The Revolution Won't be Temporary

As long as this world turns, the effects of no revolution, no liberation, last forever.

The Hebrews escaped from Egypt, went to the Promised Land, and were exiled in Assyria and Babylon.

The Jews returned from Babylon, then were conquered by the Greeks.

They threw off the Greeks as told in the books of Macabees. Then were taken over by Rome. And the final revolt against Rome ended in disaster.

The English in the Civil War threw off the power of the Throne. Then realised living under a bunch of incompetent Puritan ratbags was no fun.

In 1804 Haitians revolted against the French, became the first republic in the Caribbean, the second in the Americas. And after 220 sad years is now a failed state.

The appearance of a Liberator is always a sure sign that, somewhere down the line, it’ll all go wrong again. Yet Jerusalem, Sunday before Passover, 33 or so AD - this kind of looks like a conquering general or a liberating hero.

But here, riding a donkey instead of a warhorse, in a triumph with disciples and pilgrims and childrens instead of slaves and prisoners, comes a puzzling Liberator.

His struggle will be on a cross, not a battlefield. His victory will come not in strength but in weakness. The liberation he brings will not be a country that will fail, or a form of Government that will creak under pressure or be seized and manipulated by a rabble-rouser or a technocrat.

The liberation he brings grows in our hearts, as a seed grows into a tree. The freedom he brings is to love others, even if they’re different to us.

And the kingdom he founds will last forever. You can’t draw borders round it. You can’t get a passport. But you can see it and feel it. It grows every day. And one day beyond this world’s time, it will be all there is. And what seemed to be a failure on a cross will be the deed that freed us all.