Brutus tried to save the public thing
Which at the time was oligarchal still.
At interest usurial he used to lend,
So he thought the families better than a king.
His freedom to exploit he did defend,
Octavian took it from him with twice the will.
That was my little ditty about Brutus' motivation for killing Julius Caesar. Hope you enjoyed it.
The legacy that Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger has, thanks to William Shakespeare, is that of being the noblest Roman of all. But he was really a politician who was angry that one man had turned out to be too good at the game they were all playing, that of consolidating power and riches. A republic such as the Romans had is only a res publica for the politicians and bankers. Brutus grew rich by lending at high interest to provincials while he was governor of Cyprus. He took advantage of the power system of which he was a part, to which he had been highborn.
Let today be a day for Christians to remember that there is no salvation in the State. We ought not to seek to be kings or senators, although we may be such things. Let us instead seek to live humbly, to do justice, and love mercy.
We live in a nation of Brutuses, of politicians who are bankers and bankers who are politicians. Do not be deceived by the fact that we are ruled by a few instead of one. There are good and evil kings, and good and evil senates. We should not be proud of our government because it is not a dictatorship, nor because it is a "democracy". Let Roman Christians love Rome, and let American Christians love the United States, but let us always remember that we belong to another Kingdom, a better Kingdom.
The question to ask is, do Rome or the United States submit to King Jesus?
Brutus and Julius Caesar are cut from the same cloth, the fabric of powerlust, which we are not to be a part of. (Armies are more honorable than assassinations because assassins are part of the machinery they claim to fight.) And let us remember that our weapons are not the weapons of this world.
The things that we tolerate, the things we do to each other and allow to be done to others, for these things we will be judged. Do not think that we can escape judgment by changing leaders. Instead we ought to pray for mercy from God. Look away from elections, and look to worship of Jesus. That is our revolution: worship.
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Micah 8
He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
The voice of the Lord cries to the city—
and it is sound wisdom to fear your name:
“Hear of the rod and of him who appointed it!
Can I forget any longer the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked,
and the scant measure that is accursed?
Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales
and with a bag of deceitful weights?
Your rich men are full of violence;
your inhabitants speak lies,
and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow,
making you desolate because of your sins.
You shall eat, but not be satisfied,
and there shall be hunger within you;
you shall put away, but not preserve,
and what you preserve I will give to the sword.
You shall sow, but not reap;
you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil;
you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.
For you have kept the statutes of Omri,
and all the works of the house of Ahab;
and you have walked in their counsels,
that I may make you a desolation, and your inhabitants a hissing;
so you shall bear the scorn of my people.”
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