Jesus' Unnamed Disciple
If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. (Mark 8:34f)
Over and over again, Jesus told his disciples that following him will call for great sacrifice – on his part, and on theirs as well. In "The Last Week", Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan put it this way: “To follow Jesus means to accept the cross, to walk with him against imperial violence and religious collaboration, and to pass through death to resurrection.”
But Jesus’ disciples didn’t seem to understand what it would mean to follow him. One of the running themes in Mark’s gospel is their continuing confusion – even their obtuseness. Time and time again the disciples don’t understand his teaching, his parables about the Kingdom, or even direct statements such as “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him....” (Mark 9:31).
And twice, after Jesus makes clear statements about his approaching death, they argue among themselves – not about how to find the strength to follow Jesus, but about which of them would be the greatest when his Kingdom was finally established. While Jesus called them to have the humility of servants, at least some of the disciples saw themselves as future rulers, like the lords and kings they knew in the gentile world. But it was that same world of domination and oppression that Jesus was confronting in Jerusalem.
One disciple, Judas, would decide to collaborate with the religious authorities, betraying Jesus. Note that Mark doesn’t give us a reason for Judas’ betrayal but simply records it, in the process pointing to Judas as the model of an unfaithful disciple. In opposition to the choice Judas makes, there is another follower who shows true discipleship: an unnamed woman who, with other women, had also followed Jesus on the way.
This woman came with a jar of costly ointment and poured the fragrant oil over Jesus’ head. The other disciples scolded her for wasting the costly ointment, but Jesus said, “Let her alone... She has performed a good service for me... She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial...” (Mark 14:3f)
This unnamed woman seems to have been the first to understand what he was saying: On the way to the Kingdom, Jesus was going to die. After her anointing Jesus said to them all: "Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.” (Mark 14:9).
It is ironic that history has forgotten the name of this woman who was held up by Jesus as the model disciple. Borg and Crossan write: “She is, for us, the first Christian. And she believed the word of Jesus before any discovery of an empty tomb. Furthermore, her action was a graphic demonstration of the leadership model Jesus called for...”
The unnamed woman was a model disciple: trusting in Jesus’ word, fearless of the consequences, and serving not in power but in humility. What would have happened if the early church took this unnamed woman as its model for true discipleship?
If we followed her example, what would the church look like today?
If we followed her example, how could we challenge the domination systems of our own time?
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Jesus and Taxes
They sent some Pharisees and some Herodians to trap him... And they came and said to him: “...Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” Mark 12:13f
As we read through Mark’s gospel, we become aware of how many times the Pharisees and others leaders argued with Jesus, trying to trap him into saying something that would cause trouble – with the Pharisees, with the Roman occupiers, or even with the crowds. Their badgering of Jesus reminds me of the press corps which follows every modern political leader – always asking sharp questions, always hoping to catch a politician in a mistake, always looking for a new story to feed a controversy.
Over the centuries Christians have often interpreted these debates between the authorities and Jesus as arguments between the old, rule-bound religion of the Jews and the new, love-centered religion of the Christians. What we frequently haven’t understood is that Jesus was not teaching a new religion, but reminding the people and their religious authorities of what their traditional religion had always taught.
Now the religious leaders sought to trip up Jesus with a question about taxes. No one ever wants to pay taxes, so the problem of taxes remains a hot topic for us today. We still ask the same questions: Why do I have to pay taxes? (It’s my hard-earned money – so why should I share it with the government?) Is it to pay for services needed by the whole society? Does it go to provide support for the needy? Or does it go to line the pockets of our leaders?
Imagine how much more resentment we would feel if our taxes went not to our own elected leaders, but to a foreign occupying power. Now can we begin to imagine how Israel’s people felt, knowing that God called for the poor and needy to be cared for, but seeing their religious leaders currying favor with the occupying Romans instead?
They sent some Pharisees and some Herodians to trap him... Jesus and his disciples were in the courtyard of the Jerusalem temple, the center of Israel’s religion. Faithful Jews came to the temple to worship and make offerings to God, according to the commandments and customs of their faith. Their second commandment told them, You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. (Exodus 20:4) But unlike the broader commandments to care for the poor and needy, this commandment was strictly observed by the nation’s religious leaders. When Jews came to the temple for worship, they had to exchange their ordinary money (a Roman coin, used throughout the empire) for a temple coin, suitable for a holy offering.
So when the pharisees questioned Jesus about taxes, he asked them to show him a coin. And they did – one of them took a Roman denarius out of his pocket and held it in his palm. To Jesus, and to the crowd surrounding him, the sight must have been striking: Right there in their palms, the religious leaders were holding engraved images of Caesar.
The image of Caesar in the Pharisee’s palm was a sign not only of religious hypocrisy, but of political collaboration with an occupying power. Why were these religious leaders – so scrupulous about their piety, so demanding of correct religious observance – carrying images of Caesar into the temple itself? Jesus had exposed their hypocrisy: they claimed to strictly observe the law, but they themselves were breaking it. And it was not just the little law they were breaking (using the right kind of money in the temple), but the larger law (to care for the poor and needy).
Money is always a powerful symbol. It stands for our accumulated wealth, our current income, and our material possessions. We use money to represent the income we receive – whether that income derives from a job or an inheritance, whether it represents a fair share of society’s goods or an unjust portion. The pharisees and other religious leaders were only a very small minority of Israel’s people, but they had by far the greatest amount of property, possessions, and power within their society. Much of their income came from an unfair distribution of Israel’s resources, and some of it even represented pay for collaborating with the Romans.
Money is always a powerful symbol. Like the ancient Roman Empire, our cities, states and nation require us to pay taxes. What does our tax money go for? And like the ancient Jewish temple, churches today take our money – cash, coin, check, and even (in some places) credit cards. Whether cash or coin, that money bears pictures of our presidents and other political leaders; our churches take the money to the bank without any questions.
The pictures engraved on the money are no longer a problem for the church, but Jesus’ questions are still valid today:
Does the money I think of as “mine” represent a fair share of society’s riches?
Do I use my money to advance God’s kingdom of peace and justice, or do I allow it to be used to support a political and economic system which is contrary to my religious ideals?
They sent some Pharisees and some Herodians to trap him... And they came and said to him: “...Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” Mark 12:13f
As we read through Mark’s gospel, we become aware of how many times the Pharisees and others leaders argued with Jesus, trying to trap him into saying something that would cause trouble – with the Pharisees, with the Roman occupiers, or even with the crowds. Their badgering of Jesus reminds me of the press corps which follows every modern political leader – always asking sharp questions, always hoping to catch a politician in a mistake, always looking for a new story to feed a controversy.
Over the centuries Christians have often interpreted these debates between the authorities and Jesus as arguments between the old, rule-bound religion of the Jews and the new, love-centered religion of the Christians. What we frequently haven’t understood is that Jesus was not teaching a new religion, but reminding the people and their religious authorities of what their traditional religion had always taught.
Now the religious leaders sought to trip up Jesus with a question about taxes. No one ever wants to pay taxes, so the problem of taxes remains a hot topic for us today. We still ask the same questions: Why do I have to pay taxes? (It’s my hard-earned money – so why should I share it with the government?) Is it to pay for services needed by the whole society? Does it go to provide support for the needy? Or does it go to line the pockets of our leaders?
Imagine how much more resentment we would feel if our taxes went not to our own elected leaders, but to a foreign occupying power. Now can we begin to imagine how Israel’s people felt, knowing that God called for the poor and needy to be cared for, but seeing their religious leaders currying favor with the occupying Romans instead?
They sent some Pharisees and some Herodians to trap him... Jesus and his disciples were in the courtyard of the Jerusalem temple, the center of Israel’s religion. Faithful Jews came to the temple to worship and make offerings to God, according to the commandments and customs of their faith. Their second commandment told them, You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. (Exodus 20:4) But unlike the broader commandments to care for the poor and needy, this commandment was strictly observed by the nation’s religious leaders. When Jews came to the temple for worship, they had to exchange their ordinary money (a Roman coin, used throughout the empire) for a temple coin, suitable for a holy offering.
So when the pharisees questioned Jesus about taxes, he asked them to show him a coin. And they did – one of them took a Roman denarius out of his pocket and held it in his palm. To Jesus, and to the crowd surrounding him, the sight must have been striking: Right there in their palms, the religious leaders were holding engraved images of Caesar.
The image of Caesar in the Pharisee’s palm was a sign not only of religious hypocrisy, but of political collaboration with an occupying power. Why were these religious leaders – so scrupulous about their piety, so demanding of correct religious observance – carrying images of Caesar into the temple itself? Jesus had exposed their hypocrisy: they claimed to strictly observe the law, but they themselves were breaking it. And it was not just the little law they were breaking (using the right kind of money in the temple), but the larger law (to care for the poor and needy).
Money is always a powerful symbol. It stands for our accumulated wealth, our current income, and our material possessions. We use money to represent the income we receive – whether that income derives from a job or an inheritance, whether it represents a fair share of society’s goods or an unjust portion. The pharisees and other religious leaders were only a very small minority of Israel’s people, but they had by far the greatest amount of property, possessions, and power within their society. Much of their income came from an unfair distribution of Israel’s resources, and some of it even represented pay for collaborating with the Romans.
Money is always a powerful symbol. Like the ancient Roman Empire, our cities, states and nation require us to pay taxes. What does our tax money go for? And like the ancient Jewish temple, churches today take our money – cash, coin, check, and even (in some places) credit cards. Whether cash or coin, that money bears pictures of our presidents and other political leaders; our churches take the money to the bank without any questions.
The pictures engraved on the money are no longer a problem for the church, but Jesus’ questions are still valid today:
Does the money I think of as “mine” represent a fair share of society’s riches?
Do I use my money to advance God’s kingdom of peace and justice, or do I allow it to be used to support a political and economic system which is contrary to my religious ideals?
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Jesus’ Prophetic Acts
Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple..... He was teaching and saying “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers....” Mark 11:17
When Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey, surrounded by crowds of peasants, his motley parade made a sharp contrast to the Romans’ military procession into the city in the very same week. We might call Jesus’ entrance a dramatic symbol of “God’s politics” thrust into the politics of the Roman world: Jesus’ procession represented a kingdom that would not allow the few to dominate the many, the rich to exclude the poor, or religion to sanctify an oppressive regime.
When Jesus entered the temple the next day and began chasing out the merchants and the money-changers, he was again engaged in a prophetic action which – by word and deed – thrust the values of God up against the values represented by temple religion.
We need to understand that it was not the merchants and the money-changers who were flouting God’s will. These merchants were necessary for the temple’s normal functioning. The money-changers helped Jewish pilgrims pay the temple tax; other merchants provided animals suitable for the temple sacrifice. What did flout the will of God was the collaboration between the temple’s authorities – the nation’s religious leaders – and the Roman occupation. The priests, and all of Israel’s religious authorities, were responsible to God and to their people for the temple’s worship and sacrifice. But they were also responsible to the Roman authorities to keep the peace and their own people under control. The religious leaders of Israel had divided hearts – their loyalty was not to God’s kingdom, but to their own safety and prosperity.
Half a millennium before Jesus, the great prophets were already protesting the misuse of the temple for ends other than God’s. Jeremiah prophesied,
If you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place.... Has this house, which is called by my name, become of den of robbers in your sight? Jeremiah 7:5f
After contrasting the actions of the temple with the demands of God, Jeremiah goes on to proclaim,
Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. And now, because you have done all these things, says the Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently, you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name...just what I did to Shiloh. Jeremiah 7:12f
Borg and Crossan, in "The Last Week", help us understand that Jesus’ cleansing of the temple follows the prophetic tradition of Jeremiah. In Jesus’ day as in Jeremiah’s, the leaders of the temple were not offering true worship to God through care for the orphans, the widows, or the poor of Israel; they were not putting God’s justice first. Rather, they were hoping that the temple’s rituals could take the place of genuine justice. Because they themselves worshiped “properly”, and because they helped their people worship “properly” by the proper words and deeds in the temple, they thought they could escape God’s judgment for their actions (and inaction) outside the temple.
But just as Jeremiah’s words and actions forecast the destruction of the first temple in 586 B.C., so Jesus’ words and actions symbolically forecast the destruction of Herod’s magnificent second temple in 70 A.D.
Borg and Crossan write this about Jesus’ prophetic words and actions in Jerusalem that last week: Those action-word combinations proclaim the already present kingdom of God against both the Roman imperial power and the Jewish high-priestly collaboration. Jerusalem had to be retaken by a nonviolent messiah rather than by a violent revolution, and the temple ritual had to empower justice rather than excuse one from it. What is involved for Jesus is an absolute criticism not only of violent domination, but of any religious collaboration with it. In that criticism, of course, he stands with the prophets of Israel.... but he also stands against those forms of Christianity that were used throughout the centuries to support imperial violence and injustice.
Here is, quite literally, the “crux” of the matter for us today:
Where in our world do religious leaders still help to justify political domination by a minority, or support economic systems which oppress the poor?
Where in our nation, state or county does religious worship help excuse the political domination or economic oppression that exists in our own culture?
Does our own worship empower justice? That is, does our worship encourage us to act justly not just in our personal lives but also as citizens of towns, counties, states and nations?
I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.... Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Amos 5:21f
Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple..... He was teaching and saying “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers....” Mark 11:17
When Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey, surrounded by crowds of peasants, his motley parade made a sharp contrast to the Romans’ military procession into the city in the very same week. We might call Jesus’ entrance a dramatic symbol of “God’s politics” thrust into the politics of the Roman world: Jesus’ procession represented a kingdom that would not allow the few to dominate the many, the rich to exclude the poor, or religion to sanctify an oppressive regime.
When Jesus entered the temple the next day and began chasing out the merchants and the money-changers, he was again engaged in a prophetic action which – by word and deed – thrust the values of God up against the values represented by temple religion.
We need to understand that it was not the merchants and the money-changers who were flouting God’s will. These merchants were necessary for the temple’s normal functioning. The money-changers helped Jewish pilgrims pay the temple tax; other merchants provided animals suitable for the temple sacrifice. What did flout the will of God was the collaboration between the temple’s authorities – the nation’s religious leaders – and the Roman occupation. The priests, and all of Israel’s religious authorities, were responsible to God and to their people for the temple’s worship and sacrifice. But they were also responsible to the Roman authorities to keep the peace and their own people under control. The religious leaders of Israel had divided hearts – their loyalty was not to God’s kingdom, but to their own safety and prosperity.
Half a millennium before Jesus, the great prophets were already protesting the misuse of the temple for ends other than God’s. Jeremiah prophesied,
If you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place.... Has this house, which is called by my name, become of den of robbers in your sight? Jeremiah 7:5f
After contrasting the actions of the temple with the demands of God, Jeremiah goes on to proclaim,
Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. And now, because you have done all these things, says the Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently, you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name...just what I did to Shiloh. Jeremiah 7:12f
Borg and Crossan, in "The Last Week", help us understand that Jesus’ cleansing of the temple follows the prophetic tradition of Jeremiah. In Jesus’ day as in Jeremiah’s, the leaders of the temple were not offering true worship to God through care for the orphans, the widows, or the poor of Israel; they were not putting God’s justice first. Rather, they were hoping that the temple’s rituals could take the place of genuine justice. Because they themselves worshiped “properly”, and because they helped their people worship “properly” by the proper words and deeds in the temple, they thought they could escape God’s judgment for their actions (and inaction) outside the temple.
But just as Jeremiah’s words and actions forecast the destruction of the first temple in 586 B.C., so Jesus’ words and actions symbolically forecast the destruction of Herod’s magnificent second temple in 70 A.D.
Borg and Crossan write this about Jesus’ prophetic words and actions in Jerusalem that last week: Those action-word combinations proclaim the already present kingdom of God against both the Roman imperial power and the Jewish high-priestly collaboration. Jerusalem had to be retaken by a nonviolent messiah rather than by a violent revolution, and the temple ritual had to empower justice rather than excuse one from it. What is involved for Jesus is an absolute criticism not only of violent domination, but of any religious collaboration with it. In that criticism, of course, he stands with the prophets of Israel.... but he also stands against those forms of Christianity that were used throughout the centuries to support imperial violence and injustice.
Here is, quite literally, the “crux” of the matter for us today:
Where in our world do religious leaders still help to justify political domination by a minority, or support economic systems which oppress the poor?
Where in our nation, state or county does religious worship help excuse the political domination or economic oppression that exists in our own culture?
Does our own worship empower justice? That is, does our worship encourage us to act justly not just in our personal lives but also as citizens of towns, counties, states and nations?
I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.... Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Amos 5:21f
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