Second Week in Advent – Day 4 – Conquering Conquest
While it’s difficult to let go of the old, the new beckons us. What is the old? It is what theologian Walter Wink called the Domination System — it’s the system of violence and oppression that enslaves the world.12 But in the death and resurrection of Jesus, that system — that world — has been conquered. It wasn’t through an act of violence on the part of Jesus, but the victory came as Jesus overcame an act of violence — for death could not hold him. In the resurrection Jesus has broken the bonds of death — for him and for us. And in this there is joy — if we’re willing to embrace it! ….
Robert D. Cornwall, From Words of Woe to Unbelievable News, pp. 31-32
The hour has come. The time of suffering is about to begin. The disciples will scatter, but Jesus won’t be alone — the Father will be with him. This too will pass, for Jesus has conquered the world. The world presses in on Jesus. The world, which God loves, causes his son to suffer and die, but, in the Resurrection, Jesus emerges as the victor. The Old Age — the Age of the Domination System — is no more. And, so the invitation goes out: Are you ready to enter the new age of God’s peace and God’s justice that began with the Resurrection?
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12 See Walter Wink, The Powers that Be: Theology for a New Millennium,
(New York: Doubleday, 1998).
