A Gospel of Economic Justice

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A Gospel of Economic Justice

Herb Montgomery, January 25, 2025

If you’d like to listen to this week’s article in podcast version click on the image below:

Our reading this upcoming weekend is from the gospel fo Luke:

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

“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.” 

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:14-21)

Out of all of the passages in the Hebrew Scriptures that the author of Luke could have chosen, they connected Jesus with these words from the book of Isaiah:

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,

because the LORD has anointed me 

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim freedom for the captives

and release from darkness for the prisoners,

to proclaim the year of the LORD’S favor

and the day of vengeance of our God,

to comfort all who mourn,

  and provide for those who grieve in Zion—

to bestow on them a crown of beauty 

instead of ashes,

the oil of joy 

instead of mourning,

and a garment of praise 

instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness,

a planting of the LORD

for the display of his splendor. (Isaiah 61:1-3)

Luke’s gospel squarely places Jesus in the Hebrew prophetic justice tradition, speaking truth to power, on behalf of the poor in this case.

A Gospel of Wealth Redistribution

Considering how many times Luke’s gospel mentions “the poor,” it is no wonder that many consider it to be the gospel of economic justice. I’m reminded of what the late father of liberation theologies Gustavo Gutiérrez wrote in solidarity with the poor: “The poverty of the poor is not a call to generous relief action, but a demand that we go and build a different social order.” (The Power of the Poor in History, 2004, p. 45).

Certainly this was Jesus’ call in Luke, too. 

So central is Jesus’ gospel of the wealth redistribution of the kingdom for the poor that when John’s disciples ask Jesus about the authenticity of his own movement, he responds that the good news to the poor validating his ministry: 

So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. (Luke 7:22)

One of the transitional moments for me in my own journey in ministry was realizing that the Jesus of the gospels never mentions so many of the things I used to be passionate about preaching. And so many of the things Jesus taught and that were central to his emphasis in the synoptic gospels, I never even mentioned. 

The poor, poverty, and economic justice were one of themes for me. 

In Luke, Jesus centers the poor. The kingdom belongs to them. And Jesus’ “kingdom” is good news for them. As Gutiérrez would say, it’s a different social order where poverty is no longer created. Poverty is an indictment of the system it exists in, because that system creates and allows for poverty. A system of winners and losers will always have those who lose. But in Jesus’ new social order, everyone has enough to thrive:

Looking at his disciples, he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” (Luke 6:20)

For Jesus, everything depended on how generous our attitude and actions were toward those our system places in poverty. Notwhithstanding the problematic nature of purity cultures in general, and given that this passage was written within a kind of purity culture, notice how everything “being clean” hinged on generosity toward the poor:

But now as for what is inside you—be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you. (Luke 11:41)

It is often said that Jesus’ advice in Luke 18 to the rich man, to sell his superfluous possessions and give them to the poor, were an isolated, private, and individual call only to that man. But this is far from the truth. Consider Jesus’ words to this man in Luke 18 and then compare them to Jesus’ words to the crowd in Luke 12. In Luke 12, this call is not to a specific wealthy person, but to all wealthy listeners in general.

When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” (Luke 18:22)

“Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.” (Luke 12:33)

The wealth redistribution Jesus was calling for actually makes sense. Today, the difference between a $30,000 income and a $60,000 for a family is dramatic for the adults but especially dramatic for that family’s children. Their stress, health, life expectancy, and social outcomes are all dramatically different. At the same time, we now know people aren’t dramatically happier or more fulfilled if their net worth grows from $1 billion to $10 billion. 

I’m reminded of Zacchaeus, who in Luke is one of those wealthy members of society (who also was a tax collector) who choose to heed Jesus’ call:

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” (Luke 19:8)

A Gospel of a New Social Order

So central was this call to create a new social order where poverty is no more that in Luke’s companion book, Acts, the first generation of Jesus followers who put Jesus’ societal vision into practice eliminated poverty in their group entirely:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. (Acts 2:42-45)

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need. (Acts 4:32-35, italics added)

In our reading, Jesus’ gospel doesn’t just end with the poor. It also includes freedom for prisoners, sight for the blind, liberation for the oppressed, and the year of the Lord’s favor when slaves would be set free, debts cancelled, and lost or sold land returned back to ancestral families. The prisoners, the blind, and oppressed are all people whose social system had failed them. The blind were imprisoned in a dark Roman cell and deprived of all light. Their situation was referred to as “prison blindness.” In this context, “recovery of sight” means setting free those in these dark cells and ushering them back into the freedom of the sunlight where they could see again. This gives me pause for all whom our justice system in the U.S. is failing today. (To learn more about mass incarceration and the justice system, read The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander; Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson; and Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate by Helen Prejean.)

Today, we could extend this list of system failures even further. Participating in Jesus’ justice work today is to combat white supremacy and anti-Blackness. It means combating misogyny and patriarchal norms. It means standing for the safety and well-being of our LGBTQ family and friends, and even more. This list ultimately includes all of us. Because to follow the Jesus of our reading this week means to engage the ongoing work of shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone, whatever obstacles we might face.

Discussion Group Questions

1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s Podcast episode with your discussion group.

2. Do you consider economic justice as foundational to other areas of social justice? How so? Share and discuss with your group.

3. What can you do this week, big or small, to continue setting in motion the work of shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone? 

Thanks for checking in with us, today.

I want to say a special thank you to all of our supporters out there. And if you would like to join them in supporting Renewed Heart Ministries’ work you can do so by going to renewedheartministries.com and clicking donate. 

My latest book Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political and Economic Teachings of the Gospels is available now on Amazon in paperback, Kindle and also on Audible in audio book format.

As always, you can find Renewed Heart Ministries each week on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram and Meta’s Threads. If you haven’t done so already, please follow us on your chosen social media platforms for our daily posts. 

Thank you for listening to The Social Jesus Podcast. If you enjoyed this podcast please take a moment to like and subscribe and if the podcast platform you’re using offers this option, please leave us a positive review. This helps others find our podcast as well.

You can watch our YouTube show each week called “Just Talking”. Each week, Todd Leonard and I take a moment to talk about the gospel lectionary reading for the upcoming weekend. We’ll be talking about each reading in the context of love, inclusion, and social justice. Our hope is that our talking will be just talking (as in justice) and that during our brief conversations each week you’ll be inspired to also do more than just talking. If you teach from the lectionary each week, or if you’re just looking for some thoughts on the Jesus story from a more progressive perspective within the context of social justice, check it out, you might like it. You can find JustTalking each week on YouTube at youtube.com/@herbandtoddjusttalking.

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Right where you are, keep living in love, choosing compassion, taking action, and working toward justice.

I love each of you dearly,

I’ll see you next week.

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New Episode of “Just Talking” Now Online!

Season 2, Episode 44: Luke 4.14-21. Lectionary C, Epiphany 3

Each week, we’ll be talking about the gospel lectionary reading for the upcoming weekend in the context of love, inclusion, and social justice. Our hope is that our talking will be “just” talking (as in justice) and that during our brief conversations each week we’ll be inspired to do more than just talking.

If you teach from the lectionary each week, or if you’re just looking for some thoughts on the Jesus story from a more progressive perspective within the context of social justice, check it out at:

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New Episode of The Social Jesus Podcast

A podcast where we talk about the intersection of faith and social justice and what a first century, prophet of the poor from Galilee might have to offer us today in our work of love, compassion and justice. 

This week:

Season 2 Episode 4: A Gospel of Economic Justice

 Luke 4:14-21

“Poverty is an indictment of the system it exists in, because that system creates and allows for poverty. A system of winners and losers will always have those who lose. But in Jesus’ new social order, everyone has enough to thrive. In our reading, Jesus’ gospel doesn’t just end with the poor. It also includes freedom for prisoners, sight for the blind, liberation for the oppressed, and the year of the Lord’s favor when slaves would be set free, debts cancelled, and lost or sold land returned back to ancestral families. Today, in addition to econimic justice, we could extend this list of system failures even further. Participating in Jesus’ justice work today is to combat white supremacy and anti-Blackness. It means combating misogyny and patriarchal norms. It means standing for the safety and well-being of our LGBTQ family and friends, and even more.”

Available on all major podcast carriers and at:

https://the-social-jesus-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/a-gospel-of-economic-justice

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Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.

 

by Herb Montgomery

Available now on Amazon!

In Finding Jesus, author Herb Montgomery delves into the profound and often overlooked political dimensions of the gospels. Through meticulous analysis of biblical texts, historical context, and social discourse, this thought-provoking book unveils the gospels’ socio-political, economic teachings as rooted in a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of the marginalized. The book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, presenting a compelling argument for a more socially engaged and transformative Christianity.

Finding Jesus is not just a scholarly exploration; it is a call to action. It challenges readers to reevaluate their understanding of Christianity’s role in public life and to consider how the radical teachings of the gospels can inspire a renewed commitment to justice, equality, and compassion. This book is a must-read for those seeking a deeper understanding of the social implications of Christian faith and a blueprint for building a more just and inclusive society.

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