Easter, an April date that commemorates the death and resurrection of Jesus, is one of the two holiest events on the Christian calendar. The other relives the birth of Christ at the end of December.
Although 33 years apart, both occasions occurred during a period when Rome ruled that part of the world. That is important because the Jewish community at the time, was looking for and expecting a savior that would lead them to freedom.
It is in that context that Jesus was born, became an adult, carried out a transformative ministry and died on a cross. He was largely seen as a danger not only to the rule of the state but also to the religious and civil Jewish institutions allowed by the empire.
Christ represented a major departure from the Jewish tradition and the Jewish relationship with God. God was again to become immediately available just like when the community wandered for 40 years under Moses and Joshua.
The notion of Jesus being a savior was not what the Messiah advocates expected. Their thoughts were about a hero born to man to physically liberate the nation from political tyranny.
What Christ brought was a spiritual message of renewal for a people that had sinned so much that, like at other times in the past, God had allowed for them to be conquered and enslaved. Jesus’ ministry was designed to bring regeneration to his people and set the platform for political freedom.
However, a set of violent circumstances intervene that denied the necessary change and eventually forced the Jewish nation to dissolve and become homeless itinerants. The torture and death of Christ on the cross marked the beginning of a more intense movement against Rome.
It is against this backdrop that the Jewish Christian Church began to organize in the Holy Land.
The same year of Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection, 33 CE, is also the year that Saint Paul began his ministry with the Gentiles that eventually led to the Christian Church of Rome.
For 37 years, the Jewish Christian Church and the Roman Christian Church paralleled their development until 70 CE when Roman General Titus put down the Jewish revolution, burned Jerusalem and destroyed the second temple. Rome not only razed Jerusalem and the Second Temple, but also, in a sense, took over the leadership of the Christian Church because, by that time, Saint Paul had written and sent the 13 letters that form the heart of the New Testament.
The most visible symbol of Christianity is the cross. In the Catholic tradition, the cross features the crucified and bleeding Jesus because there appears to be an emphasis on the Lord who died to redeem our sins.
The Protestant Christians tend to depict the cross without Jesus on it because it most likely is portrayed as a sign of resurrection. In any case, the cross, a Roman invention, became the leading symbol of Christianity.
Jesus’ ministry in the Holy Land brought a unique message centered on spiritual renewal for the Jewish people. The specific message of love, compassion and peace was seen as radical given that the ministry took place in a time of imperial subjugation, national resistance and violence.
His deeds, his sayings and the following he accrued were also seen by the civic and religious leaders, Roman and Jewish, as a danger to the status quo. Christ was arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to be nailed on a Roman cross.
Resurrected in three days, the Roman cross became his symbol.
The views expressed by David Conde are not necessarily the views of LaVozColorado. Comments and responses may be directed to News@lavozcolorado.com.
