Sabtu, 19 April 2014

Kill Jesus, Give us Barabbas



But the whole crowd shouted " Kill Jesus ! , Give us Barabbas !"
(Luke 23: 18)

Real case in point:
In 2008, there is a farmer, in a village in the Kediri District. East Java Province, Indonesia, named Kuncoro  has created a variety of corn that he obtained through crossbreeding methods of parent seeds are sold by a big company.
The government regulation about it, called UUSBT (Undang-Undang Sistem Budidaya Tanaman) No. 12/1992 on Plant Cultivation System  of Indonesia which should protect the farmers it actually drove him (Kuncoro) to go to prison for 7 months, by the company accused in the judge.
The farmers are not allowed to develop any seed by themselves. The regulation also prohibits them sell seeds without a certificate. With this law, farmers are forced to buy seed corn from the manufacturer,only.
Actually, hereditary habits conducted by the farmers are all held by the farmers themselves. They have seeds collection in each region. But because of this regulation, shall obtain all permits and certification. Yet to obtain permits and certification is not easy because it can only be met by companies that have much money.
Although this time Kuncoro has been released from prison and the regulation about it in Indonesia has been revised, there is already no prohibition for anyone to do his creativity producing any crop varieties, but the injustice was already sacrificed an innocent person, including his family, because nobody care how about his family life during he was in the prison. The similar cases also happens a lot in many places. That is what I think of when I say "Kill Jesus, Give us Barabbas".

"Kill Jesus, Give us Barabbas" contains a message that many law applies in this world upside down. It is not a court , but the law of the judgement powered  by unfair player that work together with government. The poor people in the third world, the farmers who grow the food that was supposed to be the rulers of the food, they has always been "crucified ", become victim of oppression, victim of discrimination by the tyrants.
“Kill Jesus, Give us Barabbas, apparently it does not only happen when the crucifixion of Jesus. It is happening in the world today also.

Why was Jesus crucified?
Since when Jesus prayed in Getsemane, he already alone, lonely and afraid. No friend, even though only one hour, no friend was with him. When Jesus in front of the judge, no lawyer. No justice. That’s what Jesus would be shown.
Jesus was crucified for telling us that we often have to carry the cross in our lives alone.
No friends around us. Maybe there are friends accompany us, but we must face the cross by ourselves. We can not move our cross to others. Each of us has their own cross. Does the condition fair? Sometimes not it all. But, God forms us to be stronger through the cross that we are carrying.

There are many "Jesus"s today who are forced to undergo punishment for something when nothing was ever done that was wrong. Many of the " Barabbas "s today's that defense so instead he gets to enjoy the benefits in the form of comfort, freedom ,wealth, good name at the expense of the poor and weak parties.
Jesus put himself into the image of the poor and weak people.

With the crucifixion, does it mean that Jesus lost the legal world that is upside down ? Absolutely no. Jesus is not loser. He was the winner of the war against injustice. The victory of Jesus was realized when we (Jesus followers)  understand how to act when seeing injustices that oppress the poor and marginalized people.

So the irony is that the whole crowd shouted "Kill Jesus, Give us Barabbas " and this contains a message for us to always be ready and be sensitive to injustice in the world, because it seems that injustice has happened, is happening and will continue to happen.

It is a challenge for us as followers of Christ to apply his courage to break the order and conditions of injustice wherever we are, this we do together with communities we accompany.

Lifeis not measured bygreat material wealth, money, other property pursued by any means, politics that gain money and power in oppression. But it is measured by our alignment with the victims of injustice, the underdog and seemingly defeated for this will show who we really are, that those who have confessed to be a follower of Christ.

Jesus was crucified because he never be bought by money and by any power no matter what courage against injustice was done by peaceful ways, non-violent . Even though he acted in a peaceful way, still he raised protest until he was vilified, judged even though not proven guilty ), tortured and killed in the most cruel way like a great villain. While Barabbas, the great villain was released because the public, the crowd shouted.

Jesus is our role model in managing the community . Jesus was very inspiring . But in the world of today's ironical crowd shouted “Kill Jesus, Give us Barabbas” it still seems that Killing Jesus and Giving Barabbas” continues to happen...


by
Eunike Brahmantyo
at reflection about Crucifixion of Jesus 
ARI 2014