a political rival. His teachings which appealed to the poor of Galilee and outskirts of Jerusalem had dwindled the tithes they lived on. Their influence had drastically fallen and knowledge was being rethought.
The challenge of “truth” by the commoner meant discrediting all that was believed to be normal.
Thanks to Jesus the son of Mary and Joseph. His philosophy triggered a Pandora lock which culminated to a whole new thought process. He unleashed a pool of questions on the misrepresented or archaic Mosaic laws. These laws were outdated, misrepresented and used as tools of oppressing the poor. The Sinai laws were always in favour of the Roman tools — the Pharisees, Sadducees and High Priests. Doctrinal history tells us of the fine cloth they wore, neatly picked fruit and fine wine they drank yet the ordinary man who tithed had neither gird nor decent loin to wear to his wedding.
The story of the crucifixion of Jesus comes in handy at this time when we celebrate both his deathly conquest and our 37 years of Independence. As the Roman Catholics sang last night — “UKristu uvukile Aleluya uyinkosi, sijabule, sithabe, Aleluya . . . UKristu’ nqobile aleluya, uyinkosi, sijabule sithabe, Aleluya . . .”, we universally join them as that is a resonating symbol with our independence. Some of you might be yearning for my head now claiming that I am blaspheming, oh well, I understand how versatile religious knowledge intimidates many of you, you can’t draw a line between blasphemy and teachings . . . say teacher teach me . . . !
When the Pharisees and Sadducees were under the Jesuit threat, they were rapid to test him, denounce his teaching and block his gatherings. His Passover entrance into Jerusalem became the biggest threat of all time because it dimmed the limelight from them. For centuries they had been the masquerading engine of Mosaic-Judean religion. They fed on the ignorance and poverty of the masses. Like they say, “the poor think less even if they have the knowledge, they are scared to think”, this was the state of the common man during those days.
Like any tool, the Pharisees and Sadducees reported to the Roman Prefect, at that time it was Pontius Pilate. To him, they presented a false narration of the state of the nation (SONAs are an archaic phenomena, you see!). They said the Nazarene was causing chaos; instigating rebellion and ushering civil disobedience to Caesar with his famous “Render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God”. This was after their test of whether tax to the Roman Colonial master should be paid or not. Like any minuscule minded political tool, it was difficult to comprehend high level thought and they wanted to eliminate competition. Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem equipped them with the right ammunition of declaring a state of emergency on his presence.
The sprung to Pontius’ residence, who was an oppressive regime prefect, to plead for the arrest of “one” of them using the most repressive rules which perennially persecuted their people. They rode on the Roman statutes which suppressed and mentally killed the owners of the land — their people. The highest authority of thinking and order was the colonial master, Pontius Pilate, from whom they sought justice against one who delivered the poor from the bondage of sin and incessant ignorance. Jesus’ teachings harboured redemption, independence from religious rigidity; he spoke of possibilities outside confined realms such as the Jerusalem government and gave hope to those who believed that the apex of survival is toeing the Roman colonial rules. Jesus challenged stagnant thought, oppressive systems, religious entrepreneurship, and mischaracterisation of God’s commandments and above all, he demonstrated what independence meant to all of Judea, Samaria and the whole Universe.
Despite the unsuccessful efforts by the tools of the Roman coloniality, represented by the Pharisees and Sadducees, he rose from the dead, Christianity conquered, the Roman empire faced a huge blow in 376 AD when an influx of Barbarians, particularly the Goth, some Alans and Huns made their way across the Danube. This is testimony to the futile dependency of Pharisees on the Roman Empire. Christianity grew blazingly despite its previous persecution with an ironical crumbling of the Roman Empire again in a time of two epidemics (165 and 251) which killed up to a third of the whole population of the Roman Empire each time. Marvellously, the Christian message of redemption through sacrifice offered a more satisfactory explanation of why bad things happen to innocent people. Indeed, you can’t keep the good man down. Jesus the liberation war hero, prevailed even if he was no longer physically among the people he taught salvation.
In any case, this is not meant to be a Sunday sermon, but an analogy of how our Independence was hard won but our freedom is still far from coming because of our own Pharisees and Sadducees who are stealthy to sprint to Britain and report that another black man like them is not following the colonial master’s rubric. Many of our leaders who have or are still playing a role in delivering us from evil have been persecuted by the colonial master, whom, to some, is still “Bass John”. We are not free to govern ourselves using our own rules because “Bass John” does not approve and the Pharisees whose children learn at expensive schools after being paid for by embassies and colonial cronies feel no space for them if they are to behave like any other independent and free Zimbabwean.
Baas John, Baas John!
For the past 37 years we have not been at peace with ourselves. It has always been calamity after another because our race has been to dominate each other at the expense of impressing “Bass John”. Our standards of governance and living have always been measured against European acceptability. In our Independence, we are not free to eat with our hands because table manners do not permit that. Table manners according to who? “Baas John?” It is our own kith and kin who dash to “Baas John” to tell on us that we are using our hands to eat. They expect horrid punishment to those who do not impress “Baas John”. They expect a pat in the back in the form of Nobel Peace Prizes because they referenced “Baas John” in condemning those who challenge “Baas John’s” table manners. They are the ones who have no inner aura, vigour or personality outside “Bass John”. We have seen those routinely demanding reforms according to “Baas John” which they in turn do not comprehend. Some of them are Professors of Law, robotics and Doctors of art but do not have any panacea to any of our woes outside “Baas John’s” instructions.
We are not free from “Baas John’s” sjambok as today he doesn’t need to be in the field like he used to, but uses his Pharisees and Sadducees to create confusion and demand the release of the most notorious Bartimeus-Sanctions at the expense of persecuting those who strive to bring salvation to the masses. Our Pharisees and Sadducees find everything wrong in independence; they make the young people believe that they are nothing outside “Baas John’s” interference.
They lie to the young nation that it was better then, when “Baas John’s” prefects-Ian Smith, were whipping us. Exodus 16:3 reminds us of the Israelites who grumbled to Moses and Aaron reminiscing on Egypt where they ate plenty of meat and all they wanted but were still not free. This is what we are subjected to, doctrines of selective remembrance, where the master oppressed us but we ate, I wonder what was being eaten then and how many had access to ice cream like we do today (just thought of ice cream lol)
We cannot celebrate being independent enough when we are not free from the extended hand of the oppressive Roman Empire which deployed its Pontius Pilates through Rhodes and Ian Smith. We cannot claim to be free when we are spewing of Pharisees and Sadducees in our midst masquerading as problem alternatives who are keen to engrave the Roman statutes on us. We are doomed when we still celebrate heroism of national sell-outs in the form of opposition politics. It is healthy to have dissenting ideas and colliding ideologies for the sole sake of check and balances, but when the agents of checks and balances display Pharisaic tendencies what do we do to them? An epidemic should descend upon them. A lot of black blood was lost in a quest to free every Zimbabwean.
When we merry on Tuesday, let us not forget to sob a tear or two for those who followed the liberation Jesuits’ trail but were unfortunate not to see the liberated Zimbabwe. It is them that we owe that day to. If they did not find their way to Heaven, there is hope in Val Halour where brave souls find rest. “I would like to assure the whites of our unshakable will to win our independence and that it would be stupid as well as dangerous for them to wish to make the clock march backwards. We are ready, if necessary as a last resort, to conquer liberty by any means, even violent ones,” said Leopold Senghor, talking in August 1946.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter