Jesus doesn't like oligarchs either: Christianity is an equality Gospel, not a prosperity Gospel

[The Great Open Dance]

Jesus doesn’t like oligarchs, either: Christianity is an equality Gospel

Jesus overturns the social hierarchy. Humans aren’t particularly secure about ourselves, collectively, so we compete for pride of place. We struggle to acquire more power so we can acquire more money so we can consume more resources so we will have higher self-esteem. The origin and outcome of this competition is ceaseless comparison that produces either envy or pride, both of which are inherently painful.

Jesus saves us from ourselves by preaching and practicing a celebratory egalitarianism, a recognition that all are equally loved in the eyes of God. No one can be worth more than anyone else because all possess infinite value.

Those at the center often deny the value of those at the margins, but God prefers to work through the margins, in a divine challenge to the perceived center. Jesus himself comes from the margins—poverty, Judaism, Galilee—and propagates the truth of their value until he is killed by those at the center. His genealogy anticipates his marginalization (Matthew 1:1–17). It lists Tamar, who had to disguise herself as a prostitute to become impregnated by her reluctant patron, Judah (Genesis 38). It lists Rahab, an actual prostitute who helped the Israelites conquer Jericho (Joshua 2). It lists Ruth, a Moabite widow who chooses to join an Israelite family (book of Ruth). And it lists Uriah’s wife Bathsheba, who was “seduced” and impregnated by King David, who then had her husband killed in battle (2 Samuel 11). We may look to the center for salvation, but God sends it from the margins.

As the revelation of God, Jesus becomes the new, “decentering center,” the center who denies us any boundary. The margins have the clearest perspective. The margins see the hypocrisy in hierarchy and realize that “what is prized by humans is an abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15a). If God loves us all equally, which is absolutely, then there is no need to claw for priority of place. Christianity is an equality gospel, not a prosperity gospel.

Jesus sees through the deceitfulness and pretense of those who cherish places of honor in public while “devouring widow’s houses” behind the scenes (Luke 20:47). He condemns those who give ostentatiously, out of their abundance, praising instead the poor widow who gives even out of her poverty (Luke 21:1–4).

Egalitarian community is salvation. We seek eminence, but God wants charity; we seek gain, but God wants justice. For this reason, Jesus warns his disciples, “All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted” (Luke 14:11). Jesus inverts the social order in his practice as well as his preaching. When the disciples argue about who among them is the most important, Jesus reprimands them, pointing out that “I am among you as the one who serves you” (Luke 22:27b).

In the Gospel of John, Jesus emphasizes this life of service by washing his disciples’ feet. Travelers’ feet were dirty and sore and always in need of attention, but only servants washed other people’s feet. It was a job for the lowly. Peter was so uncomfortable with this awkward act of intimacy that he protested and initially refused Jesus’s ministrations, but Jesus prevailed:

After washing their feet, Jesus put his clothes back on and returned to the table. He said to them, “Do you understand what I have done for you? You call me “Teacher,” and “Sovereign”—and rightly, for so I am. If I, then—your Teacher and Sovereign—have washed your feet, you should wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done for you. (John 13:12–15)

Oddly, although Jesus explicitly commands his disciples to “do as I have done for you,” foot washing never became a sacrament in the mainstream Christian denominations, perhaps because it was just too upside down and intimate for any institution to bear, especially hierarchical ones.

Today, we live in an increasingly stratified world, full of hierarchs and oligarchs and plutocrats and autocrats. Jesus weeps over the cruelty of it all. Too often, those at the margins want to join the oligarchs rather than help their neighbors. Infused with envy by the media and its romanticized depictions of wealth, we seek pride by imitating those who keep us down. But wouldn’t we all be better off—politically, emotionally, financially, and spiritually—if we all helped each other up? (adapted from Jon Paul Sydnor, The Great Open Dance: A Progressive Christian Theology, pages 134-135)

*****

For more reading, please see:

Cobb, John B. Jesus' Abba: The God Who Has Not Failed. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2016.

Padilla, Elaine. Divine Enjoyment: A Theology of Passion and Exuberance. New York: Fordham University Press, 2014.

[Karadeniz]

1. It would be so much better if people could discuss jesus special teachings, the

ones you need special eyes and ears to figure out since they're hidden in parables which have eluded understanding for centuries. However, I have. Jesus taught a god system, the soul's portion of which uses karma and reincarnation to accomplish its purpose in creation. Jesus was not exempted from this process. Edgar Cayce describes some of Jesus's previous lives.