New Beginnings and Our Justice Work Today
New Beginnings and Our Justice Work Today
Herb Montgomery | January 2, 2026
If you’d like to listen to this week’s article in podcast version click on the image below:
Our reading this first weekend of the new year is from the gospel of John.
“He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” (John 1:10-18)
Our subject this week is New Beginnings and Our Justice Work Today. But before we rush to our topic, it’s important to consider some preliminary thoughts about the Gospel of John itself, since it is our foundation for this week’s contemplations.
As we begin this week, it’s healthy to remember that John’s gospel stands apart from the synoptic gospels. It’s the latest gospel written (by quite a lewngth of time) in our sacred canon and it is quite different from the others in both style and theology. Regarding style, rather than short parables and healing stories, John’s version of the Jesus story is comprised of extended dialogues by Jesus, John’s famous “signs,” and high Christology based reflections. John centers Jesus’ identity more than the chronology of his ministry. Events appear in a different order, and Jesus speaks in long, reflective discourses. Theologically, the gospel of John presents a high Christology, portraying Jesus not merely as God’s agent but as fully divine. From its opening lines—“In the beginning was the Word”—John identifies Jesus with the ideas of the eternal Logos in the ancient world who was with God and was God. Jesus exists before creation, participates in creation, and ultimatly in the gospel of John, reveals God’s very nature. John emphasizes a union between the Father and Son, and presents Jesus as the definitive revelation of God’s glory, life, and presence in the world.
The gospel of John has also long raised concerns about antisemitism because it repeatedly, negatively refers to “the Jews” as opponents of Jesus. Christians have historically misused these passages to justify hostility toward Jewish people. However, some scholars stress that John reflects an intense intra-Jewish conflict of the late 1st Century, not condemnation of Judaism as a whole. Jesus, his followers, and the author(s) of John were themselves Jewish. The polemical language likely mirrors painful community divisions after the synagogue–Johannine community split. Responsible interpretation requires historical context and rejection of antisemitic interpretations. This week’s reading contains language such as “his own people did not accept him” and contrasts Moses and Jesus. We’ll unpack this a bit more later.
But first, from the early church fathers all the way down to more recent scholars, readers have associated John with first and second century gnosticism because of its elevated language about knowledge, light, and divine revelation and how it contrasts spirit and the flesh. John speaks of Jesus as the preexistent Logos (Word) who descends from above, revealing truth to a world trapped in misunderstandings. This emphasis on revelation and knowing God has led many scholars to suggest that John reflects gnostic thought. However, other scholars argue that while John uses similar vocabulary to the gnostic communities of that time, the gospel ultimately stands in dialogue and tension with Gnosticism and does not promotes it.
Classical gnostics viewed the material world as inherently evil and salvation as an escape from the physical realm through secret knowledge (gnosis). John’s gospel both confirms this view of the material world as negative (i.e. “ who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.”) and at other times seems to confront it (“the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”). Salvation in John, like salvation in gnosticism, is achieved through esoteric knowledge, yet for John that knowledge is only available through Jesus and revealed and embodied in Jesus’ life. Eternal life is both an escape from the world and “knowing” (gnosis) God’s glory. (John 17:3). On one side, John’s gospel emphasizes the incarnation and on another describes Jesus transforming death into a portal into the afterlife.
The gospel of John can be understood as engaging proto-gnostic ideas circulating in the 1st Century, sometimes by agreeing with them and sometimes by debating and providing theological tension with gnosticism. John adopts familiar gnostic language while presenting a theology that affirms the ethic of the love of God more than the synoptics’ focus on justice and love of neighbor. John’s Gospel thus proclaims a spirituality that insists that gnosticism’s knowledge is knowledge of the divine as known through Jesus and the real revelation is a disclosure of God loving the world. John’s gospels doesn’t define salvation as quite the same as do the synoptic gospels. Salvation in John is not as Jesus’ kingdom having arrived on earth or God’s will being done on earth as in heaven. In John salvation is through obtaining the knowledge of God in Jesus and entering fully into the divine life that transforms death into an escape from our material world into God who is spirit. All of this gives us much to ponder in tension with not only 1st Century gnosticism but also its relationship to the synoptic gospels.
Let’s get back to the contrast between Moses and Jesus. In John’s gospel, contrasting Moses with Jesus in ways that portray Moses or Judaism as inferior is a form of antisemitic interpretation. Not all of the New Testament requires that reading, but John does. These contrasts often frame Moses as representing legalism, wrath, or spiritual blindness, while depicting Jesus as embodying grace, truth, or love. But the opposition distorts both figures. Moses is central to Israel’s story of liberation, covenant, and justice, and Jewish tradition has long understood the Torah as a gift of grace, not a legalistic burden. When Christian readings suggest that Jesus replaces rather than building on and dialoguing with Moses, they implicitly delegitimize Judaism and sever Jesus from his own Jewish identity. The synoptic gospels, in contrast to John, present Jesus as standing firmly within Israel’s Hebrew prophetic justice tradition, drawing on the Torah and the prophets rather than rejecting them. Healthy interpretation emphasizes congruency: Jesus continues and intensifies Moses’ vision of covenant liberation, compassion, and justice. Reading Moses and Jesus in both continuity and at times in tension with with each other, correcting and even dissenting from each other, doesn’t mean they weren’t still part of the same Jewish family. Their has always existed vigorous incongruence even within Hebrew traditions themselves. Historically, dissonant voices have existed within Hebrew and Jewish culture, both then and even now. But however we interepret both Jesus and Moses, refraining from denigrating Moses in order to center attention on Jesus resists antisemitism and honors Jesus’ Jewish roots and the Jewish roots of the Christian faith itself.
However one reads the gospel of John, the Jesus of the synoptic gospel stories did not emerge in history as a quiet spiritual teacher detached from the realities of oppression and power. He came as a liberator, proclaiming a vision of God’s reign that directly confronted systemic injustice and exposed the moral bankruptcy of entrenched hierarchies. In 1st Century Judaism, economic exploitation, political domination by Rome, and religious systems that had grown complicit with imperial power all shaped everyday life. And into this world, Jesus announced “good news to the poor,” release to the captives, and freedom for the oppressed. It was language that was not merely metaphorical but also deeply social and political in its implications.
Jesus consistently named and challenged structures that privileged the elites while crushing the vulnerable. He confronted economic injustice by condemning wealth hoarding and exposing how predatory debt, land consolidation, and state taxation impoverished peasants. His parables turned accepted social logic upside down: day laborers received equal wages, the last were made first, and those excluded from honor were welcomed to the table. These teachings were not abstract ideals; they undermined the economic and social assumptions that kept the powerful secure.
Equally disruptive was Jesus’ critique of the elites’ authority when it aligned with empire. He challenged purity systems that excluded the sick, women, and the poor, and restored dignity to those deemed unclean or unworthy. On this, John’s gospel wholly agrees with the synoptics. His symbolic actions—such as the disruption of the Temple economy—publicly exposed how his society’s institutions had become tools of exploitation. By declaring that God desired mercy rather than sacrifice, Jesus echoes other Jewish voices who also questioned a system that justified injustice in the name of faithfulness.
As Jesus’ movement grew, so did its threat to the status quo. Crowds followed him not simply because of miracles, but because his vision offered hope of real transformation. A society organized around mutual care, shared resources, and the equal worth of all people was dangerous to those who benefited from hierarchy and control. Roman authorities feared unrest; local elites feared loss of influence; and the leaders of Jesus’ society feared destabilization. Crucifixion, we must remember, was Rome’s instrument of terror, reserved for those who challenged imperial order. Jesus was executed not for private, religious beliefs, but for a public, liberating message that called the existing system into question.
The Jesus narratives, from beginning (Christmas) to the end (the resurrection), insist that justice, peace and love will win in the end. These narratives proclaim that life, justice, and love outlast injustice and empire. In this sense, the Jesus story is God’s refusal to validate systems that oppress and do harm. The gospels affirm that the way of Jesus was solidarity with the oppressed, resistance to injustice, and courageous love. This way began in a manger in Bethlehem, traversed the countryside challenging injustice and mitigating harm, and ultimately, after standing up to systemic injustice in Jesus’ own societal context, Jesus’ way was not defeated by a Roman cross, but was resurrected to live on in the lives of his followers.
To follow Jesus today is to take his liberating call seriously. It means recognizing that injustice is not only personal but also systemic and woven into economic, political, social, and yes, even religious structures. Discipleship involves naming those injustices, standing with those harmed by them, and working for change even when such efforts are costly. Just as in Jesus’ time, movements for justice will unsettle comfort and provoke resistance. Yet the call remains the same: to seek a world shaped by compassion, equity, and shared thriving. This second weekend of the Christian Christmas season, let’s embrace the call to believe and live out the gospel truth that justice work is sacred, necessary, and, ultimately, life-giving.
Discussion Group Questions
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s podcast episode with your discussion group.
2. What new beginnings are you making as you commit this new year to making our world a safer, more just place for everyone? 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.
If you’d like to reach us here at Renewed Heart Ministries through email, you can reach us at info@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.
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 3 Episode 1: New Beginnings and Our Justice Work Today
John 1:10-18
“These narratives proclaim that life, justice, and love outlast injustice and empire. In this sense, the Jesus story is God’s refusal to validate systems that oppress and do harm. The gospels affirm that the way of Jesus was solidarity with the oppressed, resistance to injustice, and courageous love. This way began in a manger in Bethlehem, traversed the countryside challenging injustice and mitigating harm, and ultimately, after standing up to systemic injustice in Jesus’ own societal context, Jesus’ way was not defeated by a Roman cross, but was resurrected to live on in the lives of his followers. To follow Jesus today is to take his liberating call seriously. It means recognizing that injustice is not only personal but also systemic and woven into economic, political, social, and yes, even religious structures. Discipleship involves naming those injustices, standing with those harmed by them, and working for change even when such efforts are costly. Just as in Jesus’ time, movements for justice will unsettle comfort and provoke resistance. Yet the call remains the same: to seek a world shaped by compassion, equity, and shared thriving. This second weekend of the Christian Christmas season, and the first weekend of the new year, let’s embrace the call to believe and live out the gospel truth that justice work is sacred, necessary, and, ultimately, life-giving.”
Available on all major podcast carriers and at:
https://the-social-jesus-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/new-beginnings-and-our-justice-work-today
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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Wisdom and Understanding Give Birth to Social Justice
We want to take this moment to express our heartfelt gratitude to all of our supporters for your support of Renewed Heart Ministry’s work of love, justice, and compassion. At a time when ministries like ours are being asked to achieve more with fewer resources, your support is so deeply appreciated, and we want to simply say thank you. Whether in our larger society or within our local faith communities, Renewed Heart Ministries remains committed to advocating for change, working towards a world that is inclusive, just, and safe for everyone, and being a source of love. From all of us here at Renewed Heart Ministries, thank you for your generous support. We deeply appreciate you.
If you’d like to join them in supporting our work, please go to renewedheartministries.com and click on “Donate.”
JESUS MAFA
Wisdom and Understanding Give Birth to Social Justice
Herb Montgomery; January 3, 2025
If you’d like to listen to this week’s article in podcast version click on the image below:
Our reading this past weekend was from the gospel of Luke:
Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”
“Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he was saying to them.
Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. (Luke 2:41-52)
Lukes’ gospel is the only version of the Jesus story to contain a narrative about the childhood of Jesus.
By the time Luke’s gospel was written, the Jesus community had become more diverse than the Jewish movement it began as. It had evolved into a richly cosmopolitan community where many members valued the hellenistic culture and stories they had been socialized by. By including a narrative about Jesus’ childhood, Luke’s gospel is taking a cue from traditional Greek biographies that told a story of the hero’s childhood that foreshadowed what kind of leader the hero would be.
This story of Jesus in the Temple forecasts that Jesus will become a wise teacher with exceptional wisdom and understanding that amazed the Temple teachers. The story concludes with Jesus returning to Nazareth and growing into even greater wisdom and understanding there .
By the time Jesus becomes an adult in Luke’s gospel, his wisdom and understanding of the Torah had grown into teachings that brought him a following. These teachings manifested in “good news to the poor . . . freedom for the prisoners . . . sight for the blind,” and teachings that “set the oppressed free” and proclaimed “the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19).
The childhood story invests Jesus with the wisdom and understanding that produces fruit in him as an adult teacher. That fruit is what we would call social justice today.
Jesus called for the kind of social justice, born out of love of neighbor, that stood squarely in solidarity with the oppressed of his own time and place. James Cone states in one of his last books, The Cross and the Lynching Tree:
“I find nothing redemptive about suffering in itself. The gospel of Jesus is not a rational concept to be explained in a theory of salvation, but a story about God’s presence in Jesus’ solidarity with the oppressed, which led to his death on the cross. What is redemptive is the faith that God snatches victory out of defeat, life out of death, and hope out of despair, as revealed in the biblical and black proclamation of Jesus’ resurrection.” (The Cross and the Lynching Tree, p. 201)
Social justice was the Hebrew prophets’ righteous endeavor:
“Learn to do right; seek justice.
Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
plead the case of the widow.” (Isaiah 1:17)
It was this prophetic tradition that both John the Baptist and Jesus stand in and expand to those pushed to the edges or margins of their society as well. To pursue social justice in whatever context we find ourselves is therefore a righteous act exemplified by Jesus himself.
Social justice is rooted in love of neighbor which, though not always practiced, is the central tenet of any religion about Jesus:
“Love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no commandment greater. (Mark 12:31)
To love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. (Mark 12:33)
The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love [of neighbor] is the fulfillment of the law.” (Romans 13:9-10)
For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
(Galatians 5:14)
If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. (James 2:8)
Loving your neighbor and social justice are two phrases referring to the same thing. As Stephen Mattson writes, “To dismiss social justice is to dismiss the worth and humanity of your neighbor” (On Love and Mercy: A Social Justice Devotional, p. 16).
Any Christian teaching, action, or movement that disparages, discourages or prevents adherents from caring about social justice rejects Jesus’ central wisdom and teachings on loving one’s neighbors. Any form of Christianity that inhibits your pursuit and practice of social justice denies the central tenet of the gospel that the Jesus of the stories taught, for the work of social justice is merely the act of applying the ethic of loving one’s neighbor.
And yet, even within some more progressive forms of Christianity today, pursuing social justice within and outside of one’s faith community too often comes at a high cost. After all, the Jesus of our story did end up on a Roman cross. (Though his story doesn’t end there.)
Pursuing social justice will cost you. If it doesn’t, then your story is the exception, not the rule, and your experience would be very unique. Too often, when someone seeks to pursue social justice as an expression of their faith in Jesus and his call to love our neighbor, the result is loss of reputation, friends, family, and income. And there are even those who have also lost their lives. You may find yourself feeling abandoned, but you are not. You are standing in a rich tradition and you are not alone. You and many others are in the same story we read of Jesus in the gospels. You’re in the right story. Even when we may find the path of loving our neighbor discouraging, keep learning, keep listening, keep doing. You are engaged in a holy act of love alongside a holy community of love. As it is written:
“If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” (1 John 3:17-18, emphasis added.)
Love, compassion, and social justice are all connected here. However much we profess to love, that love will manifest itself in caring for the material needs of our neighbors.
It will lead us to seek to be more connected to the world around us. It won’t lead us to want to escape to some far distant cloud or private, inward place, but will lead us to be more effectively engaged with our world in solidarity with our neighbors. We won’t simply care about the wellbeing of our neighbors’ souls (whatever that may be), but we’ll care about their concrete, material existence and want them to receive social justice along with us.
Social justice is the practical fruit of loving one’s neighbor. Therefore, to say that Christianity is rooted in love of neighbor is to also state that Christianity bears the fruit of rooted in social justice out of love for our neighbor. Whatever form of Christianity we subscribe to, our faith should not disconnect us from our world, from our community, from our society. It should propel us to lean into and be more deeply connected to our world, community and larger society.
This coming year, let’s lean more deeply into Jesus’ wisdom and teachings on loving our neighbor and embrace whatever adventure to which that leads.
Discussion Group Questions
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s Podcast episode with your discussion group.
2. How do you want to lean into loving your neighbor this new year? 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, Instagram, Facebook and Meta’s Threads. If you haven’t done so already, please follow us on your chosen social media platforms for our daily posts.
The Social Jesus Podcast is available on all major podcast carriers.
You can watch our YouTube show each week called “Just Talking” where 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. 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.
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.
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 1: Wisdom and Understanding Give Birth to Social Justice
Luke 2:41-52
“Any Christian teaching, action, or movement that disparages, discourages or prevents adherents from caring about social justice rejects Jesus’ central wisdom and teachings on loving one’s neighbors. Any form of Christianity that inhibits your pursuit and practice of social justice denies the central tenet of the gospel that the Jesus of the stories taught, for the work of social justice is merely the act of applying the ethic of loving one’s neighbor. Social justice is the practical fruit of loving one’s neighbor. Therefore, to say that Christianity is rooted in love of neighbor is to also state that genuine Christianity bears the fruit of social justice out of love for our neighbor. Whatever form of Christianity we subscribe to, our faith should not disconnect us from our world, from our community, from our society. It should propel us to lean into and be more deeply connected to our world, community and larger society.”
Available on all major podcast carriers and at:
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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Free Sign Up Here
Breaking With the Way Things Are
Herb Montgomery | January 6, 2022
To listen to this week’s eSight as a podcast episode click here.
“That our participation in John’s baptism might symbolize that for us today gives me pause. Do I really want to break with the way things are? Do I really want change? How committed am I to that change? Am I committed enough to choose those differences in my daily life? All of this and more is on my heart as this new year begins. What changes will our choices and actions bring this new year?”
Happy New Year from all of us here at Renewed Heart Ministries!
Our reading this week, as we begin the new year, is from the gospel Matthew:
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.
As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:13-17)
The first thing we have to understand about this story is that the narrative details were designed for its original audience: people in Galilee. These details were designed to echo liberation and justice themes from other passages from the Hebrew scriptures. Three passages they’d have reminded that original audience of are from Isaiah and Psalms:
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
that the mountains would tremble before you!
As when fire sets twigs ablaze
and causes water to boil,
come down to make your name known to your enemies
and cause the nations to quake before you! (Isaiah 64:1-2)
This passage is about being liberated from foreign oppression, and Matthew’s version of the Jesus story was written for people longing for liberation from Roman imperialism.
The kings of the earth rise up
and the rulers band together
against the LORD and against his anointed, saying,
I will proclaim the LORD’S decree:
He said to me, “You are my son;
today I have become your father.
Therefore, you kings, be wise;
be warned, you rulers of the earth. (Psalms 2:2, 7, 10)
This verse would have reminded the Galileans of King David’s struggles against the empires around his country. It also hints at Jesus and his movement being a renewal movement of liberation and restoration in the context of Roman imperialism.
“Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
and he will bring justice to the nations. (Isaiah 42:1)
This last passage speaks of a servant YHWH delights in as the conduit through which the nations experience justice. This association speaks to the early Jewish followers of Jesus’ belief that Jesus’ movement would begin their liberation from foreign oppression, right all injustice, and end all violence.
All of these connections to liberation and justice would have been made by those who originally heard this story read to them. What lessons might we draw from it today in our context?
First, before forming his own movement, Jesus participated in the renewal movement of John the Baptist. John’s movement called people to reject the present order, power structures, and the complicity with Roman imperialism embodied in Rome’s client overseers, Herod and his sons. John called the propertied, privileged, and powerful in his society to repent of participating with Roman oppression and be washed clean of acts of injustice through both water and restitution.
There are a lot of similarities between John’s movement and Jesus’. John was originally a mentor of Jesus. Both led a Jewish renewal movement. Like John, Jesus called for both individual repentance and social, community repentance. And in our reading this week Jesus participates in the baptism of repentance John practiced. I side with the scholars who see Jesus’ baptism as a genuine act of social repentance and a confession of past social mistakes of the society he belonged in relation to the teachings of the prophets. These societal injustices Jesus was rejecting could have been things such as complicity with Rome, injustice toward the poor, and/or the exclusion of those marginalized. His baptism by John signals his inward resolve to break away from the unjust power structures of his society and to choose a different path. Jesus’ baptism clearly rejects the social, political and economic order of Rome. As a Jewish man, Jesus isn’t rejecting his Judaism. He is rejecting the elites’ Jewish-Roman collaboration and he is canceling their approach to power and community life.
There are also some differences between Jesus’ movement and John’s. John’s movement is a forerunner movement: it announces that a change is coming! Jesus, on the other hand, announces that the time for change has already arrived: “The kingdom of God is in your midst” (Luke 17:21).
How does this relate to us today?
As this year begins, we need some honest reflection. We are living in the wake of harmful laws and social structures. Christianity in America has been complicit in or directly responsible for many of them. The legal assault on women’s bodily autonomy has roots in a patriarchal expression of Christianity that tries to regulate a woman’s choices and sexuality. Many LGBTQ folks have experienced harm at the hands of Christians. And while I’m deeply grateful for the recent Respect for Marriage Act, what stands out is the compromising exemptions that seem to say, “Fine, let them marry, but don’t involve us.” Certain Christians have loudly ensured that they don’t have to participate in social progress. I recently spoke with a pastor friend who still loses members every time his weekend sermon is about an issue of social salvation, things such as racial justice or economic justice for the poor, instead of on personal, individual (psychological) salvation.
What would it look like for Jesus followers today to participate, like Jesus, in a baptism that symbolized us breaking away from the injustices of systems in our society. What if we chose alignment and solidarity with efforts to bring about change? What could a baptism of social repentance look like for us?
Many Christians have a “Jesus-instead-of-us” religion based on the belief that Jesus died instead of us. We must be careful not to let that mean that Jesus was also righteous instead of us, that he was baptized instead of us, or that he lived a life of social concern instead of us.
To follow Jesus instead means to model our lives after the example of Jesus. I’m thinking specifically in the areas of the Golden Rule: neighborly love, solidarity with the marginalized, economic justice for the poor, egalitarianism toward women, nonviolent resistance, and more.
As we begin this new year, how can we renew our commitment to reshaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone? How can we renew our dedication to creating a world that’s big enough for our many and varied differences, one where differences are celebrated rather than feared?
As this new year begins, I want to be baptized by John the Baptist, too! Not in the sense of traveling back in time to the banks of the Jordan, but in the sense that in my own social context, I want to, like Jesus, break with the way things are and be immersed in working toward change.
The Sermon on the Mount, remember, was not a prescription for how to make it through the pearly gates. The Sermon on the Mount announced changes breaking out in our world and invited all to participate in them. It was a pathway, not to heaven, but for a transformed earth. That transformation is hard work. But in the end, it’s worth it.
Matthew tells us that “People went out to John from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.” (Matthew 3:5-6)
Luke’s version clearly names these “sins” as social injustices:
“What should we do then?” the crowd asked.
John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”
Even tax collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”
“Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them.
Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”
He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.” (Luke 3:10-14)
I can understand why many preachers are reluctant to focus on the social elements of John’s (and Jesus’) teaching and preaching. Pastors today find it much easier to talk about Jesus and John than to talk about the themes they both talked about.
Yet once you see the social emphasis of the gospel stories, it’s really hard to unsee. Now that we have, though, which social injustices might we include in our confessions and choices for change today?
What can it look like for us today to, like Jesus, break from the way things are and choose to follow a different way.
As the late Peter Gomes wrote in his book, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus:
“When Jesus came preaching, it was to proclaim the end of things as they are and the breaking in of things that are to be: the status quo is not to be criticized; it is to be destroyed.” (p. 31)
That our participation in John’s baptism might symbolize that for us today gives me pause. Do I really want to break with the way things are? Do I really want change? How committed am I to that change? Am I committed enough to choose those differences in my daily life?
All of this and more is on my heart as this new year begins.
What changes will our choices and actions bring this new year?
HeartGroup Application
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s eSight/Podcast episode with your HeartGroup.
2. What hopes do you have for change in this new year? 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.
You can find Renewed Heart Ministries on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. If you haven’t done so already, please follow us on your chosen social media platforms for our daily posts. Also, if you enjoy listening to the Jesus for Everyone podcast, please like and subscribe to the JFE podcast through the podcast platform you use and consider taking some time to give us a review. This helps others find our podcast as well.
And if you’d like to reach out to us 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 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.
Now Available at Renewed Heart Ministries!
It’s here! 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, just in time for the holidays!
Here is just a taste of what people are saying:
“Herb has spent the last decade reading scripture closely. He also reads the world around us, thinks carefully with theologians and sociologists, and wonders how the most meaningful stories of his faith can inspire us to live with more heart, attention, and care for others in our time. For those who’ve ever felt alone in the process of applying the wisdom of Jesus to the world in which we live, Herb offers signposts for the journey and the reminder that this is not a journey we take alone. Read Finding Jesus with others, and be transformed together.” Dr. Keisha Mckenzie, Auburn University
“In Finding Jesus, Herb Montgomery unleashes the revolutionary Jesus and his kin-dom manifesto from the shackles of the domesticated religion of empire. Within these pages we discover that rather than being a fire insurance policy to keep good boys and girls out of hell, Jesus often becomes the fiery enemy of good boys and girls who refuse to bring economic justice to the poor, quality healthcare to the underserved, and equal employment to people of color or same-sex orientation. Because what the biblical narratives of Jesus reveal is that any future human society—heavenly or otherwise—will only be as good as the one that we’re making right here and now. There is no future tranquil city with streets of gold when there is suffering on the asphalt right outside our front door today. Finding Jesus invites us to pray ‘thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ on our feet as we follow our this liberator into the magnificent struggle of bringing the love and justice of God to all—right here, right now.”—Todd Leonard, pastor of Glendale City Church, Glendale CA.
“Herb Montgomery’s teachings have been deeply influential to me. This book shares the story of how he came to view the teachings of Jesus through the lens of nonviolence, liberation for all, and a call to a shared table. It’s an important read, especially for those of us who come from backgrounds where the myth of redemptive violence and individual (rather than collective) salvation was the focus.” – Daneen Akers, author of Holy Troublemakers & Unconventional Saints and co-director/producer of Seventh-Gay Adventists: A Film about Faith, Identity & Belonging
“So often Christians think about Jesus through the lens of Paul’s theology and don’t focus on the actual person and teachings of Jesus. This book is different. Here you find a challenging present-day application of Jesus’ teachings about the Kingdom of God and the Gospel. Rediscover why this Rabbi incited fear in the hearts of religious and political leaders two millennia ago. Herb’s book calls forth a moral vision based on the principles of Jesus’ vision of liberation. Finding Jesus helps us see that these teachings are just as disruptive today as they were when Jesus first articulated them.” Alicia Johnston, author of The Bible & LGBTQ Adventists.
“Herb Montgomery is a pastor for pastors, a teacher for teachers and a scholar for scholars. Part memoir and part theological reflection, Finding Jesus is a helpful and hope-filled guide to a deeper understanding of who Jesus is and who he can be. Herb’s tone is accessible and welcoming, while also challenging and fresh. This book is helpful for anyone who wants a new and fresh perspective on following Jesus.”— Traci Smith, author of Faithful Families
Get your copy today at renewedheartministries.com
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Reimagining Our World in 2021
by Herb Montgomery | January 8, 2021
Mark’s stories about Jesus begin:
“Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’” (Mark 1:14–15)
If the scholars have rightly determined when Mark’s gospel was written, it was written at a time when many Jewish followers of Jesus were trying to find purpose after the devastation of Jerusalem, the temple, and the temple-state that functioned from there. Political tensions with Rome had escalated to an uprising, war, and ruin. With Jerusalem devastated, Mark draws our attention away from a Jerusalem-centered movement and to a Galilean-centered movement rooted in the teachings of the itinerant Jesus.
Mark’s gospel also redefines the “kingdom” of the apocalyptic book of Daniel’s “son of man” (see Daniel 7). In Mark’s gospel, Jesus is the “messiah” (Mark 1:1). This label had yet not become Christianized or anti-Semitic and was still associated with many Jewish liberation movements whose anointed ones (“messiahs”) promised liberation from Rome. Rome’s most recent response to these messiahs had razed Jerusalem to the ground.
The Hebrew prophets called for social justice and liberation of the oppressed, and located restoration on earth, with “Jerusalem” being the center to which the entire world would flock. And now Jerusalem is no more.
Now in 2021, in wake of the present Covid-19 pandemic, so many here in the U.S. have experienced losses of unimaginable magnitude. Does Mark’s version of the Jesus story still offer us today any concrete hope and encouragement toward our hopes for a just, safe, compassionate world? How does the gospel of Mark call us to reimagine a just society in 2021? We’ll consider this and more in this short series.
If Mark could offer good news or “gospel” in the midst of such loss for its intended audience, maybe we can find some here, too.
Mark’s Gospel
In this climate, Mark’s gospel reimagines the kingdom of this son of man. Could an end of violence, injustice, and oppression rise out of Galilee rather than Judea? If we compared Judea and Galilee in the first century, we’d find ethnic, geographic, political, economic, cultural, linguistic, and religious differences between them. Matthew and Mark emphasize the Galilean context, while Luke’s gospel and Acts centers their stories of Jesus in Jerusalem and, from there, grows (through Paul) to the rest of the Gentile world.
Mark’s gospel, believed to be the earliest written in our Christian scriptures, uses the Greek term for Good News or “Gospel,” euaggelion. This originally was neither a religious nor a Christian term but was instead a political term that announced a new status quo. Whenever Rome would conquer a territory, it would send out an “evangelist” who would proclaim to the conquered territory the “gospel” or good news that they were now under the rule of the peace of Rome (Pax Romana). The messenger would announce that Caesar was the son of God and Rome was the savior of the world. They would proclaim that Rome’s dominion would give the conquered territory a newfound prosperity and peace (Plutarch, Agesilaus, p. 33; Plutarch Demetrius, p. 17; Plutarch, Moralia [Glory of Athens], p. 347)
The challenge for Mark’s audience would have been that Rome, the supposed savior, and Ceasar, this son of God, had just obliterated Jerusalem and the Jewish temple. The Roman term gospel communicated the arrival of a new social order, but, for the Jewish people Rome’s order had failed in the most harmful way possible.
The Jesus of Mark’s gospel took this term and announced the “Kingdom of God” rather than the kingdom of Rome (Mark 1:15). I prefer Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas’ term “God’s just future” rather than “kingdom,” given the patriarchal and politically problematic nature of kingdoms for us today.
Never once does the Jesus of Mark offer people a way to “get to heaven.” Rather, he travels the Galilean countryside announcing a new social order, here and now, in opposition to Rome’s failed order. The political and economic social order among the elite families of the temple-state of Jerusalem had proven incapable of stemming social unrest and uprising.
Though Jerusalem is no more by the time Mark is written, Jesus teaches in the justice traditions of the Hebrew prophets. Is the just world envisioned by the prophets and Jesus still possible without Jerusalem? Mark’s gospel answers, yes: God’s just future is still possible if we’ll choose it. Old geographical expectations about the new social order would have to change, but Mark could still envision the hope of a just, safe, compassionate world with a place for us all through his Jesus and his teachings.
Today, we must hold on to the hope that a different iteration of our world is possible, too.
Repent and Believe
Mark’s gospel calls its audience to “repent and believe the good news.” It almost sounds tone-deaf in the face of Rome. Yet this language of repentance and belief was not purely religious. For Mark’s audience, the call to “repent and believe” a “gospel” different than Rome’s would have been deeply political.
The Greek word for repent is metanoeo. It means to rethink something, to think differently about things, or to reconsider. Mark’s Jesus proclaims a gospel that invited a radical rethinking of how to order society. Jesus was calling his followers to reassess their values and placing the vulnerable at the center of those values, not just the wealthy and elite. This rethinking applied to both those being oppressed by the current social order and to those oppressing them.
Today, too, we can predict that exploitative systems and economic structures must change or humanity will cease to exist. Mark’s audience had seen exploitation’s destructive end. The ever-burning fire of violence between oppressors and the oppressed had escalated till Jerusalem stood smoldering.
The Greek phrase for “repent and believe” is metanoesein kai pistos. This phrase is used in other contexts than in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Josephus’ autobiography, for example, records an event that took place when he tried to end various Galilean seditions “without bloodshed.” Josephus engaged with the “captain” of the brigands “who were in the confines of Ptolemais” and told him that he would forgive “what he had done already if he would repent of it, and be faithful to me [Josephus] hereafter.” Josephus was requiring this brigand to abandon his violent revolutionary inclinations and trust Josephus for a better way. Josephus uses the same phrase Jesus does: “metanoesein kai pistos emoi (Thackery, The Life of Flavius Josephus, p. 10)
Whereas Josephus blamed brigands and Jewish rebels for the destruction Rome wreaked on Jerusalem, today we’d call that victim-blaming. Rome chose to economically exploit the people in Galilee and Judea through client kings and the temple-state’s high priests. And when the people finally had been bled dry and could not take any more, Rome chose to respond by leveling Jerusalem to the ground.
Mark’s gospel lifts this phrase, metanoesein kai pistos emoi, (repent and believe in what I’m telling you) to call its audience, not to the passive acceptance Josephus offered, but to reimagine what a just world could look like, even in the wake of such devastation and setback.
2020 has been devastating for so many. In 2021, our social orders will still prioritize and privilege some while marginalizing and subjugating others. In our world, White people are privileged over people of color; men are privileged over women; the rich are privileged over the poor; those defined as “straight” and “cis” are privileged over those who identify as LGBTQ, and the formally educated are privileged over those who are equally intelligent but have not had the same opportunities.
What is Mark’s Jesus saying to us today?
A different iteration of our present world is possible even now if we would collectively choose it, and it will take us choosing it together. Mark’s Jesus story subverts present structures and offers a way of imagining our world where people matter over power, privilege, property, and profit. Just as it did for Mark’s original audience, this reimagining of our present world involves a radically new way of thinking about redistributing resources with values of compassion, justice, equity, and concern for the safety, well-being, and thriving of those the present system leaves vulnerable to harm.
This vision is of a world of social structures rooted in love for all. As Dr. Emilie Townes states, and as we at RHM are fond of often quoting, “If we begin with the belief that God loves everyone, justice isn’t very far behind.” In the words of Mark’s gospel, when we start with love, a just future “has come near” (Mark 1:15).
HeartGroup Application
We at RHM are continuing to ask all HeartGroups not to meet together physically at this time. Please stay virtually connected and practice physical distancing. When you do go out, please keep a six-foot distance between you and others, wear a mask, and continue to wash your hands to stop the spread of the virus.
This is also a time where we can practice the resource-sharing and mutual aid found in the gospels. Make sure the others in your group have what they need. This is a time to work together and prioritize protecting those most vulnerable among us.
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s eSight/Podcast episode with your HeartGroup.
2. Justice is what love looks like in public. Take a moment to reimagine how you’d like to see our world reshaped this week. Discuss some of your reimagining 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.
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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