My Last Martyr

--The Martrydom of Saint Sebastian,
Hans Holbein the Elder

I ain't sayin' you treated me unkind
You could have done better but I don't mind
You just kinda wasted my precious time
--Don't Think Twice, It's Alright, Bob Dylan

We’re gonna jump down turn around
pick a bale of cotton,
jump down turn around pick a bale a day
--Pick a Bale of Cotton, Leadbelly

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV,
And you think you're so clever and classless and free,
But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see,
A working class hero is something to be
--Working Class Hero, John Lennon
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Blogger Disaffected and it Feels So Good sardonically observed on his Christmas Day post that it was bankers that drove the Prince of Peace to violence. If He didn't trust the moneychangers, why should we?

A humorless Christian calling himself, modestly, "TRUTH" protested , "Jesus forgave the people that crucified him. I think forgiveness is a much better message for Christians to be spreading than Jesus is mad and will smite everyone that reads Disaffected and it Feels So Good ..."

Maybe, TRUTH, but He did not choose to forgive the moneychangers. An inconvenient truth, perhaps, but one not difficult to reconcile. He may have been trying to introduce a New Way, but recognized the perfidy of those about him. People are wicked, and will not always accord the proper respect -- in those instances, outrage and banishment may be the proper response.

Thanks, TRUTH, but speaking for myself, were I to be crucified unjustly, I would not forgive those doing the nailing. While there's something to be said for accepting one's circumstances (pinned to a cross, there's not all that much else to do), there is also a good in righteous condemnation and rejection of abuse.

I am only human, and that is my preference. Let Jesus be the last martyr. It hasn't done much good in progressing humans, far as I can see. Right, we all feel a twinge of guilt and sadness when he see Him hanging there dolefully on the cross, then given the opportunity, pull a Tiger Woods ("15th hole, anyone?" )

If JC's martyrdom hasn't shepherded in a Better Man, surely my personal martyrdom will do little to forestall anyone's impulse to villainy. Nope, I personally am done with martyrdom. Possible sainthood after flaying is not my cup o' tea.

Martyrdom -- it's what's not for dinner, if you want any respect.

[Cross-posted at Big Brass Blog]