Part 1 of When Equity Evokes Rage
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Our reading this week is from the gospel of Luke:
He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.
Looking at his disciples, he said:
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who hunger now,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you,
when they exclude you and insult you
and reject your name as evil,
because of the Son of Man.Rejoice in
that day and leap for joy, because great
is your reward in heaven. For that is how
their ancestors treated the prophets.
“But woe to you who are rich,
for you have already received your comfort.
Woe to you who are well fed now,
for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will mourn and weep.
Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you,
for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets. (Luke 6:17-26)
This week’s reading is Luke’s sermon on the plain (cf. Matthew’s sermon on the mount). It’s one of my top favorite passages in the gospel of Luke. In this passage, Luke’s gospel characterizes Jesus as explaining how differently the healing, reparations, and justice of God’s just future will impact those in different social locations. Those whom the present system privileges or marginalizes will be impacted differently. Those on undersides and edges of Jesus’ society will hear his message as good news (or gospel). The powerful, propertied, and privileged will interpret Jesus and his message as a threat to the foundation their way of life has been built on.
Growing up in evangelical circles I was always taught that the gospel was universally good news: good news for everyone. And if the gospel is defined as a free gift of access to a post mortem heaven, I can understand that. But if we define the gospel the way the synoptic Jesus stories do, as God’s just reign arriving here on earth as it is in heaven with equity, reparations, and inclusion for all that are presently being harmed, then we can hear Jesus’ teachings as good news or as quite the opposite.
I remember this first being pointed out to me by the work of the late Peter J. Gomes, who was deeply influential in my journey. In The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus, Gomes writes:
What if the “rules” are inherently unfair or simply wrong, or a greater good is to be accomplished by changing them? When the gospel says, “The last will be first, and the first will be last,” despite the fact that it is counterintuitive to our cultural presuppositions, it is invariably good news to those who are last, and at least problematic news to those who see themselves as first. This problem of perception is at the heart of a serious hearing of what Jesus has to say, and most people are smart enough to recognize that their immediate self-interest is served not so much by Jesus and his teaching as by the church and its preaching. (Peter J. Gomes, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What’s So Good About the Good News?, p. 42)
There are implications here for us at this moment. We’ll explore those in Part 2.
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