Refusing to Be Silent About Injustice

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Each week, we’ll be talking about the gospel lectionary reading for the upcoming weekend. We’ll be talking about each reading in the context of love, inclusion, and societal 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.

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Herb Montgomery | June 23, 2023

To listen to this week’s eSight as a podcast episode click here.

“What does this passage have to say about how unsustainable our predatory and exploitative capitalist system today is, both environmentally and economically? What might our Gehenna look like today? Climate change scientists tell us that our Gehenna is coming too. Economic and environmental exploitation in the wake of the industrial revolution is unsustainable, period.”

This week’s reading is from the gospel of Matthew:

“The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household! 

“So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

“Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.

“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn 

  ‘a man against his father,

a daughter against her mother,

a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—

  a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ 

“Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:24-39)

This week’s reading reflects the struggles of the early Jesus community. When Matthew was written, Jesus followers were experiencing pushback and slander similar to what Jesus had experienced from those benefiting from the status quo. In our reading this week, the early Matthean community of Galilee hears Jesus encouraging them to expect being treated the same way he was treated as result of refusing to be silent about the thing Jesus also spoke out about (cf. Luke 4:18-19).

In this reading, they are encouraged to not fear those who can kill their bodies the same way they killed Jesus’ body. This community believed Jesus’ state murder and everything accomplished through his death had been overcome, undone, and reversed by God in the resurrection of Jesus. That’s why Jesus uses the language of killing the body but not killing the soul. What Jesus warns the listeners about next is being thrown whole into Gehenna. There would be no coming back from that. 

Let’s try to hear this language about Gehenna in its original Jewish context rather than in a modern Christian one. In the justice tradition of the Hebrew prophets, Gehenna had a rich history. Gehenna, the valley of the son of Hinnom, was a place where child sacrifice was practiced. Later it became a place where Gentile empires would raze Jerusalem and massacre the Jewish people. The reference in the gospels makes perfect sense: Matthew was written in the wake of Jerusalem being razed again, this time by Rome. Jerusalem’s total destruction  was what some Jews, including Jesus-followers, were trying to make sense of. Without the temple and without Jerusalem, it was as if the Jewish community had been thrown completely into Gehenna. 

Consider how Gehenna evolved in the scriptures:

“And [Ahaz, King of Judah] made offerings in THE VALLEY OF THE SON OF HINNOM, and made his sons pass through fire, according to the abominable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel.” (2 Chronicles 28:3)

“He made his son pass through fire in THE VALLEY OF THE SON OF HINNOM, practiced soothsaying and augury and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with wizards. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger.” (2 Chronicles 33:6)

“And they go on building the high place of Topheth, which is in THE VALLEY OF THE SON OF HINNOM, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire—which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. Therefore, the days are surely coming, says the LORD, when it will no more be called Topheth, or THE VALLEY OF THE SON OF HINNOM, but THE VALLEY OF SLAUGHTER: for they will bury in Topheth until there is no more room.” (Jeremiah 7:31–32)

“The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: Stand in the gate of the LORD’S house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah, you that enter these gates to worship the LORD. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and let me dwell with you in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’ For 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, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever. Here you are, trusting in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are safe!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight? You know, I too am watching, says the LORD.” (Jeremiah 7:1–11, emphasis added.)

It’s telling that the gospel authors put Jeremiah’s words in Jesus’s mouth during his temple protest against exploitation of the poor. Jesus flips over the money changers’ tables, saying “You have made this house a den of robbers.” 

One last passage from Jeremiah:

“And go out to the VALLEY OF THE SON OF HINNOM (Gehenna) at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you. You shall say: Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to bring such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. Because the people have forsaken me, and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah have known; and because they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent, and gone on building the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it enter my mind. Therefore the days are surely coming, says the LORD, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, OR THE VALLEY OF THE SON OF HINNOM, but THE VALLEY OF SLAUGHTER.” (Jeremiah 19:2–6)

I want to be clear. Jerusalem was not destroyed by Rome in 70 C.E . because God was punishing Jews for rejecting Jesus. This trope by Christians has had a long harmful history for Jewish people. The destruction of Jerusalem was instead brought about in the wake of the Jewish-Roman war of 66-69 C.E. This war resulted from the rich exploiting the poor and poor people revolting, taking over the temple, burning the records of their debt, and ultimately making Jerusalem their center of operations as they struck Rome itself. Their revolt provoked  the full weight of the Roman Empire coming down on their heads. 

In this week’s reading, then, the original audience would have heard Jesus encouraging them not to fear being killed for following him as he spoke out against the exploitation of the poor. They would have heard him advising them to fear remaining silent, to not go along with  exploitation that would plunge all of Jerusalem into a “Gehenna” at the hands of Rome. Again, it’s important to remember this was all written after the fact, with the community’s hindsight helping them to map social, political and economic causes for what they had just gone through.

What does this passage have to say about how unsustainable our predatory and exploitative capitalist system today is, both environmentally and economically? What might our Gehenna look like today? Climate change scientists tell us that our Gehenna is coming too. Economic and environmental exploitation in the wake of the industrial revolution is unsustainable, period.

Matthew’s community would have heard Jesus say that speaking out against injustice is divisive: it divides like a sword. And in that world, family ties were more than just relationships, they were also the means of economic survival. But for Jesus, preserving family ties was not a higher priority than speaking out against injustice or the harm being done to those their society had made vulnerable. 

Lastly, Jesus encourages his followers to take up their own crosses. I want to be very careful here. Too often Christians have told victims of abuse and injustice that they must simply bear their cross. This is effectively saying the opposite of our reading this week: it would mean to keep silent and passively bearing injustice. 

But in the context of our reading, remember that Jesus followers are threatened with the cross for speaking out against injustice. Bearing a cross is not inherent to following Jesus. A cross is only invoked when those with power and privilege become threatened by egalitarian change and threaten those calling for change if they don’t shut up. 

To people in that situation, Jesus is saying, don’t be silent. Speak out, resist, keep calling for change, even if they threaten you with a cross for doing so. It is better to take up one’s cross, to speak out against injustice and harm, than to lose your soul, your very being, who you are and your commitment to justice, by choosing to be silent in the face of injustice.

What does it mean to follow Jesus in the context of what we are facing today?

HeartGroup Application

1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s eSight/Podcast episode with your HeartGroup.

2. In what ways to you choose to not be silent in the face of injustice today? 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. 

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Also I want to share that we are partnering in a new weekly YouTube show called “Just Talking.” Each week, Todd Leonard and I will be talking about the gospel lectionary reading for the upcoming weekend. We’ll be talking about each reading in the context of love, inclusion, and societal 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. Please Like, Subscribe, hit the Notification button, and leave us a comment.

And if you’d like to reach us here at Renewed Heart Ministries through email, you can reach us at info@renewedheartministries.com.

My new book, Finding Jesus: A story of a fundamentalist preacher who unexpectedly discovered the social, political, and economic teachings of the Gospels is now also available at renewedheartministries.com

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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Herb’s new book Finding Jesus: A story of a fundamentalist preacher who unexpectedly discovered the social, political, and economic teachings of the Gospels, is available at renewedheartministries.com.

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