Fist-fighting Over the Prince of Peace
Dec 10th, 2008 by John
Priests and Police
I kid you not. This is not in “Ripley’s Believe or Not.” Fights periodically break out between rival groups of priests in two of the Holy Land’s most revered sites.
On Palm Sunday, April 20, 2008 kicking, shoving, hitting each other with palm fronds, groups of Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests dusted each other up. Israeli police were called to stop the holy men from fist fighting. Where? In Jerusalem. In “The Church of the Holy Sepulchre”—the place where Jesus was allegedly buried. It all started when an Armenian priest thought that a Greek Orthodox priest spent too much time in Jesus’ tomb. So he forcibly ejected him. You know those priests—they can get very feisty! All this in the tomb of the One who said “Love your enemies,” not “Whack them with palm leaves, even if they are priests of another order.” The clincher: This rivalry between the two sets of priests dates back to the Great Schism of the 11th century! So much for “Forgive each other as I have forgiven you” or “Love keeps no record of wrongs.”
In Bethlehem, Thursday, November 27, 2007, 1:10 p.m. some eighty Armenian and Greek Orthodox priests broke into a broom-swinging brawl. Can’t you just see a robed and bearded priest shaking a broom at a rival saying, “C’mon, you want some of this? I’ll give you some!” At least four were injured and the Israeli police stopped the fighting. I imagine kids in the area go around saying, “My priest can beat up your priest.” It started when a Greek Orthodox priest leaned a ladder over a small area of the Armenian section of the church. They were cleaning the church in preparation for upcoming services. Where? The Church of the Nativity—where Jesus was allegedly born. Isaiah prophesied that the son born to us would be called “Prince of Peace.” So much for the One who said, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”
In the place Jesus was born, fights break out. In the place where Jesus was buried, fights break out. Not fights among gang members, drug lords or fickle teenagers. Not fights with guns and knives, or chains and clubs, but with palm leaves and brooms. Fights between grown men, those called to be holy, among priests! These priests are so intent on serving Jesus in their own, precise “orthodox” tradition that they beat the stuffing out of others who are trying to do the same thing only in a slightly different way.
I find it easy to laugh at this Holy Land silliness. I find it easy to judge those who should know better. Laugh and judge…until I find myself impatient at consumers beating me to the stuff I want. Or irritated with family members who are not as “Christmasy” as I am. Or intolerant of a culture that creates a “merry Christmas” on a Mount Everest of debt. Am I any better than the fighting priests if my own spirit goes sour? Not really. What is it that makes us forget Jesus in this season all about Jesus? In forgetting Jesus and why he came I may be orthodox; be a Bible-believing Christian. But so what?
May our lives be marked by the peace from him who is named Prince of Peace.
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“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell. And anyone who leans a latter carelessly in the wrong section of the church is probably beyond salvation. Such a man you must sweep out of your life.”
See, they were acting like Jesus…
Post Blackbird Song,
Your knowledge of the Word and those little known textual variants astounds me. Thanks for this burst of insight.
I think this is one of your greatest posts. Until the last paragraph, I really thought it was about fighting priests and the ridiculousness of it all. How often do we take note and opin on the hypocritical faults of others when we are SO guilty of the same though perhaps in a less ostentatious manner? “Priests are SUPPOSED to be kind. It’s their JOB.” Why do we expect so much from our so called leaders, yet not feel compelled to live up to those same expectations? It’s amazing how easily we lose our focus to watch the sins of others. A prime example of my plank eyed vision focused on the splinter of those I think should be pure as the wind driven snow.
Thanks for the commentary on my life. I’d lost sight of it.
DClark,
You caught it. As I was writing the post I felt sort of smug about my life…at least I don’t fight like those priests. But then it hit me like a plank in the eye that I am just just like them only in a different way. Yikes.
Man is fallen, God is not. We won’t be disappointed with God, no matter how high we hold Him up.