The Power

Source: newrepublic.com

It is a kind of iconoclasm – the phalanx of suited men striding into the inner sanctum of freedom and democracy, its leader’s all too familiar jowl defiantly set. There are shades of the grim triumphant moments which augured so much ill for the free world in the early part of the last century. And in the background a super moon prompting other kinds of fears in the hearts of those whose religion risks dissolving into something like superstition – or could they be right perhaps? Added to signs, portents and Halloween is a toxic mixture of hatred in its various manifestations now legitimised (whatever he may say ‘to camera’)  by America’s billionaire celebrity President Elect. What are we to make of all this?

We are to shape hope out of common sense and right remembering, since this is also the season of remembrance. There are lessons to be learned from remembering the years which immediately preceded the last super moon. Realising that we have yet to learn from them means that it is not altogether too late. For one thing, we are being reminded that the legitimate voice of the oppressed and marginalised, especially when it goes unheeded for too long, will make itself heard through legitimate channels by the most dangerous means available to it. Or rather, it will allow itself to be used by the political opportunist wanting raw power.

Many will believe that the people have indeed spoken, when all that has happened is that their legitimate grievances, and the worst of human nature, have ‘morphed’ into one another and then been taken over by a man who wants only to win. One note of hope is that the existing democratic system will make it impossible for him to fully realise his most damaging ambitions in the longer term.

Another note of hope comes this Sunday. Many Christians will be keeping it as the Feast of Christ the King. One of the gospel readings tells us of Christ’s brief exchange with Pontius Pilate who is a weak leader desperate to hold on to power by trying to please all on whom his power depends. Pilate does not know what to do. He is very much afraid of the voice of the people. They have the power to accuse him of treason. They would have been a mixed lot, although mostly Christ’s own people who are now baying for his blood, the blood of Christ and possibly that of Pilate as well. Pilate must please them or his position, if not his life, will be in jeopardy, so he asks Jesus to give him a lead:  “What have you done?” The tone is urgent, even desperate.

The answer is silence, apart from a few short remarks, one pertaining to the nature and source of power itself and another to the nature of real authority. Jesus tells Pilate that real power comes from God. Real power is completely free because it is sustained, as well as given, by God alone in love and in trust. Pilate does not have real power, because he is at the mercy of the people’s voice, and he knows this.

The really powerful person knows that power has only been entrusted to them for the greater good of those they are there to serve. They will be accountable before God for what they have done with this power, as well as for how they have acquired it. All this would have been deeply unsettling for the Roman Procurator, as it would be for Donald Trump were he to have a similar conversation with Jesus today.

Jesus spoke of his purpose which was to ‘testify to the truth’. Words like ‘truth’ as it pertains to authority, are foreign to people like Pilate and Trump. It is not the language they speak. Authority comes with speaking and acting truthfully. It comes with integrity. Integrity implies singleness of loving purpose. We see no evidence of such a purpose in a power-hungry and emotionally unstable plutocrat.  We therefore discern no true authority in him.

Furthermore, the kind of power Jesus is talking about pertains to a different kind of world. In that world, that ‘kingdom’, if there is no true authority, there is no real power. So far, we have seen nothing of true authority in Mr. Trump or in any of his aides or supporters. But this does not mean that he does not have the power to wreak irreparable damage on our planet and on the world as we know it. But we are not to give up on this world, or on the kingdom of which Jesus speaks.

True authority is integral to the truth which is born of the love of God who is the source of all power. No wonder Pilate asks, sardonically, and again desperately, “What is ‘truth’?” The power of truth, and the authority it bestows, lies in sacrificial self-giving love. For those who hold it, power’s most disturbing and defining moment comes when they must acknowledge the truth about themselves in relation to the power entrusted to them, a power which may not sit well with the authority they believe they are exercising. Pilate knew this in the moment of his exchange with Jesus Christ. When will such a moment of truth occur for President Elect Donald Trump?