“I am the way, the truth and the life”, John (14,6) says in
his Gospel Jesus. The way we go, the truth we proclaim and the life we should
respect. But most Christians, whether in the hierarchy up or down, do not care.
But what do Christians have to do with Jesus? Aha, he went the way? That can
be, but that is too much trouble for me. They hear the message, every Sunday,
leave the church and do it very differently. For what lines their way is
mendacity and death.
It was Abraham to whom God himself demanded a sacrifice. At first it looked
as if Abraham had to offer his son Isaac. But at the last moment, God had
changed his mind and a ram was executed. The question still remains as to why
God should ask to kill a creature of His creation, but it is definitely meant
as an indication that the human sacrifice period has been abolished and animal
sacrifices are now taking its place. An advance, albeit a questionable one. The
hierarchy is cemented. God demands, as man describes it, and the good man
obeys, who sees the animal as a matter of course as a commodity to which he may
take his life, for whatever reason. For taking someone else’s life, for no
reason and for your own benefit, can find no other justification than the self-possession
of the other creatures. Ultimately, the basic tenor is always the continuation
of the hierarchical structures, until they have become so deeply rooted that no
question is asked.
And then came one who went out to question exactly
who did not put the free man in the foreground, but women and men, no matter
what social status they belonged or which ethnic group they attributed
themselves. He was and is one of them. He came to them and did not turn anyone
away. On the contrary, he agreed that there was no difference in quality when
attacked. In all that he did, he exempted the allegedly God-given order and
sided with the poor and weak and disenfranchised. He showed the hypocritical
hypocrisy hidden behind the facade of morality and decency. The curtain in the
temple tore, symbolizing the removal of the blanket spread over the carefully
guarded secrets of a corrupt society, about abuse of power, violence and
pederasty. And he called himself Jesus, the Christ. But at last he completed
what was opened with Abraham, the period of animal sacrifice. Because he
himself was the lamb, the last lamb to be slaughtered. In him the hierarchical
order was abolished and was to be destroyed forever. It should only give more
life, because he himself had taken the death representative and overcome. At
least every year at Easter, this part of the message is proclaimed. The lamb
that was slaughtered for us, that we find life and freedom. Every year it is
told, but apparently not heard, and when it is heard, it is not understood.
Because the message of life, without hierarchy and
in freedom for all, already disappears when leaving the church. Officers are
higher than normal believers, believers higher than unbelievers, men higher
than women, and people higher than animals. As a matter of course, the
sacrifice that Jesus made with himself is destroyed, destroyed and reduced to
absurdity. Instead of accepting the hand of accepting the love that embraces
the whole of creation, it continues to be vigorously raped, murdered and
abused, even in his name. And yet it is easy for them to benevolently tap
themselves on the shoulders and to praise themselves for what good people and
Christians they are. They have just arrived in the history of Abraham, if not
fallen behind. People who do not fit into the picture, for whatever reason, are
sacrificed and destroyed. Not on an altar, but through exclusion and
marginalization.
The sacrificial Lamb, the last one that does not
require another sacrifice, but opens the all-encompassing freedom to live, is
and will be ignored, right where it is constantly being spread. And so, the
feast, which should be that of life, is an orgy of bloodlust and annihilation,
the destruction of families, in which millions of mothers’ children are taken
away, both born and unborn. And the worst part is, you do not even see it. And
as Jesus rises from his grave, you turn your body into a grave, your fellow
creatures and, ultimately, his. This is the true Easter.