The Neglected Command : The Business of Christian Education XLVIII

Remember the time when the conservative block fought the liberal?  The liberal pushed for the church to care for the poor, the needy, and the oppressed.  But the conservative stood still and argued that the only and main concern of the church was the souls of man, in which the meaning was to focus only on the heavenly redemption from sin.  The liberal broke away from the conservative and pursued social impact in the earthly matter.  The conservative became hardened and lived out their theology and thus doing only evangelism.  With eagerness they called people from all the corners of the world to join the mission to carry out the good news of the gospel, to proclaim the birth, the suffering, the death, the resurrection, and the ascension of Jesus Christ as God’s salvation for humankind.  The liberal, on the other hand, worked very hard to give birth to social justice.  They stood with the oppressed, the needy, the poor, in order to carry out what they believed to be the mandate ordered by God.  The conservative accused the liberal of forgetting the most important message of the Bible, and the liberal retaliated accusing the conservative of neglecting justice.  The conservative became more and more hardened to the point that even if there is a person dying of starvation in front of them, they would first and foremost offer the gospel and not food.

            There is this story about a young missionary to China.  He landed in Shanghai more than 100 years ago.  With his young spirit, he wanted to change the world by proclaiming the gospel and bringing people to know his God, Jesus Christ.  And so, in his first day of missionary work in Shanghai, early in the morning he went out to find a poor soul that he could speak of Jesus and bring him/her back to God.  After 10 minutes of walk through the dark and damp aisles, he found
someone lying on the street, weak and filthy, staring at him begging for help.  So the young missionary approached him.  The beggar spoke softly: “Food, give me food, I have not eaten in two weeks.”  The young missionary felt pity, but he remembered his training: “gospel first anything else comes second.”  So he opened his mouth and started proclaiming Jesus Christ to this poor beggar.  The beggar continuously begged for food.  But the young missionary ignored the plea and continued with his preaching.  To close his preaching, the young missionary asked the beggar: “Now that you have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, would you believe in him, repent, and receive your salvation?”  But the beggar said the same thing over and over again: “Food, give me food, I have not eaten in two weeks.”  The young man felt disappointed with the answer.  So he said to the beggar” “I am going to go preach the gospel in the square, I want you to think of the gospel I just spoke to you, and I will come back, hopefully when I come back you are ready to believe in Jesus and receive your salvation.  Bye now.”  So the young missionary went to the square to preach the gospel to the people.  He worked so hard that he was exhausted.  He then began walking home in the evening.  He walked the same route he used in the morning.  There he was on the same aisle where he met the beggar.  He checked whether the beggar was still there.  As he approached the spot, he saw the beggar still lying on the same spot he met him in the morning.  So he approached him with high hope that this time the beggar would believe.  So he called the beggar: “Sir, sir, how are you?  Have you thought of what I said in the morning?  Are you now ready to believe in Jesus?”  But there is no response.  “Ah, he must be sleeping,” though the young man.  Then he tried to wake the beggar up, “Sir, sir, wake up, have you thought about the gospel I spoke to you this morning?  Are you ready to believe in Jesus?”  But the beggar did not respond, even after the young man shook him to wake him up.  After awhile, the young missionary realized that the beggar had died.  The young missionary cried.  He then began to regret and said: “Why did I not give you food?  Why did I not give you food?  And now you died starving?  Why?”

            Yes, the important message of the gospel is Jesus Christ and his redemptive act.  But God also commands his people to do justice.  Micah 6:8 records this:

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.

And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy,

And to walk humbly with your God.”

The liberal was prompted by this truth.  And in this case they were right.  This command ought not to be neglected.  Neglecting this command is the same with ignoring God.  N. T. Wright, in his book “How God Became King” reminds his readers that often we read the gospel through the lens of the Creeds and thus skipping a very important part of the gospel, that is the life of Jesus Christ.  According to N. T. Wright, because of the Creeds lens, we only see the birth, the suffering, the death, the resurrection, and the ascension of Jesus Christ.  And so everywhere we go we only proclaim those and skip the life of Jesus.  Jesus’ life is actually the biggest portion of the four gospels.  If it is not important, then why all four gospel writers wrote it using the most space?  N. T. Wright argues that the life of Jesus reflects how God became King.  This fact that God became King in Jesus is an essential message of the gospel.  Theologians like Walter Brueggemann, N. T. Wright, Christopher J. H. Wright, Antonio Gonzalez, agree that the gospel is the climax of the OT narrative.  If we read the Bible carefully, we will notice that the OT ends with Israel in exile.  The genealogy in Matthew and Luke was written carefully to show that the story of Israel in the OT ends in exile.  But the gospel opens up a new chapter, that in Jesus Christ, the exile narrative is not the ending of the Bible narrative.  Jesus Christ is the ending of the grand narrative.  And so his life is to be told.  The fact of the matter is that Jesus’ life is not an ordinary life.  Since after his baptism and temptations in the desert, Jesus began his ministry to proclaim of the Kingdom of God.  And the Kingdom of God is a kingdom that is to be ruled in justice and righteousness (cf. Isaiah 9:7).  This is the truth that must not be neglected.

            Brueggemann contrasted the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world, which in Exodus is represented by the reign of Pharaoh.  Pharaoh rules with injustice, oppression, and so enslaves Israel even though Israel did nothing wrong to the Egyptians.  C. J. H. Wright argues in his “Old Testament Ethics for the People of God” that Israel must reflect God’s kingdom that is just and righteous, on contrast to the kingdom of Pharaoh and Canaan that is full of oppression and injustice.  Brueggemann points out that through the leadership of Moses, God was forming an alternative community that is totally different from the community the world favors, that is the community of the people of God, and thus Israel is to be just and righteous.  If we read OT carefully we will find a very important theme throughout that is continued on in the NT, in the life of Jesus, the theme of justice.  In Sinai, God established his covenant with Israel and gave them his commandments that would separate Israel from all the other nations in the world.  The book of Leviticus, as the heart of the Pentateuch, is loaded with the requirements of justice and righteousness as the people of God should do and behave.  Jesus did not just proclaim of his death, resurrection, and ascension, but he also healed the sick, fed the hungry, cared for the poor, casting out demons, confronting injustice, in his life as a way of establishing his kingdom.  He is the King after all.  And so he quoted from Isaiah 61:1, 2 and says:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me,

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Social justice is Jesus’ concern.  But why in the world, God’s church retreats from it and finds safety in proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ only without ever desiring to touch social justice?  If we read carefully the Prophets like Isaiah, Ezekiel, for example, we will find that one of the main reasons Israel was exiled was that they neglected social justice (cf. i.e. Ezekiel 22).  N. T. Wright is right that God’s church has erred in skipping the life of Jesus and thus fails in carrying out an important command to bring about shalom through social justice in the world.  If we are to become an alternative society that is supposedly in stark contrast with the community of the world, then we are to live out justice and righteousness.  It is very unfortunate and sad that God’s people do not adopt the way of life of justice and righteousness as detailed in the book of Leviticus and enforced throughout the OT and even highlighted in the NT.  When we skip the life of Jesus and thus the life of justice and righteousness, we consequently leave the main room empty in our spiritual and character formation.  Such emptiness must be filled.  The world bombards us with so many images, imaginations, teachings, etc. to fill that empty space.  If we do not adopt the Bible way, then we will adopt the world way.  This is sad because a lot of Christians adopt the world way and thus, instead of conducting justice, they perpetuate injustice.

            Jesus warns his disciples not to lead like the world’s leaders – by lording it over the subjects, but to lead by being a servant (Matthew 20:25-28).  Jesus says that he came to the world not to be served but to serve.  If the King himself came to serve, then as his servants what are we to do but to serve?  Through serving we rule in the way of justice and righteousness.  The world offers a different way, the way of Pharaoh, the way of Rome, by enslaving others.  Christian institutions, even churches, often adopt enslavement rather than servanthood, and thus bringing the kingdom of the world to reign in the kingdom of God.  This is wrong.  Such act is neglecting God’s command.  The saddest part of it is that when Christian institutions enslave the brothers and sisters in Christ and do it in the name of Jesus Christ.  Just like the young missionary in the story, purposefully putting anything else as second, including feeding the hungry, and proclaiming the gospel of Jesus first above everything, and doing it in the name of Jesus Christ, a service to the King, many Christian institutions do the same.  And just like the young missionary found the beggar died of starvation, many Christian institutions will also find failures upon failures when they neglect justice.

            Injustice can take many forms.  Even in the small practice in a Christian institution, injustice can be found.  Unethical practice that even the world institution has shunned can be found in Christian institutions.  It is a shame.  Let me tell you a story of Adele.  Adele is a Christian.  She is trying to find a job.  She wants to work in a Christian institution.  She found a job opening in a Christian college that fits her qualifications and credentials.  The director of administration position is what she always wanted to do.  So she applied for the position.  After some time waiting, she was called for an interview.  She was so excited.  The interview went very well.  She felt very good.  However, after a few weeks, she received a letter from the Christian college telling her that she is not selected as finalists.  She is disappointed, but it’s OK.  She believes that God has his plan.  And she submits her future to God.  After a while, she received news that the position she applied for in the Christian college was filled.  Out of curiosity she checked on the website to find out who got the position, and she found out something very surprising.  The person that got the position was among the search committee who interviewed her.  It is surprising for her because it is unethical.  Moreover, the person who got the job was always a candidate the entire time.  How come, a candidate was also a member of the search committee?  Does not even the world shun this kind of practice and label this as unethical?  But why a Christian college practiced such thing?  Adele wonders.  Injustice?

            Yes injustice.  Lord Acton’s maxim: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” is to be heeded.  The lure of power can blind even Christians.  Once power blinds us, we would do whatever we want and not what is right.  Then we would be too busy defending our unjust decision with fancy reasoning instead of busy fixing what is broken.  If we read the Bible carefully, we will find out clearly that God opposes injustice!  He has dealt with Israel very severely, for justice must prevail.  If his agents in the world misrepresent him, then God himself will discipline his agents.  Should we wait until God uproots us and destroys us before we repent and fix what we break and thus start to do what is right?  God’s command for us to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with him is not to be neglected.  We are after all his agents of shalom, of justice, of righteousness.  We represent God in his kingdom on earth.