Piety, Tradition, Power, and Change

I watched a debate on the viability of the resurrection of Jesus not too long ago, and, although I disagreed with practically everything else he said, the man arguing against the literal resurrection brought up an interesting point. He basically said that, in some churches, the parishioners are so stuck on tradition that if God himself said that they should change the color of their carpet, they would refuse to do so. I have, in fact, heard of churches breaking up over that very thing, except for the fact that the voice of God didn't come over the loud speaker telling them what to do. It seems rather silly, but many people refuse to listen to what God says that they should be doing because it would mean changes that they do not necessarily want.

Most of the Jewish religious leaders did the same thing when Jesus was crucified. Everything pointed to him being the messiah that they had taught about in the synagogues and whom everyone was awaiting, yet they refused to believe it. Instead, they accused him of blasphemy and had him put to death. After Jesus conquered death and came back to life, they bribed the soldiers guarding the tomb to tell a different story. Why? My theory is that, by acknowledging Jesus' authority, they would lose their own. They had a lot of power that would be taken away if the traditions and the laws were no longer the people's only hope. The change was not in their favor, and thus they did not want it to take place.

There is a famous chapter in Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov" in which one of the brothers tells a story that takes place during the Spanish Inquisition. Thousands are being burned to death because they were suspected of witchery. In the midst of it, Jesus comes back. The bishop of the time does not fall down at Jesus' feet and worship Him, but instead gets mad at him for coming back when everything is going so well. He does not want things to change and for his power over the heretics to be taken away. He was pious to the point that it gave him power, but when it came to really obeying God when it would mean less glory for himself, that was where his "piety" stopped.

We still live our lives that way. Comfortable in our homes, neighborhoods, and churches, we do not want to have our power over our lives taken away. We would rather stick to empty tradition than let any real change come into our lives that might be out of our control and put us into uncomfortable situations. Sure, we talk about it, saying someday we will start living for someone other than ourselves, someday we will make changes around here, but, for today, we will put it off until that someday and be content and comfortable just talking about how we should be living and looking like good little people for doing so. As long as we are still in charge, we are happy with our unchanging tradition and "piety."