So I again considered all the oppression that continually occurs on the earth. This is what I saw:
The oppressed were in tears but no one was comforting them; no one delivers them from the power of their oppressors. Ecclesiastes 1:1, 4:1
There is no consolation in these verses. From the Teacher's perspective oppression is as unalterable as the sun’s rising in the east and setting in the west. It has not and will not change.
His viewpoint is fatalistic, an excuse to do nothing, to ‘let it be’ and accept oppression as a fact of life that no one can change.
We stir up oppression and rebellion; we tell lies concocted in our minds. Justice is driven back; godliness stands far off. Honesty stumbles in the city square and morality is not even able to enter. Honesty has disappeared; the one who tries to avoid evil is robbed. The Lord watches and is displeased, for there is no justice.
He sees there is no advocate; he is shocked that no one intervenes. So he takes matters into his own hands; his desire for justice drives him on.
He wears his desire for justice like body armour, and his desire to deliver is like a helmet on his head. He puts on the garments of vengeance and wears zeal like a robe. He repays them for what they have done, dispensing angry judgment to his adversaries and punishing his enemies. Isaiah 59:13-18
On one level, the prophet agrees with the teacher. No one is rescuing the oppressed. Injustice is everywhere and those in positions to do something about it lie to themselves. Rather than combat oppression, they stir it up; rather than concede to the demands of justice they resist those demands and then lie to themselves by calling the evil they do, good!
But the prophet, unlike the teacher, isn't fatalistic. On God’s behalf, he is shocked that no one intervenes. He sees the hungry, the thousands within the city without a home. He sees those in authority refusing to intervene for the oppressed, going about their business as though nothing is wrong. Rather than address the injustice, they cater to it. In doing so, they disobey the Lord who demands of them honesty, morality, justice, and godliness.
Isaiah insists there is no justice because his people have given up being just. The measure of their ungodliness is they talk about injustice but then do nothing about it.
Instead of declaring war on poverty, they declared war on poor people robbing them of the little they have to increase their own wealth and security.
Is that really any different than what we do?
We’d sooner purchase a second property than use that money to help those without a home.
Our pension plans invest in companies which sell billions of dollars worth of lethal weapons to the very same countries we are denying food and other essential aid to.
We are closing our borders to refugees unless they can pay their own way. Some we are sending back to imprisonment, and some others to die.
God looks for someone to intervene but to his amazement finds no one.
So God intervenes.
Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and the regaining of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”
Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to tell them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled even as you heard it being read.” Luke 4:16-21
Jesus is God’s intervention. He is the end of oppression. Driven on by justice he preaches good news to poor people, release to those imprisoned, vision to those without sight, and freedom for the oppressed. In his coming God’s Jubilee begins, the end of which all debt is forgiven and his love reigns.
God’s desire for justice propels Jesus to the cross. He frees the oppressed from their fear of death which is the root of all oppression.
Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him and he will proclaim justice to the nations.
He will not quarrel or cry out; no one will hear his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed will he not break and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out, till he leads justice to victory.
In his name the nations will put their hope. Isaiah 42:1-4, Matthew 12:18-21
Jesus leads justice to victory. This is the hope of all nations.
To follow Jesus means we are driven by the same desire to see justice prevail.
Once a religious leader asked Jesus this question: “Good Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him. “Only God is truly good. But to answer your question, you know the commandments: ‘You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. Honor your father and mother.’”
The man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was young.”
When Jesus heard his answer, he said, “There is still one thing you haven’t done. Sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
But when the man heard this he became very sad, for he was very rich.
When Jesus saw this, he said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God! In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”
Those who heard this said, “Then who in the world can be saved?” He replied, “What is impossible for people is possible with God.” Peter said, “We’ve left our homes to follow you.”
“Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the Kingdom of God, will be repaid many times over in this life, and will have eternal life in the world to come.” Luke 18:18-30
To enter the Kingdom of God is to embrace its values and objectives. It is to move from complicity to engagement, from fatalism to activism, from this world’s way of doing things to God’s way.
As much as we balk about selling all we have to bless the poor to follow Christ, it is for his kingdom’s sake. Installing his kingdom here on earth cost the king his life. We can't be surprised if it costs us everything as well!
To follow Jesus as
he leads justice to victory, we must persevere as he did, endure
opposition as he did and be among the people he was. To follow him is to
deliver the oppressed from the power of their oppressors, to intervene
where injustice is and to labour to prevail.What began as a question from a rich man about how he might attain eternal life, ends up with an answer from Jesus that it will cost him everything. The rich man came with a theological question about what eternity costs and Jesus responded with what justice costs and the requirement of the rich man to part with everything he had.
The rich man wasn’t willing and frankly neither are we! The kingdom's advance in our lives is choked by our predisposition to possessions and selfish pursuit. The kingdom advances for the most part without us, advancing with them willing to pay the price to see justice prevail.
Peter’s response is a telling one: “We’ve left our homes to follow you.”
It is both genuine and ironic. Genuine in that the disciples to follow Jesus had given up their homes and ironic that Peter seemingly doesn't recognize that Jesus' quest for justice had cost him his home as well.
The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. John 1:14
Jesus never asks of us what he hasn’t asked of himself. To initiate God’s justice here on earth, Jesus changed neighbourhoods.
Perhaps that was the real cost which had stymied the rich young man from following him.
He would have to change neighbourhoods. No longer could he belong to the same golf course or vie for the fanciest car on the street. No longer could he compare stock portfolios with his buddies at the Granite Club nor compete for making the biggest donation made at the next fundraising gala.
He’d have to give all that up to befriend some unschooled fishermen, a reformed tax collector and some ‘ex’ sex-trade workers. This to follow someone who did not back down from challenging those in power, some of whom the rich man would have grown up with, some of whom he knew personally were scheming to kill him.
He couldn't give that up!
Nor can many of us.
To follow Jesus means changing neighbourhoods. That what’s justice costs.
We can’t possibly remain ‘within our own’ and know anything about real oppression. Those with privilege can't possibly know what it is to be without privilege. Otherwise we would not remain silent!
We can’t possibly advocate for someone hemmed down by injustice, unless we are in the neighbourhoods where injustice prevails.
We can’t possibly know what Jesus means when he says - present tense - ‘blessed are the poor’ unless we are living among the poor.
We can’t advance his kingdom without doing our part to lead justice to victory in the places where injustice and oppression currently prevail.
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