4. Exploration into Encountering Conflict Situation
When the religious intelligentsia in collaboration with social elite indulged in unbridled commercial activities inside the temples, he drove them out with prophetic courage. In other words, Jesus resisted the commercialization of the divine and the commoditization of the humans. “As a raging egalitarian, an invincible socialist, an economic democrat, Jesus believed that the divine embrace is meant for all nations and peoples”[5] through the humanization of the excluded masses (ochlos).
In such conflict-situations the perspectives of the ruling elite and subordinated people run counter to each other. If the powerless organize themselves for claiming their rights, the dominant unleash layers of violence upon them. And here one needs to comprehend the trajectory of Jesus for encountering violence from subaltern soil. The life-affirming praxis of Jesus manifested the following trends of subaltern sensibilities with conflicting orientations:[6]
Bening Conventional
Approaches
Assertive Counter-cultural Approaches
Forgiving others seven times seventy (Mt 18:21-22).
All sins will be forgiven but not those against the Holy Spirit (Mk 3:28-30).
Forgive them O Lord for they know not what they do (Lk 23:34).
Lashing the traders and money-exchangers out from the temple premises (Jn 2:13-16).
Show you left cheek to be slapped (Mt 5:39).
Why did you slap me? (Jn 18:23).
Keeping silence during Pilate’s enquiry (Jn 19:9).
Retorting during Pilate’s enquiry (Jn 18:36-37; 19:11).
The kingdom of heaven is like mustard seed and leaven (Mt 13:31-33).
The kingdom of heaven suffers violence (Mt 11:12).
Law is to be fulfilled to the last iota (Mt 5:17-20).
Going beyond the Law- It is said in the Law but now I tell you (Mt 5:21-43).
Supremacy of the Law (Mt 22:34-40).
Law for the promotion of life (Mk 2:23-28; 3:1-6).
The time is not yet come (Jn 2:4).
The time has come (Jn 4:21).
I will not leave you as orphans (Jn 14:18).
For not thinking like God Get! Behind me Satan (Mk 8:33).
Put down your sword into the sheath (Jn 18:11).
Buy a sword and two are enough (Lk 22:36, 38).
One cannot at once serve God and mammon (Lk 16:13).
Gather friends even with unjust riches (Lk 16:9).
Intense personal prayers for day and night (Mk 1:35; 6:46; 14:32-38).
Those who cry ‘Lord! Lord!’ cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt 7:21).
Get reconciled on the way (Mt 5:25-26).
Remove the dust off the leg when rejected (Lk 10:11).
Personal prayer in privacy (Mt 6:6; Lk 6:12).
Wide and effective proclamation of the Reign of God (Mk 1:38-39; Mt 28:19).
Surrounded by crowds of people (Mk 1:45; 3:10; 6:54-56).
Escaping from the crowds of people (Jn 6:15).
Humans do not live by bread alone (Lk 4:4).
Being perceived as glutton and drunkard (Lk 7:34).
In the above conflicting orientations, Jesus cannot be eternally fixated with either one or other orientations as shown above while encountering violence. He could be located in both the sectors at ease. But what mattered to him was the uncompromising criterion of promoting and protecting life when it is endangered. And obviously, we find that Jesus was not having the leisure of meticulously evolving the discourses on the virtues of non-violence or the vices of violence as the starting point of getting engaged with life-struggles.
The paschal event of the resurrection of the crucified Jesus Christ is the assertive dismissal of the divine against the growing culture of torture. It manifests a zero tolerance towards the human persecution against other humans. Jesus’ definitive choice of the mercy for the sinners against the worship of the self-righteousness (Mt 9:13) is eloquently lived out before and after his death. When the ruling elite are keen in sacrificing someone else for the sake of many (Jn 11: 45-53), Jesus dares to voluntarily offer his very life as the ransom for many (Mk 10:45). This theological perception seems to be spontaneously portrayed in the act of his loud protest against harming his disciples amidst the chaos of his arrest at Gethsemane (Jn 18:8-9).
The process of ‘taking away the sins of the world’ entails an on-going struggle for anyone who will be thrown into the conflict situation. Every genuine accompaniment with the marginalized people by the field activists or organic intellectuals places them at loggerheads with the ruling elite. While the impoverished women, men, and children are further pauperised through various systemic evils, we need insightful vision and inspiring mission for empowering them to lead a dignified life as co-creators with God, co-workers with other humans and co-born with Nature. This exploration undertaken in dialogue with the power discourse in the life and mission of Jesus could lead us along the path of promoting contemplative action and compassionate justice.
[5] V. R. Krishna Iyer, ‘Remembering a Glorious Rebel’. The Hindu- Daily Newspaper, Chennai Edition, December 24 (2008).
[6] A. Maria Arul Raja, ‘Subaltern Exploration into Encountering Violence’, in Shalini Mulackal and A. Roy Lazar (eds.), Violence in Today’s Society: Indian Theological Reflections, Bangalore: Asian Trading Corporation, 2012, 1-21.