When Faith Does Societal Harm
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When Faith Does Societal Harm
Herb Montgomery, November 1, 2024
If you’d like to listen to this week’s article in podcast version click on the image below:
Herb Montgomery, November 9, 2024
Our reading this week is from the gospel of Mark:
As he taught, Jesus said, “Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.”
Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.” (Mark 12:38-44)
Our reading this week contains one of the most misunderstood stories in Mark’s gospel. There’s quite a bit to unpack here, so let’s jump right in with the political context of Jesus’ critique of the “teachers of the law.”
Political Context of Mark 12
Interpreting Jesus’ critique of the teachers of the law without its context too often leads to thinking that Jesus was against the law (Torah) itself. Jesus was not engaging in a Protestant, post-Reformation contrast of the law versus grace. That way of reading our story is anachronistic and misses Jesus’ point entirely.
Jesus was leading a Jewish renewal movement that hoped to liberate and restore the rural village communities disintegrating because of the Roman occupation. Jesus was calling his listeners back to fidelity to the Torah’s justice in opposition to the ruling class of his day, which was colluding with Roman oppression for its own gain.
The tension in the gospels is not between Jesus and the law, but between Jesus and Roman oppression, including the Romans’ client regional ruler Herod and high priests of the Temple State. Roman exploitation and oppression through those Rome had placed in positions of power in the Temple State was wreaking economic and social havoc on the vast majority of people living in villages of Galilee, Samaria, and Judea. According to Richard Horsley, those named in the gospels such as the scribes, the Pharisees and the “teachers of the law” served in the Judean temple-state as “intellectual-legal retainers.” (Richard A. Horsley, Jesus and the Politics of Roman Palestine, p. xi)
This leads to some interesting political and social insights into who these “teachers of the law” were.
Teachers of the Law in Mark 12
The teachers of the law in our reading this week advised the Judean rulers of the Temple State and enjoyed political and economic favor as a result. They were those whose interpretations of the Torah provided religious justification for the unjust status quo of the Roman-appointed high priestly rulers.
Jesus offers two critiques of these teachers in our reading: they desired status and privilege rather than the life-giving pedagogy of the Torah and they were “devouring widows’ houses,” which indicates their complicity in the economic exploitation through over-taxation taking place in the Temple-state.
The first critique, desiring the most important seats and places of honor, should be read with the backdrop of the lessons Mark’s gospel just taught in Mark 10. James and John also desired the most important seats and places of honor, and asked to sit at Jesus’ left and right hands in the kingdom. Mark 10 contrasts this request with the request of Bartimaeus, who rightly perceives Jesus’ movement and joins it. (For more, we discussed this at length in Bartimaeus and Christians of Privilege.)
Next, Jesus zeros in on the intrinsic harm the teachings of these teachers was actually doing. Their teaching made the rich powerbrokers in the Temple state richer at the expense of the most vulnerable in Jesus’ society.
Mark’s gospel critiqued this group’s teachings on the basis of the economic injustice they were causing in Mark 7:
And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)—then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.” (Mark 7:9-13)
“Devoted to God” meant devoted to the Temple-State, and it didn’t trickle down to the poor, but rather into the pockets of those in positions of power who already possessed so much. It gave them even more at the expense and harm of those from whom these resources were being taken, all while they piously said lengthy prayers in public to add religious influence to their economic exploitation. Standing in the Hebrew prophetic tradition, Jesus like the prophets of old who spoke truth to power, declared that these teachers of the law would be “punished most severely.”
Our reading gives a clear example of this exploitation in one of the most misunderstood economic teachings in the gospel Mark: the story of the widow’s mites.
The Widow’s Mites of Mark 12
Whenever I heard the story of the widow’s mites growing up in church, it was always held up as an example of the piety and fidelity we should follow. She gave so much with the little she had and we should sacrificially do the same. But nothing could be further from the point of why Mark’s gospel is actually telling this story. The widow’s mites story is not a story to applaud the widow’s dedication to giving but a story that critiques how the widow was being exploited. The widow is not an example for the poor to follow but the system that exploits her is an example for the wealthy and powerful not to follow.
“The story does not provide a pious contrast to the conduct of the scribes in the preceding section (as is the customary view); rather it provides a further illustration of the ills of official devotion. Jesus’ saying is not a penetrating insight on the measuring of gifts; it is a lament…. Jesus condemns the value system that motivates her action, and he condemns the people who conditioned her to do it.” (A. Wright, 1982, “The Widow’s Mite: Praise or Lament? A Matter of Context.” CBQ, 44, pp. 256ff, quoted by Ched Myers, Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus, p. 321).
The teachings of the Temple-State have robbed this woman of her means of livelihood. Those who were to protect the vulnerable are no longer protecting widows but exploiting them and others in their social and economic position. Jesus, in disgust, departs from the temple for the final time.
What does this mean for us today?
Do our religious teachings today cause political and social harm and death or bring healing, life, renewal, restoration, and liberation? Is our religious teaching politically and socially death-dealing or life-giving? I can’t help but think of the way certain Christians are pro-birth but oppose state programs that ensure that same child, once born, is fed, housed, educated, and raised in a home where their parents can afford to live. I can’t help but think of the life-saving healthcare for women who have either died or almost died since the loss of Roe here in the U.S., a loss that some Christians are so proud of. I can’t help but think of how our trans community and immigrants are being scapegoated right now in our political debates. I’m not saying that Christians are the only ones engaging in such harmful misrepresentations, or that all Christians are. What I am saying is that I’m shocked that anyone, even one person, who claims to be following Jesus and his teachings is. History will not be kind to the way Evangelicalism has embraced the politics of harm. With Jesus’ critique of the teachers of the law as our backdrop, what critique might this same Jesus make of American Christians today?
Discussion Group Questions
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s Podcast episode with your discussion group.
2. What societal healing do you believe your faith can be channelled toward? 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 X (or Twitter), 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. 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 “Just Talking” Now Online!
Season 2, Episode 35: Mark 12.38-44. Lectionary B, Proper 27
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:
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 1 Episode 30: When Faith Does Societal Harm
“Whenever I heard the story of the widow’s mites growing up in church, it was always held up as an example of the piety and fidelity we should follow. She gave so much with the little she had and we should sacrificially do the same. But nothing could be further from the point of why Mark’s gospel is actually telling this story. The widow’s mites story is not a story to applaud the widow’s dedication to giving but a story that critiques how the widow was being exploited. The widow is not an example for the poor to follow but the system that exploits her is an example for the wealthy and powerful not to follow. ‘Devoted to God’ meant devoted to the Temple-State, and it didn’t trickle down to the poor, but rather into the pockets of those in positions of power who already possessed so much. It gave them even more at the expense and harm of those from whom these resources were being taken, all while they piously said lengthy prayers in public to add religious influence to their economic exploitation. Standing in the Hebrew prophetic tradition, Jesus like the prophets of old who spoke truth to power, declared that these teachers of the law would be “punished most severely.”
Available on all major podcast carriers and at:
https://the-social-jesus-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/when-faith-does-societal-harm
Now Available on Audible!
Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.
by Herb Montgomery, Narrated by Jeff Moon
Available now on Audible!
After two successful decades of preaching a gospel of love within the Christian faith tradition Herb felt like something was missing. He went back to the gospels and began reading them through the interpretive lenses of various marginalized communities and what he found radically changed his life forever. The teachings of the Jesus in the gospel stories express a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of those in marginalized communities. This book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, and presents a compelling argument for a more socially compassionate and just expression of Christianity. Herb’s findings in his latest book are shared in the hopes that it will dramatically impact how you practice your Christianity, too.
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Two Greatest Commandments
We want to take this moment to express our heartfelt gratitude to all of our supporters for your invaluable role in the Renewed Heart Ministry community and for your dedication to our mission of fostering love, justice, compassion, and healing. Your support is the bedrock of our work. Your support empowers us to do what we do. At a time when ministries like ours are being asked to achieve more with fewer resources, your support is incredibly important, 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 in our world. From all of us here at Renewed Heart Ministries, thank you for your generous support. We deeply appreciate each and every one of our supporters.
If you’d like to join them in supporting our work, please go to renewedheartministries.com and click on “Donate.”
Two Greatest Commandments
Herb Montgomery, November 1, 2024
If you’d like to listen to this week’s article in podcast version click on the image below:
Love and Social Justice
Our reading this week is from the gospel of Mark:
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions. (Mark 12:28-34)
Our reading this week is the story of an exchange that takes place after a series of exchanges in Mark’s gospel that we covered in the past few weeks. This is a positive conversation between Jesus and one of the Temple State’s teachers of the law.
It’s important for us to understand Jesus’s answer to the question “Which is the most important commandment” was not unique. Any faithful follower of Hillel would have given that answer. Hillel was a generation or two previous to Jesus, and this was one of the central areas of agreement between the two teachers. Jesus differed from Hillel in his teachings on debt cancellation, but in regards to summing up the Torah in terms of love, Jesus shares Hillel’s interpretive lens. The summary is simple: There is no love of God without love of neighbor.
The second half of Jesus’ response quotes Leviticus:
“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.” (Leviticus 19:18)
We must note that the context of this passage in Leviticus defines love of neighbor as what we would call today social justice:
“When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the LORD your God.Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not deceive one another. Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD. Do not defraud or rob your neighbor. Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight. Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God. I am the LORD. Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly. Do not go about spreading slander among your people. Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life. I am the LORD.” (Leviticus 19:9-16)
In Mujerista Theology: A Theology for the Twenty-First Century, Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz quotes Jose Porfirio Miranda, who said: “One of the most disastrous errors in the history of Christianity is to have tried — under the influence of Greek definitions — to differentiate between love and justice.” (In Mujerista Theology: A Theology for the Twenty-First Century, p. 122)
As is often said, justice is what love looks like in public.
So closely is love connected to justice that even in the texts of the Johannine community, it is impossible to claim you even have love if you disregard social justice for one’s neighbor:
“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?” (1 John 3:17)
Loving God is Loving One’s Neighbor
In 1 John, love of neighbor is synonymous with loving God.
“Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.” (1 John 4:20)
A popular ewish wisdom proverb says that before each person there walks an angel proclaiming, “Behold the image of God.” Every member of our human family bears the image of God. Think about that for just one moment. In this life, the closest encounter we will ever have with anything God-like is with our fellow members of the human family, or neighbor. This teaching prioritizes community over individualistic or isolated personal piety. It’s not about how holy one may be all alone but about how we all engage the world around us. How do we relate socially, economically, and politically to those we share a home with on our planet?
The Archbishop of Constantinople Saint John Chrysostom was born in Antioch around 347 C.E.,was one one of four great doctors of the Eastern Church. On this subject he stated:
”This is the rule of most perfect Christianity, its most exact definition, its highest point, namely, the seeking of the commonwealth; for nothing can so make a person an imitator of Christ as caring for neighbors.”
This idea was so central to the Jesus movement when the gospels were written that they equated loving one’s neighbor to loving Jesus himself.
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me . . . He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’” (Matthew 25:40, 45)
Loving One’s Neighbor and Voting
This week is election week here in the U.S. This week, many of us will be taking our civic (love of neighbor) responsibilities very seriously. You can’t say you love your neighbor and vote to put someone in office that will harm those you claim to love. So I’m thinking of my LGBTQ neighbors. I’m thinking all the women neighbors in my life and their rights to bodily autonomy and health care. I’m thinking of neighbors of a different race or culture than my own. I’m thinking of neighbors who have migrated here to survive and gain a better life for themselves. I can’t tell you how to vote. That’s not my place. But I can plead with you to engage your public life, your civic life, and not simply your private religious piety.
In the end, love of neighbor is what matters. To the degree that we love our neighbor, every other claim of piety is proven true or a lie (1 John 4:20). Love of neighbor is the single greatest practical demonstration of our faith that keeps following Jesus relevant in the 21st century. This year, if you can vote, vote in solidarity with your neighbors who are most vulnerable and disenfranchised.
And then, the day after Election Day, keep choosing to live in solidarity with your neighbors and seek our collective, common good. As our reading states this week, “The second [greatest commandment] is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
The Jesus we see in the gospels was leading a movement of renewal in the face of the disintegration he saw happening to his communities because of Roman oppression. He called his followers not to isolation or individualism but to community, to caring about how we collectively share our resources to ensure everyone is taken care of and has what they need, not simply to survive, but also to thrive.
A few weeks ago I shared a statement in James Robinson’s classic book The Gospel of Jesus: In Search of the Original Good News where he defines Jesus’ teachings in the synoptic gospels. I want to end this week with that statement for us to ponder again in the light of this Tuesday’s election.
“The human dilemma is, in large part, that we are each other’s fate.” (James M. Robinson, The Gospel of Jesus: In Search of the Original Good News, Kindle Edition Loc. 58)
This Tuesday, love your neighbor by getting out there and voting for love and justice. And no matter what the results turn out, that next morning when you wake, keep at it. Keep living love, keep taking action, keep choosing compassion as, together, we continue to follow Jesus in shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone.
Discussion Group Questions
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s Podcast episode with your discussion group.
2. What does loving your neighbor look like for you? 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 X (or Twitter), 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. 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 “Just Talking” Now Online!
Season 2, Episode 34: Mark 12.28-34. Lectionary B, Proper 26
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:
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 1 Episode 29: Two Greatest Commandments and Social Justice
Mark 12:28-34
“Next week is election week here in the U.S. Next week, many of us will be taking our civic (love of neighbor) responsibilities very seriously. You can’t say you love your neighbor and vote to put someone in office that will harm those you claim to love. So I’m thinking of my LGBTQ neighbors. I’m thinking all the women neighbors in my life and their rights to bodily autonomy and health care. I’m thinking of neighbors of a different race or culture than my own. I’m thinking of neighbors who have migrated here to survive and gain a better life for themselves. I can’t tell you how to vote. That’s not my place. But I can plead with you to engage your public life, your civic life, and not simply your private religious piety. This Tuesday, love your neighbor by getting out there and voting for love and justice. And no matter what the results turn out, that next morning when you wake, keep at it. Keep living love, keep taking action, keep choosing compassion as, together, we continue to follow Jesus in shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone.”
Available on all major podcast carriers and at:
Now Available on Audible!
Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.
by Herb Montgomery, Narrated by Jeff Moon
Available now on Audible!
After two successful decades of preaching a gospel of love within the Christian faith tradition Herb felt like something was missing. He went back to the gospels and began reading them through the interpretive lenses of various marginalized communities and what he found radically changed his life forever. The teachings of the Jesus in the gospel stories express a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of those in marginalized communities. This book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, and presents a compelling argument for a more socially compassionate and just expression of Christianity. Herb’s findings in his latest book are shared in the hopes that it will dramatically impact how you practice your Christianity, too.
Are you getting all of RHM’s Free Resources?
Free Sign Up Here
Bartimaeus and Christians of Privilege
We want to take this moment to express our heartfelt gratitude to all of our supporters for your invaluable role in the Renewed Heart Ministry community and for your dedication to our mission of fostering love, justice, compassion, and healing. Your support is the bedrock of our work. Your support empowers us to do what we do. At a time when ministries like ours are being asked to achieve more with fewer resources, your support is incredibly important, 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 in our world. From all of us here at Renewed Heart Ministries, thank you for your generous support. We deeply appreciate each and every one of our supporters.
If you’d like to join them in supporting our work, please go to renewedheartministries.com and click on “Donate.”
Bartimaeus and Christians of Privilege
Herb Montgomery, October 25, 2024
If you’d like to listen to this week’s article in podcast version click on the image below:
Our reading this week is from the gospel of Mark:
Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”
So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.
“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him.
The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”
“Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road. (Mark 10:46-52)
Let’s jump right in.
Bartimaeus is a beggar whom Mark places on the road pilgrims took to Jerusalem. Meeting beggars on this road would contrasts a person’s personal piety with any possible commitment to resource-sharing. Today, it would be like passing by someone asking for help on the sidewalk because you were hurrying to get to church.
This story also has social, political, and economic dimensions that are rarely touched on in some sectors of Christianity. Mark’s gospel juxtaposes the story of the rich man in Mark 10 with the story of this beggar. This gospel has presented contrasting stories before. Consider the stories of the woman with the issue of blood and the synagogue leader in Mark 5. Their stories contrast two classes or social locations. And, in the same way that the woman in Mark 5 was “unclean,” the name Bartimaeus also means son of the “unclean.” Mark contrasts class and social location over and over.
There are political meanings as well: Bartimaeus is the first to name Jesus as the Son of David in the gospel of Mark. This title had political meanings tied to liberation and restoration in the time of Jesus.
Bartimaeus contrasts with the rich man in the earlier story, too. Bartimaeus heeds Jesus’ call to “throw his cloak aside.” He would have used this cloak for warmth against the elements, and it is also the cloak he would have spread out to collect alms from passers-by as he sat on the roadside. While the rich man walks away sad because he’s unwilling to give up his many possessions, Bartimaeus throws aside what little he has so he can reach Jesus.
The context around this scene is interesting. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to stand up to injustices being perpetrated by those in power in the Temple State. Whereas the rich young man walks away from Jesus, Bartimaeus joins and follows him, casting his lot for Jesus’ kingdom. Ched Myers comments on what this might mean: “The poor join in the final assault on the dominant idealogical order, and the rich have walked downcast away. The first have become last and the last have become first” (Ched Myers, Binding the Strong Man, p. 282).
As in the story of the woman with the issue of blood in Mark 5, the crowd in this story is in the way again. Bartimaeus must overcome all obstructions in persistently gaining Jesus’ attention. Then, once he gains Jesus’ attention, Mark’s gospel contrasts Bartimaeus with Jesus own disciples.
In Mark 10:36, Jesus asked James and John, “What do you want me to do for you?” They want to sit at Jesus’ left and the right hand in the kingdom: positions of status and privilege. That’s not what Jesus is about, however, and so it’s not surprising that this is the same question that he asks Bartimaeus later in the chapter.
In Mark 10:51, Jesus ask Bartimaeus, “What do you want me to do for you?” Bartimaeus’ answer is very different than the disciples’. He doesn’t ask for status or privilege, he simply wants to see, and Jesus responds, “Your faith has healed you.”
I’m not a fan of when the gospels use disabilities as metaphors for something negative. No matter how we try to explain it, using blindness as a pejorative will always define those who live with physical blindness as “less than.” The gospels are a product of their time. And today, when it comes to ableist narratives we may find in the gospels, we can and must do better.
As I consider the disciples’ request for positions of power, privilege, and status, I can’t help but think of many on the Christian nationalists today who are reaching for the same. I can’t help but see the contrast today the goals of White Christian nationalism and Bartimaeus saying that he just wanted to see.
Do we want status, celebrity, fame, or do we want to see? Do we want power to enforce our dogmas or do we want wisdom? Discernment, perception, and understanding rather than imposing our definitions of morality on others will enable us to work for others’ liberation and achieve a world that is safe, compassionate, and a just home for everyone.
How do we gain this kind of shift in our perception and understanding? For me in my experience, this shift came through a forced shift in proximity. Jim Wallis, in his recent book The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Refounding Democracy, writes that proximity enables us to expand our understanding and empathy:
“I’ve learned it is proximity that changes us, that teaches us white people the work that we must do in our own communities” (Jim Wallis, The False White Gospel, p. 8).
Proximity doesn’t guarantee change. But it does provide the opportunity for change. Crossing lines that we have created and defined by our differences is the doorway to relationship. Our relationships have the potential, if we allow them, to help us understand more of the experiences of others who are different from us. As these relationships grow, we learn how others live in our society and have experiences different from our own. If we choose to respond to this awareness with empathy, we begin to discern, perceive, and understand broader realities. We begin to look at our world differently.
We create so many lines based on social differences that we must learn to step across.
Whether these lines are gender, social class, education, race or culture, or sexuality, when we choose to enter into relationship with those who are different from us, we experience that proximity which has the power to change the way we perceive and act.
For me, as a theologian, my journey began through exploring theological perspectives from communities that experience life differently than I do: from Christian feminist theologians to womanist perspectives, to Black liberation, Latin liberation, Mujerista liberation, and Indigenous liberation perspectives. LGBTQ justice, queer liberation, and disability justice perspectives changed how I look at the world forever.
Today, the work of learning to listen continues.
Evolving our society into a richly diverse and genuinely multi-racial democracy is prophetic work, and it’s work we are all invited to join. As Jesus followers today, we all have choices to make, especially those of us who live in more privileged social locations. Will we, because our privilege and status, walk away sad like the rich man, because we, too, have great possessions? Or will we, like Bartimaeus, simply say, “we just want to see”?
Discussion Group Questions
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s Podcast episode with your discussion group.
2. If you were asked, “What do you want me to do for you?”, how would you answer? 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 X (or Twitter), 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. 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 “Just Talking” Now Online!
Season 2, Episode 33: Mark 10.46-52. Lectionary B, Proper 25
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:
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 1 Episode 28: Bartimaeus and Christians of Privilege
Mark 10:46-52
“We create so many lines based on social differences that we must learn to step across.
Whether these lines are gender, social class, education, race or culture, or sexuality, when we choose to enter into relationship with those who are different from us, we experience that proximity which has the power to change the way we perceive and act. Proximity doesn’t guarantee change. But it does provide the opportunity for change. Crossing lines that we have created and defined by our differences is the doorway to relationship. Our relationships have the potential, if we allow them, to help us understand more of the experiences of others who are different from us. As these relationships grow, we learn how others live in our society and have experiences different from our own. If we choose to respond to this awareness with empathy, we begin to discern, perceive, and understand broader realities. We begin to look at our world differently.”
Available on all major podcast carriers and at:
https://the-social-jesus-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/bartimaeus-and-christians-of-privilege
Now Available on Audible!
Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.
by Herb Montgomery, Narrated by Jeff Moon
Available now on Audible!
After two successful decades of preaching a gospel of love within the Christian faith tradition Herb felt like something was missing. He went back to the gospels and began reading them through the interpretive lenses of various marginalized communities and what he found radically changed his life forever. The teachings of the Jesus in the gospel stories express a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of those in marginalized communities. This book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, and presents a compelling argument for a more socially compassionate and just expression of Christianity. Herb’s findings in his latest book are shared in the hopes that it will dramatically impact how you practice your Christianity, too.
Are you getting all of RHM’s Free Resources?
Free Sign Up Here
Participation Not Substitution
We want to take this moment to express our heartfelt gratitude to all of our supporters for your invaluable role in the Renewed Heart Ministry community and for your dedication to our mission of fostering love, justice, compassion, and healing. Your support is the bedrock of our work. Your support empowers us to do what we do. At a time when ministries like ours are being asked to achieve more with fewer resources, your support is incredibly important, 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 in our world. From all of us here at Renewed Heart Ministries, thank you for your generous support. We deeply appreciate each and every one of our supporters.
If you’d like to join them in supporting our work, please go to renewedheartministries.com and click on “Donate.”
Participation Not Substitution
Herb Montgomery, October 18, 2024
If you’d like to listen to this week’s article in podcast version click on the image below:
Our reading this week is from the gospel of Mark:
Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”
“What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.
They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”
“You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”
“We can,” they answered.
Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”
When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:35-45)
In our reading this week, we are again encountering themes that repeat multiple times in the gospels of Mark.
James’ and John’s request to sit at Jesus’ right and left hand echoes the scene in Mark 9 where the disciples were competing to be the greatest. (I wrote at length on this when we covered Mark 9; see Servants of the Most Vulnerable).
Jesus’ response promoting servanthood is also the same here as in Mark 9. When this rhetoric is directed at those seeking power and privilege over others, it can be a corrective. Those who were seeking status above others should instead have aspired to serve them. Yet, this passage has historically been directed not at those seeking privilege over others but at those seeking equity and equality with others. Christians have used servanthood to inspire some to passively accept a lower status think their social, political, or economic place held some quality of greater holiness. This passage was also used to defend the institution of slavery.
This passage can be used for life-giving purposes, but it has also been used in death-dealing ways. It is critical that we learn to rightly discern the difference and intentionally understand and apply this passage. Ask who is the target audience of a given interpretation. Is this passage being shared with servants to keep them in their servitude, or is it used to challenge the ambition of those who are seeking to be served?
What I find fascinating about Jesus’ responses in Mark 9 and 10 is that Mark references objects that Christianity has typically viewed through the lens of substitution and atonement, but frames them in terms of participation.
Whether we are discussing a cross (Mark 9) or a cup and a baptism (Mark 10), these did not represent things Jesus was doing instead of us or even in our place on our behalf. These were activities Jesus was inviting his disciples to join him in and to participate in themselves. In Mark, Jesus isn’t doing things for his disciples. He is calling his disciples to do them, too.
Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan remind us that, “For Mark, it is about participation with Jesus and not substitution by Jesus. Mark has those followers recognize enough of that challenge that they change the subject and avoid the issue every time” (Marcus J. Borg, John Dominic Crossan, The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Final Days in Jerusalem, Kindle location 1582).
But we must be careful here as well, lest we promote the destructive myth of redemptive suffering. Whether we participate in a cross, a cup, or the fiery baptism spoken of in these passage, we must remember that the way of Jesus is not a death cult. It is about our refusal to let go of life, not our embrace of death. As Delores Williams rightly reminds us, Christians who are suffering under oppression “cannot forget the cross, but neither can they glorify it. To do so is to glorify suffering and to render…exploitation sacred. To do so is to glorify the sin of defilement” (Williams, Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God Talk, p.132).
A cross is not intrinsic to following Jesus. When we follow Jesus, we are choosing to stand up to injustice and call for a world shaped in justice and love. A cross only enters this scenario if those who benefit form an unjust system become threatened by our calls for change and threaten us with a cross if we don’t become silent. If they don’t choose to impose a cross as a threat, then there would not be one. This is a subtle but important element in our reading this week. Jesus didn’t choose to die. He refused to let go of life even with threatened to do so: “Jesus chose to live a life in opposition to unjust, oppressive cultures. Jesus did not choose the cross but chose integrity and faithfulness, refusing to change course because of threat” (Brown and Parker, For God So Loved the World? Christianity, Patriarchy and Abuse, p. 27).
Jesus didn’t choose to suffer. He choose to stay committed to life and those things that are life-giving. We must remember: “It is not the acceptance of suffering that gives life; it is commitment to life that gives life. The question, moreover, is not am I willing to suffer? but do I desire fully to live? This distinction is subtle and, to some, specious, but in the end it makes a great difference in how people interpret and respond to suffering” (Christianity, Patriarchy and Abuse, p. 18).
When Jesus invites us to follow him, he invites us to take hold of life in opposition to the death-dealing forces in our world. He calls us to participate with him in shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone. And if those who have privilege and power fear losing those things through our society becoming more just, if they threaten us if we don’t sit down and be silent, then Jesus calls us to not let go of life and to keep calling for change even in the face of threats. This is one of the most compelling elements of the Jesus story for me personally. Jesus was leading a Jewish renewal movement in opposition to the elite class who were complicit with the Romans’ oppression of his people. The Jesus story is a story of a Jesus who stood up to those in power for what was right. He stood in his own Hebrew prophetic justice tradition of speaking truth to power. He called out the injustices of his day in the very heart of the temple state, and was crucified as a result. But the story doesn’t end there. This story isn’t about death or dying. In this story, God doesn’t triumph over death by more death, even one more death, even if it’s Jesus’ death. Death is reversed, overturned, and undone by life, resurrection life.
“The resurrection is God’s definitive victory over crucifying powers of evil . . . The impressive factor is how it [the cross] is defeated. It is defeated by a life-giving rather than a life-negating force. God’s power, unlike human power, is not a ‘master race’ kind of power. That is, it is not a power that diminishes the life of another so that others might live. God’s power respects the integrity of all human bodies and the sanctity of all life. This is a resurrecting power. Therefore, God’s power never expresses itself through the humiliation or denigration of another. It does not triumph over life. It conquers death by resurrecting life. The force of God is a death-negating, life-affirming force.” (Kelly Brown Douglas, Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God, pp. 182-183).
I too know something of what it means to stand up for justice and love. I know something of pushback from those who are benefitting from an unjust system, pushback that threatens your own livelihood and ministry. These days, I’m thankful for resurrecting life. My life looks nothing today like I thought it would twenty years ago. But that’s okay. I wouldn’t change the stances I’ve taken or the people being harmed that I’ve stood in solidarity with. I know it’s the same for many of you too.
Standing up for love and justice sometimes involves drinking the same cup Jesus drank and being baptized with the same baptism he was baptized with. In those moments we are participating with Jesus in standing up rather than choosing to be silent. We are in the right story. We must remember, this story doesn’t end in death, dying, or a cross. This story, and our story, ends in resurrection. Love wins.
Discussion Group Questions
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s Podcast episode with your discussion group.
2. Is participation more life giving for you than substitution? In what ways? 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 X (or Twitter), 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. 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 “Just Talking” Now Online!
Season 2, Episode 32: Mark 10.35-45. Lectionary B, Proper 24
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:
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 1 Episode 27: Participation Not Substitution
Mark 10:35-45
“I too know something of what it means to stand up for justice and love. I know something of pushback from those who are benefitting from an unjust system, pushback that threatens your own livelihood and ministry. These days, I’m thankful for resurrecting life. My life looks nothing today like I thought it would twenty years ago. But that’s okay. I wouldn’t change the stances I’ve taken or the people being harmed that I’ve stood in solidarity with. I know it’s the same for many of you too. Standing up for love and justice sometimes involves drinking the same cup Jesus drank and being baptized with the same baptism he was baptized with. In those moments we are participating with Jesus in standing up rather than choosing to be silent. We are in the right story. We must remember, this story doesn’t end in death, dying, or a cross. This story, and our story, ends in resurrection. Love wins.”
Available on all major podcast carriers and at:
https://the-social-jesus-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/participation-not-substitution
Now Available on Audible!
Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.
by Herb Montgomery, Narrated by Jeff Moon
Available now on Audible!
After two successful decades of preaching a gospel of love within the Christian faith tradition Herb felt like something was missing. He went back to the gospels and began reading them through the interpretive lenses of various marginalized communities and what he found radically changed his life forever. The teachings of the Jesus in the gospel stories express a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of those in marginalized communities. This book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, and presents a compelling argument for a more socially compassionate and just expression of Christianity. Herb’s findings in his latest book are shared in the hopes that it will dramatically impact how you practice your Christianity, too.
Are you getting all of RHM’s Free Resources?
Free Sign Up Here
God and Money
We want to take this moment to express our heartfelt gratitude to all of our supporters for your invaluable role in the Renewed Heart Ministry community and for your dedication to our mission of fostering love, justice, compassion, and healing. Your support is the bedrock of our work. Your support empowers us to do what we do. At a time when ministries like ours are being asked to achieve more with fewer resources, your support is incredibly important, 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 in our world. From all of us here at Renewed Heart Ministries, thank you for your generous support. We deeply appreciate each and every one of our supporters.
If you’d like to join them in supporting our work, please go to renewedheartministries.com and click on “Donate.”
Herb Montgomery, October 13, 2024
If you’d like to listen to this week’s article in podcast version click on the image below:
Our reading this week is from the gospel of Mark,
As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”
“Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”
Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”
Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”
“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” (Mark 10:17-31)
This week’s reading gets to the heart of one of the central teachings of Jesus in the synoptic gospels—the gospel Jesus himself teaches in the story. It may be challenging for us today depending on how invested we are in our current economic system. To understand it in its context, let’s go back to an ancient story in the Hebrew scriptures that may have shaped Jesus’ vision of a world where everyone has enough to thrive. This is the story of the manna provided during the Exodus narratives.
According to the Exodus stories, one of the very first lessons the Hebrews learned in their wilderness journey was to trust God to provide for their daily needs to the degree that those who had more than they needed shared with those who had less and everyone was ensured to have enough.
Moses said to them, “It is the bread the LORD has given you to eat. This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Everyone is to gather as much as they need. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.’” The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. And when they measured it by the omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed. Then Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.” However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them. Each morning everyone gathered as much as they needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away. (Exodus 16:15-21)
If anyone attempted to hoard rather than share, what they hoarded spoiled and was full of maggots. The point of this was, there will be more manna tomorrow. Everyone could bring what they gathered each day and find it was enough to divide between everyone, an omer per person. There was enough for every person’s need, but not every person’s greed.
Later in the book of Deuteronomy, we encounter an ethic on debt that seems to have shaped Jesus’ teachings on economics. Jesus called for the year of the Lord’s favor the first time he taught (see Luke 4:18-19). The year of the Lord’s favor was a year when all indentured slaves were set free, all lands were returned to their original owner, and all debts were forgiven/cancelled. The goal here seems to have been the same as in the manna story: there need be no poor or needy among their people.
At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel any loan they have made to a fellow Israelite. They shall not require payment from anyone among their own people, because the LORD’s time for canceling debts has been proclaimed . . . there need be no poor people among you,” (Deuteronomy 15:1-4)
In our reading this week, Jesus is accessing lessons he learned from growing up on these stories: Those who have more than they need are to take care of those who have less than they need.
Years ago, I was deeply moved by how James Robinson describes Jesus’ teachings in the synoptic gospels in his classic book The Gospel of Jesus: In Search of the Original Good News:
“The human dilemma is, in large part, that we are each other’s fate. We become the tool of evil that ruins another person as we look out for ourselves, having long abandoned any youthful idealism we might once have cherished. But if we each would cease and desist from pushing the other down to keep ourselves up, then the vicious cycle would be broken. Society would become mutually supportive rather than self-destructive. This is what Jesus was up to. Jesus’ message was simple, for he wanted to cut straight through to the point: trust God to look out for you by providing people who will care for you, and listen to him when he calls on you to provide for them. God is somebody you can trust, so give it a try.” (James M. Robinson, The Gospel of Jesus: In Search of the Original Good News, Kindle Edition Loc. 58)
On the next page Robinson continues:
“Put in language derived from his sayings: I am hungry because you hoard food. You are cold because I hoard clothing. Our dilemma is that we all hoard supplies in our backpacks and put our trust in our wallets! Such ‘security”’ should be replaced by God reigning, which means both what I trust God to do (to activate you to share food with me) and what I hear God telling me to do (to share clothes with you). We should not carry money while bypassing the poor or wear a backpack with extra clothes and food while ignoring the cold and hungry lying in the gutter. This is why the beggars, the hungry, the depressed are fortunate: God, that is, those in whom God rules, those who hearken to God, will care for them. The needy are called upon to trust that God’s reigning is there for them (‘Theirs is the kingdom of God”’).” (James M. Robinson, The Gospel of Jesus: In Search of the Original Good News, Kindle Edition. Loc 71)
Robinson’s words give us much to think about. Robinson evaluates Jesus’ teachings by what happens in the early church where Christians tried to follow them. Notice the result: “there were no needy persons among them.” They had accomplished the goal of the ancient stories: they had eliminated poverty in the early Jesus movement.
“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)
This explains why Jesus says that whatever we give up to practice these teachings, we get in return over 100 times within the community because everyone is sharing to make sure everyone has enough. They aren’t hoarding against the fear of future need. They created a community where no matter what the future brought, they had each other’s backs. They could face the future as a community where the central ethic was making sure everyone’s needs were taken care of. They would receive “homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields (along with persecutions)” because no one considered any of these only their own. They considered them as belonging to the community as well. Each gave as they were able and each person received according to their need: “They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.” (Acts 2:45)
Will Jesus followers today as a community ever return to these practices and teachings? We live in a very individualistic culture. The first step may be to create communities that make our hyper-self reliance obsolete. We have people in all classes in our communities. Some have nothing to give because their needs aren’t even being met. Others are living month-to-month and just barely getting by. Their needs are met, but they have no extra. Some in our communities have a little extra that they are saving for a future emergency. And others have so much extra they couldn’t possibly spend it all in multiple lifetimes, much less their own.
So today as we read Jesus’ call to share our possessions with others, questions of fairness are raised. I encourage you to lean into this tension. Peter Gomes had something to say on this:
“It is interesting to note that those who most frequently call for fair play are those who are advantaged by the play as it currently is, and that only when that position of privilege is endangered are they likely to benefit from the change required to ‘play by the rules.’ What if the ‘rules’ are inherently unfair or simply wrong, or a greater good is to be accomplished by changing them? When the gospel says, ‘The last will be first, and the first will be last,’ despite the fact that it is counterintuitive to our cultural presuppositions, it is invariably good news to those who are last, and at least problematic news to those who see themselves as first.” (Peter J. Gomes, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What’s So Good About the Good News?,p. 42)
This helps me understand why Jesus said entering Jesus’ kingdom or community here on earth was difficult for some of us. It calls us to a different set of priorities:
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” (Matthew 6:24)
Discussion Group Questions
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s Podcast episode with your discussion group.
2. What does the phrase, “You cannot serve both God and money” mean to you? 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 X (or Twitter), 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. 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 “Just Talking” Now Online!
Season 2, Episode 31: Mark 10.17-31. Lectionary B, Proper 23
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:
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 1 Episode 26: God and Money
Mark 10:17-31
“Will Jesus followers today as a community ever return to these practices and teachings? We live in a very individualistic culture. The first step may be to create communities that make our hyper-self reliance obsolete. We have people in all classes in our communities. Some have nothing to give because their needs aren’t even being met. Others are living month-to-month and just barely getting by. Their needs are met, but they have no extra. Some in our communities have a little extra that they are saving for a future emergency. And others have so much extra they couldn’t possibly spend it all in multiple lifetimes, much less their own. So today as we read Jesus’ call to share our possessions with others, certain questions arise.”
Available on all major podcast carriers and at:
https://the-social-jesus-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/god-and-money
Now Available on Audible!
Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.
by Herb Montgomery, Narrated by Jeff Moon
Available now on Audible!
After two successful decades of preaching a gospel of love within the Christian faith tradition Herb felt like something was missing. He went back to the gospels and began reading them through the interpretive lenses of various marginalized communities and what he found radically changed his life forever. The teachings of the Jesus in the gospel stories express a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of those in marginalized communities. This book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, and presents a compelling argument for a more socially compassionate and just expression of Christianity. Herb’s findings in his latest book are shared in the hopes that it will dramatically impact how you practice your Christianity, too.
Are you getting all of RHM’s Free Resources?
Free Sign Up Here
Divorce Just Ain’t What It Used To Be
We want to take this moment to express our heartfelt gratitude to all of our supporters for your invaluable role in the Renewed Heart Ministry community and for your dedication to our mission of fostering love, justice, compassion, and healing. Your support is the bedrock of our work. Your support empowers us to do what we do. At a time when ministries like ours are being asked to achieve more with fewer resources, your support is incredibly important, 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 in our world. From all of us here at Renewed Heart Ministries, thank you for your generous support. We deeply appreciate each and every one of our supporters.
If you’d like to join them in supporting our work, please go to renewedheartministries.com and click on “Donate.”
Herb Montgomery, October 4, 2024
If you’d like to listen to this week’s article in podcast version click on the image below:
Our reading this week is from the gospel of Mark:
Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”
“What did Moses command you?” he replied.
They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”
“It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. He answered, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”
People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them. (Mark 10:2-16)
So many of us read this week’s passage with cultural presuppositions that we don’t even realize we have. Let’s unpack them.
The Jewish law being debated in our reading this week comes from Deuteronomy 24:1-4:
“If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled.”
The first thing that jumps out at me is the word “indecent.” Indecency has always been a charge used against women throughout history and rarely leveled against men. But this law was not written with the same cultural assumptions about marriage that we practice today. Abraham, Israel, Judah, David, Solomon, and others had multiple wives. Polygamy was perfectly acceptable in their culture. Read Deuteronomy 24 again in the context of polygamy rather than monogamy and see if you don’t begin to see how problematic the passage is. “Displeases?” What does that mean?
The culture when this law was written was predominantly heterosexist and deeply patriarchal. Only men could have multiple wives; there was no egalitarian practice here. And only men could divorce their wives. Under this law, a woman could be divorced by her husband for any reason. Women under this law were vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, and they had precious little recourse.
So deeply ingrained was this patriarchal way of practicing divorce that even the otherwise economic justice minded prophet Jeremiah describes Israel’s God as also participating a patriarchal form of divorce (see Jeremiah 3:8).
After the Jewish people began returning from Babylonian exile, monogamy began gaining prominence over polygamy in Jewish society (see Monogamy, Jewish Encyclopedia).
Monogamy later became further reinforced within Jewish culture through both Greek and Roman occupation. Both cultures socially enforced martial monogamy. The Romans defined marital monogamy as policy (sexual monogamy was a separate, personal matter).
While divorce was only permitted for husbands in Jewish society, in Roman law, divorce was more egalitarian. That is, a woman could divorce her husband just as readily as a man could divorce his wife. In telling Salome’s story, Josephus contrasts the Roman and the Jewish practices of divorce:
“But some time afterward, when Salome happened to quarrel with Costobarus, she sent him a bill of divorce and dissolved her marriage with him, though this was not according to the Jewish laws; for with us it is lawful for a husband to do so; but a wife; if she departs from her husband, cannot of herself be married to another, unless her former husband put her away. However, Salome chose to follow not the law of her country, but the law of her authority [Roman], and so renounced her wedlock;” (Josephus, Flavius. The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged, Delmarva Publications, Kindle Edition, Location 18908)
Josephus also gives us some insight into how a man divorced his wife in his own society and the time in which our reading this week is set:
“He that desires to be divorced from his wife for any cause whatsoever, (and many such causes happen among men,) let him in writing give assurance that he will never use her as his wife any more; for by this means she may be at liberty to marry another husband, although before this bill of divorce be given, she is not to be permitted so to do: but if she be misused by him also, or if, when he is dead, her first husband would marry her again, it shall not be lawful for her to return to him.” (Josephus, Flavius. The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged, Delmarva Publications, Kindle Edition. Location 5363)
Within Jesus’ society, the Pharisees hotly debated the subject of divorce. Pharisees of the School of Hillel believed that a man could divorce his wife for any reason whatsoever. Within in that patriarchal culture, the economic results of a woman being divorced could be devastating. A woman who could be divorced for any reason would be in a very fragile position socially, politically, and economically. The Pharisees of the School of Shammai strongly opposed the School of Hillel’s view of divorce, however, and stated that a husband could only divorce his wife if there had been infidelity.
Within the context of this debate among the Pharisees, we read our passage this week. Mark’s Jesus takes a hard stance against divorce as practiced in his society. I believe that Mark’s Jesus demonstrates a profound-for-his-time concern with the well-being of women, their survival, and their welfare. Jesus opposes divorce as practiced at that time with his people’s own origin stories (Genesis 1 and 2). And that was the only form of divorce that existed in Jewish society then. The form of divorce we practice today was night-and-day different from the form practiced in Jesus’ time.
We should also note that Mark was written for a more cosmopolitan Jesus-following community made up of both Jews and Gentiles thanks to the evangelistic efforts of Paul and others like him. So although Jesus takes a strong stance against divorce for the protection of women, Mark’s Jesus also applies the same prohibitions to women and men, since in the larger Roman society women could divorce just as men could. Compare this to Matthew’s Jesus on the subject of divorce. Matthew was written primarily for a Jewish Jesus-following community, and it does not account for women divorcing men because wives did not divorce men in that community. Also, in Matthew, Jesus sides with the Shammai Pharisees by stating divorce should not be practiced but was permitted if the woman had been unfaithful:
“It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” (Matthew 5:31)
So what are we to make of all of this today?
It is foolish at best and dangerous at worst to build a modern practice of marriage and divorce on any of this. We can use it to inform our decisions, but we can’t use it as the basis for our decisions. Our context is different today. Let me explain.
In our time, not all divorce looks like the kind of divorce being practiced in Jesus’ day and to which the Jesus of Mark’s gospel was so opposed. Divorce that is only concerned with the well being of men in a patriarchal culture should be opposed. But what do we now do in matters of abuse where there has been no sexual infidelity? Or with marriages where both partners come to a mutual, consent that a mistake has been made and they they are better as friends than as marriage partners?
I was raised by a single mother who was married multiple times, sometimes to abusive, narcissistic men. Should my mother have waited for her husband to have a sexual encounter outside of their marriage before she divorced him? In one situation, waiting might have gotten her killed. I take the principle of Jesus’ concern for the wellbeing of women in Mark’s gospel and concern for my mother’s well being as encouraging women in her position to leave rather than suffer violence. This is what I mean by allowing the story to inform us in our practice of marriage and divorce.
Our practice of marriage and divorce in our culture today should be based on the ethics and values of the golden rule, the well being of all parties involved, whether abuse is taking place, and an egalitarian concern for justice for everyone. This is the spirit of the gospels’ teachings. People matter above institutions. Institutions were made for people not people for institutions. Even the institution of marriage.
Justice and that which was life-giving were Jesus’ concerns in Mark. And that which is just and life-giving should be our concern today, too. Marriage and divorce are two sides of the same coin. We are not infallible. And when marriage becomes death-dealing, divorce as a life-giving option should be among the choices available to those seeking to turn things around. Whether people believe that they can work on and change their marriage or that their marriage should be undone, that is strictly up to them. It is not our place to shame or look down on them. It’s our job to life-givingly support them during such difficult choices. People who have been divorced or are going through divorce don’t need our judgement. They need our encouragement and our care.
Discussion Group Questions
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s Podcast episode with your discussion group.
2. How does the cultural context help you understand the gospels’ teachings on divorce more appropriately for our context 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.
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 X (or Twitter), 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. 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 “Just Talking” Now Online!
Season 2, Episode 30: Mark 10.2-16. Lectionary B, Proper 22
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:
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 1 Episode 25: Divorce Just Ain’t What It Used To Be
Mark 10:2-16
“Our practice of marriage and divorce in our culture today should be based on the ethics and values of the golden rule, the well being of all parties involved, whether abuse is taking place, and an egalitarian concern for justice for everyone. This is the spirit of the gospels’ teachings. People matter above institutions. Institutions were made for people not people for institutions. Even the institution of marriage.
Justice and that which was life-giving were Jesus’ concerns in Mark. And that which is just and life-giving should be our concern today, too. Marriage and divorce are two sides of the same coin. We are not infallible. And when marriage becomes death-dealing, divorce as a life-giving option should be among the choices available to those seeking to turn things around. Whether people believe that they can work on and change their marriage or that their marriage should be undone, that is strictly up to them. It is not our place to shame or look down on them. It’s our job to life-givingly support them during such difficult choices. People who have been divorced or are going through divorce don’t need our judgement. They need our encouragement and our care.”
Available on all major podcast carriers and at:
https://the-social-jesus-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/divorce-just-aint-what-it-used-to-be
Now Available on Audible!
Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.
by Herb Montgomery, Narrated by Jeff Moon
Available now on Audible!
After two successful decades of preaching a gospel of love within the Christian faith tradition Herb felt like something was missing. He went back to the gospels and began reading them through the interpretive lenses of various marginalized communities and what he found radically changed his life forever. The teachings of the Jesus in the gospel stories express a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of those in marginalized communities. This book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, and presents a compelling argument for a more socially compassionate and just expression of Christianity. Herb’s findings in his latest book are shared in the hopes that it will dramatically impact how you practice your Christianity, too.
Are you getting all of RHM’s Free Resources?
Free Sign Up Here
Inclusivity and Taking Care of the Vulnerable
We want to take this moment to express our heartfelt gratitude to all of our supporters for your invaluable role in the Renewed Heart Ministry community and for your dedication to our mission of fostering love, justice, compassion, and healing. Your support is the bedrock of our work. Your support empowers us to do what we do. At a time when ministries like ours are being asked to achieve more with fewer resources, your support is incredibly important, 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 in our world. From all of us here at Renewed Heart Ministries, thank you for your generous support. We deeply appreciate each and every one of our supporters.
If you’d like to join them in supporting our work, please go to renewedheartministries.com and click on “Donate.”
Herb Montgomery, September 28, 2024
If you’d like to listen to this week’s article in podcast version click on the image below:
Our subject this week is inclusivity and taking care of the vulnerable. Our reading this week is from the gospel of Mark,
“Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”
“Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.
“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into Gehenna, where
“‘the worms that eat them do not die,
and the fire is not quenched.’
Everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other.” (Mark 9:38-50)
There are quite a few things to consider in this week’s lectionary reading from the gospels. The first exchange we encounter is the dialogue between Jesus and his disciples over a person doing something in Jesus’ name but not as part of the disciples’ group. Jesus’ response is a generous, inclusive “big tent.”. It’s not limited, restrictive, or exclusive. It doesn’t say only certain ones are part of Jesus’ movement. Jesus does not view this person as a rival in competition with his immediate circle of disciples. He is not threatened by their actions, but rather is encouraged by it. He tells his disciples, “Whoever is not against us is for us.”
The spirit of Jesus’ work is love, inclusivity, justice and liberation. He doesn’t add additional criteria. He doesn’t need everyone to be the same in every detail. He exhibits a comfort with diversity as long as it aligns with the core values of a safe, compassionate, just world for everyone. Notice that his example is as simple as offering a cup of water to the thirsty: it’s about compassion and taking responsibility for others having what they need to thrive. We don’t need to overcomplicate this. Today, there are many people who, due to their negative experiences with Christianity, are uncomfortable with any association with “Jesus” yet are deeply involved in working toward justice. We can come alongside them and aid their work because, though we may be different in some particulars, in the end we are all working for the same kind of world: a world for all of us.
The next thing in our reading is Jesus’ words about how we treat “these little ones.” A central theme of Jesus’ synoptic teachings and the tradition of the Hebrew prophets is what Liberation Theologians call a preferential option for the most vulnerable. The “little ones” in Jesus’ community were the most vulnerable among them. Just as simple as making sure those who are thirsty have water, this principle is about how we relate to those most vulnerable to injustice, oppression, and abuse in our communities. Are we creating a society that safeguards the most vulnerable?
This dialogue about the little ones includes a reference to Gehenna. Some translations use the word “hell.” This is a signifiant issue for me. Some Christians have taken these statements and created a post mortem realm of eternally burning torment and torture with no foundation in the teachings of the Jewish Jesus. In the final section of my book Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels, I share how “Gehenna” evolved in the Hebrew scriptures.
In the Hebrew prophetic justice tradition, Gehenna became a reference to destruction and subjugation by Gentile empires in this life, not life after death. And this destruction came because they failed to take care of the vulnerable in their communities and they violated and exploited them.
Here are just a few examples from the Hebrew prophets, warnings not of post mortem events, but of events that would transpire for the nation in this life if they did not correct their course:
“Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch,
her dust into burning sulfur;
her land will become blazing pitch!
It will not be quenched night or day;
its smoke will rise forever.
From generation to generation it will lie desolate;
no one will ever pass through it again.“ (Isaiah 34:9-10)
“But if you do not obey me to keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying any load as you come through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle an unquenchable fire in the gates of Jerusalem that will consume her fortresses.” (Jeremiah 17:27)
“The voice of the LORD will shatter Assyria;
with his rod he will strike them down.
Every stroke the LORD lays on them
with his punishing club
will be to the music of timbrels and harps,
as he fights them in battle with the blows of his arm.
His Topheth [the Valley of Hinnom or Gehenna] has long been prepared;
it has been made ready for the king.
Its fire pit has been made deep and wide,
with an abundance of fire and wood;
the breath of the LORD,
like a stream of burning sulfur,
sets it ablaze.“ (Isaiah 30:31-33)
‘And they will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.’” (Isaiah 66:22-24)
Both the “unquenchable fire” and the “worm that doesn’t die” symbolized destruction one would not be able to stop. Neither Isaiah nor the gospels use this language to describe something taking place after death. Jesus, standing in the lineage of the prophets defending the poor and like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, and others before him, was calling for justice. Jesus used Jewish language and metaphors to warn of impending doom. Each of these prophets denounced, implicated, and indicted a system that benefited the powerful while exploiting the vulnerable.
We must also be honest about the ableist language in this text. There is a spectrum with being whole on one end and Gehenna on the other, somewhere along the spectrum is missing limbs, being “crippled,” and missing an eye. The language paints these conditions as being less than being whole, yet not as bad as Gehenna. I reject this use of disability. As Jesus followers today, we can tell the Jesus story in better ways.
Lastly, Jesus teaches about salt losing its saltiness. In that region, salt was harvested by collecting all the white rocks and placing them in a salt bag. This bag was used to stir food being prepared. The salt would dissolve through the cloth but any white rocks inadvertently included in the bag that were not salt would remain. Eventually the bag would lose its ability to season food because all the salt was gone: the salt would lose its saltiness.
Maki Ashe Van Steenwyk writes,
“Much of what passes for the propagation of the gospel actually equates to acts of oppression. When the saving of souls is of ultimate value, it can become easy for other values to be pushed aside. This evangelistic impulse turns every mystical experience into an altar call and every person into a soul to be saved. And historically Christians have shown an ability to care for people’s souls while dismissing their bodies, their land or their dignity.” (Maki Ashe Van Steenwyk, The UnKingdom of God.)
In this passage, Jesus has been speaking about how we relate to the most vulnerable among us. Are we taking care of them? When we must be intentional about our refusal to become so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good. We must care about saving bodies and our material world around us an not exclusively be about saving souls. We must be concerned with the injustices and suffering of the here and now rather than solely focused on a post mortem future. Otherwise, we have lost our salt. We are called to follow Jesus’ example in Mark’s gospel, to affect and transform our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone, especially our most vulnerable.
Discussion Group Questions
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s Podcast episode with your discussion group.
2. How do you see our passage about taking care of the most vulnerable in our communities applying to recent events in Springfield, Ohio? 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 X (or Twitter), 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. 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 “Just Talking” Now Online!
Season 2, Episode 29: Mark 9.38-50. Lectionary B, Proper 21
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:
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 1 Episode 24: Inclusivity and Taking Care of the Vulnerable
Mark 9:38-50
“Love, inclusivity, justice, and liberation don’t impose extra conditions, nor do they require everyone to be alike in every detail. Jesus embodies an openness to diversity. In this passage, He speaks about our responsibility toward the most vulnerable among us—are we truly caring for them? We must be intentional in our rejection of being so ‘heavenly minded’ that we are indifferent to the needs of our world. Our mission is not just to save souls but to care for bodies and our material world. We must address the injustices and suffering of the present, rather than focusing solely on the afterlife. Otherwise, we lose our essence, our ‘salt.’ In Mark’s gospel, Jesus calls us to transform the world into a safe, compassionate, and just home for everyone, especially the most vulnerable.”
Available on all major podcast carriers and at:
Now Available on Audible!
Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.
by Herb Montgomery, Narrated by Jeff Moon
Available now on Audible!
After two successful decades of preaching a gospel of love within the Christian faith tradition Herb felt like something was missing. He went back to the gospels and began reading them through the interpretive lenses of various marginalized communities and what he found radically changed his life forever. The teachings of the Jesus in the gospel stories express a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of those in marginalized communities. This book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, and presents a compelling argument for a more socially compassionate and just expression of Christianity. Herb’s findings in his latest book are shared in the hopes that it will dramatically impact how you practice your Christianity, too.
Are you getting all of RHM’s Free Resources?
Free Sign Up Here
Servants of the Most Vulnerable
We want to take this moment to express our heartfelt gratitude to all of our supporters for your invaluable role in the Renewed Heart Ministry community and for your dedication to our mission of fostering love, justice, compassion, and healing. Your support is the bedrock of our work. Your support empowers us to do what we do. At a time when ministries like ours are being asked to achieve more with fewer resources, your support is incredibly important, 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 in our world. From all of us here at Renewed Heart Ministries, thank you for your generous support. We deeply appreciate each and every one of our supporters.
If you’d like to join them in supporting our work, please go to renewedheartministries.com and click on “Donate.”
Herb Montgomery, September 23, 2024
If you’d like to listen to this week’s article in podcast version click on the image below:
Our reading this week is from the gospel of Mark:
They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.
They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.
Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.” He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.(Mark 9:30-37)
There’s quite a bit for us to unpack this week.
First, our reading affirms the resurrection in a way that the Markan community for whom this version of the Jesus story was written would have expected. In this narrative, Jesus knew he was going to be resurrected all along. It was only the disciples that didn’t understand what was going to happen.
But what grabs my attention most in our reading this week is the argument by the disciples over who was the greatest disciple of Jesus’ and how Jesus responded.
Jesus turns our hierarchical ways of structuring our communities upside down. He is a genuine anarchist in the truest definition of the term: one opposed to hierarchal ways of structuring society. What our passage also reveals is that the Markan community must have needed to address this issue. I can easily imagine debates in the early Jesus movement after Jesus’ death over who was the greatest of his disciples, especially as some of them competed for positions of power and influence.
Mark’s gospel doesn’t completely eliminate hierarchical structure here, but instead defines leadership in the community as about serving community needs, not simply holding a position of power over others. We find this echoed in other parts of the Christian scriptures:
“To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed: Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.” (1 Peter 5:1-3, emphasis added.)
I do want to offer a word of caution here. We must hold serving others in tension with other values. Without that balance, it can be death dealing. It can lead those being subjugated and/or exploited to passively accept their exploitation rather than correcting their exploiters.
Consider how women have been subjugated by patriarchal Christianity . Rather than addressing patriarchy and moving toward a more egalitarian community, the “greatest is a servant and the first shall be last” rhetoric has often been misused. Rather than correcting those seeking positions of status over others (like the disciples in the original story), it has been used to encourage women to accept their subjugation to and exploitation by men in the church as “Christlike.” Mary Daly writes:
“The qualities that Christianity idealizes, especially for women, are also those of a victim: sacrificial love, passive acceptance of suffering, humility, meekness, etc. Since these are the qualities idealized in Jesus “who died for our sins,” his functioning as a model reinforces the scapegoat syndrome for women.” (Mary Daly, Beyond God the Father, p. 77)
This has not only been historically true for women but Christian slave masters also used this rhetoric against their slaves. We have examples of this even in the Christian scriptures themselves. It didn’t take long before Jesus’ words intended to address and correct those seeking status over others were twisted and used against those being suppressed. One example can be found in the epistle to the Ephesians:
“Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.” (Ephesians 6:5)
There are other examples in the letter to the Ephesians too: not only slaves being taught to accept their subjugation and exploitation, but also women and children.
“Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands.” (Ephesians 5:22)
“Children, obey your parents.” (Ephesians 6:1)
When we compare these passages to our reading this week, I find a stark contrast. Rather than telling children to be obedient to the adults in their lives, Jesus uses his lesson on service to teach adults about how they should treat children, the most vulnerable among us. Rather than calling for slaves to obey or women to submit, Jesus is instead calling anyone who wants to serve the Jesus community to intentionally practice a preferential option for the most vulnerable among the community. In that society (and most societies) that group is children.
This makes me ask the question: are we misusing the teachings of Jesus today to further deepen others’ subjugation? Or are we practicing a preferential option for the most vulnerable in our communities, seeking to serve rather than possessing status, and calling for and working toward changes that eliminate subjugation altogether?
It makes a big difference whether Jesus’ words in our reading this week are used as a corrective for those seeking standing and status, and whether we define leadership in the Jesus community as about serving the needs of the community especially those most vulnerable to injustice. Are we taking Jesus’ words about service and encouraging those who are vulnerable to passively accept subjugation in our culture? Are we using Jesus’ teachings to ensure that leadership is life-giving, or are we flipping Jesus’ script and using his teachings in ways that dehumanize and devalue some people’s intrinsic worth.
Some may consider this to be a subtle difference, but it makes a huge difference. One way to tell the difference is to ask yourself who is being addressed: those in power and being corrected for how they lord their authority over others, or those being lorded over and encouraged to passively accept their experience?
In the very next chapter of Mark, Jesus addresses this issue again when he says:
“You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.”(Mark 10:42-44, emphasis added.)
How we shape our faith communities matters. And these words offer wisdom in our justice work in our faith communities and in the wider society. When we vote for leaders, are we voting for leaders who have at heart the well being of even the most vulnerable among us? Do they care about the actual needs of the community they are seeking to serve or are they primarily concerned about themselves and what they want from whatever leadership role or office they are seeking?
As I consider the political season we are presently in here in the Unites States, I hear wisdom calling to each of us from these words in Mark’s gospel. Consider the record of those seeking office from our local communities all the way to the Office of the President. Do they really care about others or do they only want your vote? Ask yourself, how do those asking for your support treat those who most vulnerable to injustice, subjugation, and exploitation in our society? Character matters! Is their character such that seeks to serve themself or to genuinely serve the people? “Anyone who wants to be first, must be servant of all.”
Discussion Group Questions
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s Podcast episode with your discussion group.
2. How have you witnessed the servant model used in both healthy and unhealthy ways in your own experience? 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 X (or Twitter), 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. 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 “Just Talking” Now Online!
Season 2, Episode 28: Mark 9.30-37. Lectionary B, Proper 20
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:
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 1 Episode 23:Servants of the Most Vulnerable
Mark 9:30-37
“Some may consider this to be a subtle difference, but it makes a huge difference. One way to tell the difference is to ask yourself who is being addressed: those in power and being corrected for how they lord their authority over others, or those being lorded over and encouraged to passively accept their experience? How we shape our faith communities matters. And these words offer wisdom in our justice work in our faith communities and in the wider society. When we vote for leaders, are we voting for leaders who have at heart the well being of even the most vulnerable among us? Do they care about the actual needs of the community they are seeking to serve or are they primarily concerned about themselves and what they want from whatever leadership role or office they are seeking? As I consider the political season we are presently in here in the Unites States, I hear wisdom calling to each of us from these words in Mark’s gospel. Consider the record of those seeking office from our local communities all the way to the Office of the President. Do they really care about others or do they only want your vote? Ask yourself, how do those asking for your support treat those who most vulnerable to injustice, subjugation, and exploitation in our society? Character matters! Is their character such that seeks to serve themself or to genuinely serve the people? “Anyone who wants to be first, must be servant of all.”
Available on all major podcast carriers and at:
https://the-social-jesus-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/servants-of-the-most-vulnerable
Now Available on Audible!
Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.
by Herb Montgomery, Narrated by Jeff Moon
Available now on Audible!
After two successful decades of preaching a gospel of love within the Christian faith tradition Herb felt like something was missing. He went back to the gospels and began reading them through the interpretive lenses of various marginalized communities and what he found radically changed his life forever. The teachings of the Jesus in the gospel stories express a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of those in marginalized communities. This book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, and presents a compelling argument for a more socially compassionate and just expression of Christianity. Herb’s findings in his latest book are shared in the hopes that it will dramatically impact how you practice your Christianity, too.
Are you getting all of RHM’s Free Resources?
Free Sign Up Here
Refusing to Passively Endure Injustice
Thank You!
We want to take this moment to express our heartfelt gratitude to all of our supporters for your invaluable role in the Renewed Heart Ministry community and for your dedication to our mission of fostering love, justice, compassion, and healing. Your support is the bedrock of our work. Your support empowers us to do what we do. At a time when ministries like ours are being asked to achieve more with fewer resources, your support is incredibly important, 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 in our world. From all of us here at Renewed Heart Ministries, thank you for your generous support. We deeply appreciate each and every one of our supporters.
If you’d like to join them in supporting our work, please go to renewedheartministries.com and click on “Donate.”
Herb Montgomery, September 13, 2024
If you’d like to listen to this week’s article in podcast version click on the image below:
Our reading this week is from the gospel of Mark:
Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”
Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.
He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:27-38)
I love it when the gospel lectionary readings are from one of the synoptic gospels. This passage in Mark gives us a lot to consider because this passage has been used for harm. As Jesus followers today, we can choose to let go of harmful interpretations to make room for more life-giving ones.
First, the claim that Jesus was the Messiah has long been used to harm our Jewish friends, family and neighbors. Before Christians used the title of Messiah against the Jewish community, who the Messiah was was an intra-tradition argument. What I mean is that Jewish voices within the Jewish community initially made the claim of Messiahship was in dialogue and sometimes debate with other Jewish voices. The earliest Jewish Jesus followers, even before the narrative events of his death and resurrection, had recognized something in Jesus’ teachings that gave them hope in Jewish renewal and restoration. That hope was originally a liberation hope within a larger oppressed community that was anything but monolithic. For them, Jesus’ teachings pointed to the same liberation they hoped for.
The community for whom the gospel of Mark was written recognized Jesus as Messiah and our reading this week was intended to affirm this recognition. There is something political for the early church deeper in this reading too. Naming Peter as the one who declares Jesus’ messiahship in this gospel narrative also affirms the community’s recognition of Peter’s authority among the other apostles in the early Jesus movement. Jesus as Messiah was not just an question for the Markan community. All of the communities after Jesus hotly debated which voices were to be recognized as authoritative. So this week’s passage is actually much more about Peter than it is about Jesus: it is only secondarily about Jesus’ messiahship, a tenet that this community already accepted. We should read this passage primarily as establishing Peter’s authority as one who recognized and affirmed the community’s belief in Jesus’ messiahship.
Whatever we make of the claim of Jesus’ messiahship today, we must be intentional about holding our interpretation in a life-giving way for all. Messiahship originally meant liberation and restoration. Today we must similarly hold our interpretation in a way that does no harm. Within Christianity today, we must be especially careful in regard to the history of harm we are responsible for by the careless ways we have used the term “Messiah” when we speak of Jesus.
Let’s now talk about Jesus’ call to take up the cross. Many Christians have held the cross in a way that promotes the myth of redemptive suffering. Too often, bearing one’s cross refers to the kind of suffering that every person suffers whether they are standing up for justice or not. Let’s be honest: life includes a lot of suffering. It’s how we interpret and respond to that suffering that matters. But the cross was only about a specific kind of suffering, not all suffering in general. The cross was a political consequence and had a political context. The cross was suffering perpetrated by those in positions of power and privilege on people who were calling for change within an unjust system. Latin American liberation theologian Jon Sobrino warns us of romanticizing the cross and removing it from its original political context, and thus romanticizing suffering that has nothing to do with working for justice.
“There has been. a tendency to isolate the cross from the historical course that led Jesus to it by virtue of his conflicts with those who held political religious power. In this way the cross has been turned into nothing more than a paradigm of the suffering to which all human beings are subject insofar as they are limited beings. This has given rise to a mystique of suffering rather than to a mystique of following Jesus, whose historical career led to the historical cross.” (Jon Sobrino, quoted in Joanne Carlson Brown and Rebecca Parker’s For God So Loved the World?, p. 16)
Suffering doesn’t give life. Mujerista theologians (Hispanic woman’s liberation theologians) remind us that life is found in our struggle against suffering (see Isasi-Diaz, Ada Maria. Mujerista Theology: A Theology for the Twenty-First Century, p. 21).
Jesus didn’t choose to suffer. He chose to live a life in opposition to injustice and oppression. Jesus didn’t choose to die. He chose to refuse to let go of his hold on the fight for justice when threatened with a Roman cross if he continued. For Jesus, the cross was a Roman-imposed response to Jesus’ refusal to change his course. The cross today is not suffering in general but the threat by those who benefit from an unjust status quo that we will suffer if we speak out. I don’t interpret Jesus in this week’s reading as promoting suffering. Rather he is calling for those being threatened for speaking out against injustice to keep speaking out, to not be silent, to keep up the fight and join him in the fight even in the face of real threats.
Joanne Carlson Brown and Rebecca Parker, feminist theologians, rightly interpret the cross when they write:
“To be a Christian means keeping faith with those who have heard and lived God’s call for justice, radical love, and liberation; who have challenged unjust systems both political and ecclesiastical; and who in that struggle have refused to be victims and have refused to cower under the threat of violence, suffering, and death. Fullness of life is attained in moments of decision for such faithfulness and integrity. When the threat of death is refused and the choice is made for justice, radical love, and liberation, the power of death is overthrown. Resurrection is radical courage. Resurrection means that death is overcome in those precise instances when human beings choose life, refusing the threat of death. Jesus climbed out of the grave in the Garden of Gethsemane when he refused to abandon his commitment to the truth even though his enemies threatened him with death. On Good Friday, the Resurrected One was Crucified.” (God So Loved the World?, Brown and Parker, p. 22)
Too often Christians in power have used “bearing one’s cross” to teach that to follow Jesus means to passively and patiently endure whatever abuse, injustice, or oppression one is experiencing with the hope that in the afterlife your suffering will be rewarded. Nothing could be further from the way Jesus describes taking up one’s cross in our reading this week. The cross is not passively enduring injustice. The cross is the threat abusers and oppressors make against us for our refusal to passively endure injustice. The cross is the threat intended to make us passive.
When Jesus tells his followers to take up their cross, he’s telling them to keep refusing to be passive, even if you’re threatened with a cross for doing so. And even in doing so, we must remember that the cross is not intrinsic to standing up for what is right. A cross only enters our story if our abuser or oppressor chooses to respond to our calls for change with threats rather than change. Jesus’ call is a call to courageously refuse to let go of your hope for justice, for change, for liberation, and freedom to thrive. Don’t passively endure suffering. Don’t give in when those who have privileges to lose seek to persuade us to patiently “endure pain, humiliation, and violation of our sacred rights to self-determination, wholeness, and freedom” rather than speaking out (God So Loved the World?, Brown and Parker, p. 2)
How are you speaking out for change right now? How are you working for a brighter today and tomorrow? In whatever ways we are working for justice, even if those benefitting from injustice threaten us, the Jesus of our passage this week calls us to keep at it.
Discussion Group Questions
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s Podcast episode with your discussion group.
2. Share an experience of where you refused to be silent about injustice? 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 X (or Twitter), 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. 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 “Just Talking” Now Online!
Season 2, Episode 19: Mark 8.27-38. Lectionary B, Proper 19
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:
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 1 Episode 22: Refusing to Passively Endure Injustice
Mark 8:27-38
“Too often Christians in power have used “bearing one’s cross” to teach that to follow Jesus means to passively and patiently endure whatever abuse, injustice, or oppression one is experiencing with the hope that in the afterlife your suffering will be rewarded. Nothing could be further from the way Jesus describes taking up one’s cross in our reading this week. The cross is not passively enduring injustice. The cross is the threat abusers and oppressors make against us for our refusal to passively endure injustice. The cross is the threat intended to make us passive. When Jesus tells his followers to take up their cross, he’s telling them to keep refusing to be passive, even if you’re threatened with a cross for doing so. Jesus’ call is a call to courageously refuse to let go of your hope for justice, for change, for liberation, and freedom to thrive. Don’t passively endure suffering. Don’t give in when those who have privileges to lose seek to persuade us to patiently ‘endure pain, humiliation, and violation of our sacred rights to self-determination, wholeness, and freedom’ rather than speaking out”
Available on all major podcast carriers and at:
https://the-social-jesus-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/refusing-to-passively-endure-injustice
Now Available on Audible!
Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.
by Herb Montgomery, Narrated by Jeff Moon
Available now on Audible!
After two successful decades of preaching a gospel of love within the Christian faith tradition Herb felt like something was missing. He went back to the gospels and began reading them through the interpretive lenses of various marginalized communities and what he found radically changed his life forever. The teachings of the Jesus in the gospel stories express a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of those in marginalized communities. This book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, and presents a compelling argument for a more socially compassionate and just expression of Christianity. Herb’s findings in his latest book are shared in the hopes that it will dramatically impact how you practice your Christianity, too.
Are you getting all of RHM’s Free Resources?
Free Sign Up Here
Jesus, a Greek Woman and a Magical Cure
Thank You!
We want to take this moment to express our heartfelt gratitude to all of our supporters for your invaluable role in the Renewed Heart Ministry community and for your dedication to our mission of fostering love, justice, compassion, and healing. Your support is the bedrock of our work. Your support empowers us to do what we do. At a time when ministries like ours are being asked to achieve more with fewer resources, your support is incredibly important, 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 in our world. From all of us here at Renewed Heart Ministries, thank you for your generous support. We deeply appreciate each and every one of our supporters.
If you’d like to join them in supporting our work, please go to renewedheartministries.com and click on “Donate.”
Herb Montgomery, September 7, 2024
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Our reading this week is from the gospel of Mark:
Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.
“First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
“Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”
She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him.
After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.
Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” (Mark 7:24-36)
Our reading this week contains two stories that inspire a conversation about what it means to make our world a safer, more compassionate, and just home for everyone.
The first story is of a Greek woman who approaches Jesus on behalf of her daughter who is possessed. There’s a lot to unpack in this story.
First, possession in the gospel of Mark is a consistent metaphor for the very real, concrete possession the people of this region experienced from the Roman Empire. In Mark 6, the demon is named “Legion.” This was what the largest unit of the Roman Empire was called. A Legion was often placed in an indigenous people’s territory to keep them from revolting. The Jewish people were not the only ones subjugated by the Roman Empire and their territory taken as Roman possession. The Greeks were subjugated by the Romans, too.
The second thing to notice is the intersection of two different social locations Jesus is standing in simultaneously. As a Jew, Jesus belongs to a people once subjugated and oppressed by the Greeks during the Maccabean era, when the Jewish people were violently oppressed by the Greek emperor Antiochus Epiphanies. This gives us context for why a subjugated, indigenous people (the Jews in this case) would consider their oppressors and subjugators (in this case the Greeks) to be dogs. Many Jewish people also at this time referred to Romans as dogs. Social location here matters and helps us understand context.
The other social location Jesus is standing in is being a man in a patriarchal world that subjugated and oppressed women. Jesus is oppressed and empowered simultaneously. You would be standing on two different streets simultaneously if you stood where those two streets intersected. This is called intersectionality: Jesus is standing in two intersecting social locations in his exchange with this woman. As a Jew, he is in the social location of those who were once oppressed by those he is interacting with. As a man he is in the social location of patriarchal privilege and power in relation to the woman he is interacting with He is simultaneously standing in the privilege of oppressor (as a man) and disadvantage (as a Jew).
Intersectionality is such a rich lens through which to relate to our world as we work for justice. Jesus being Jewish helps us understand why he would call a Greek a dog, while his being a male calling a woman a dog is unacceptable and derogatory. When this woman calls Jesus on it, she ultimately enlarges and expands his experience and understanding. We never see Jesus relating like this to Jewish women. In fact, in a patriarchal culture, Jesus’ relation to Jewish women is remarkably egalitarian. In this story, Jesus learns that Greek woman live in intersecting social locations too. He comes to see that this person before him is more than just a Greek person whose people once persecuted his people. He sees her as a human being, a parent who simply wants something better for her child than Roman oppression. Everyone who is a parent can identify with wanting something better than you’ve experienced for your children.
We all live in intersecting social locations within our own system too. We are all oppressor and oppressed simultaneously depending on which aspect of our identities is privileged or disadvantaged in our society. What this story models is how, in the areas of our life where we are privileged, we can all learn to compassionately listen to those who in those areas of our life are marginalized or excluded. And, in the areas of our identities that others consider less than, this story calls us to push back and hold accountable those who consider us less than, no matter who they are. Even if they are Jesus.
In the second story in this week’s passage, we have the story of a deaf and mute man. This story is omitted in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Some Jesus scholars think it may be because the story sounds too magical for later Jesus communities. Jesus puts his fingers in this man’s ears, spits, touches the mans tongue, and speaks an Aramaic word. It’s a strange healing story, no doubt, and it’s only here in Mark. I understand why later versions of the Jesus story simply leave it out.
But this story in our reading provides us with the opportunity to talk about ableism and considering or treating people with disabilities as inferior.
In Jesus’ society, people with certain disabilities were put in a marginalized and disenfranchised economic, social, and political position. And this week’s story doesn’t challenge that economic system that exploited the vulnerable and excluded the deaf and mute. It also doesn’t center those with disabilities and their right to self-determination and to change a system that practiced discrimination in favor of able-bodied people. Instead, this story makes a person more able-bodied so they could survive and be included in a discriminatory, competitive system. Rather than making the system more fair, this healing simply places the person in an equal place of opportunity to compete. Mark will critique and call for change of the system elsewhere in this version of the Jesus story(Mark 10:17-23). But this is not one of those times. Equal opportunity in a system that creates winners and losers is not the same as creating a system where everyone wins together and there are no more losers.
As Jesus followers seeking ways to make our world a more compassionate and just home for everyone, we can do better than what this story offers. Let me explain.
People who live with disabilities are not “less than.” And we also live in a system that practices discrimination against disabled people in favor of able-bodied people. It’s an ableist system. Ableism characterizes people by their disabilities and classifies disabled people as people who are inferior to non-disabled people. Where medicine and technology can grant people with disabilities with greater ability, people should be able to choose what to use, within their right of self-determination. We also have a long way to go make our world, communities, and larger society more accessible physically, socially, economically, and politically for those in our human family who live with disabilities.
As Jesus followers, we can also practice greater care and intention than those who have told these stories before us. In the Jesus stories, we encounter a Jesus who often (except for in the case of this one Greek woman) practiced a preferential option for people with disabilities. And that is the part of the story we can hold on to. Where we need to be careful is where disabilities in the gospels are used as metaphors for sin, evil, or wickedness. An example of what I’m talking about is where gospel stories use blindness as a pejorative metaphor against people who reject Jesus (Matthew 15:14; Luke 6:39). This denigrates those people who live every day of their lives with actual blindness.
For Christians acculturated to accept the ableism in the gospels, leaving ableism behind will take effort. But the effort is worth it. I used to use the phrase “blind-spots” to describe when I or folks I interacted with had a limited outlook on an intrinsically harmful practice. Today I want to respect those in my life who live with limited vision. Rather than using phrases that harm them or imply villainy, I now just say what I mean: instead of saying a person has a “blind spot” I simply say their understanding and experience is limited and needs to expand. The story about Jesus and his interaction with the Greek woman is a great example.
Today we need more than magical cures that enable people to do better in our economy’s game of Monopoly. We need a world where there are no more winners and losers and we all win together. Others don’t need to lose for us to win. We can all thrive, genuinely, at the same time. And all of this is part of what it means to be be striving in our spheres of influence to make our world we share a safe, compassionate and just home for everyone. It’s a beautifully challenging work. And one I’m thankful to be engaged in.
Discussion Group Questions
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s Podcast episode with your discussion group.
2. What are some examples of where you experience the intersectionality of living simultaneously in different social locations in your own life? 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.
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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. Please Like, Subscribe, hit the Notification button, and leave us a comment.
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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.
New Episode of “Just Talking” Now Online!
Season 2, Episode 25: Mark 7.1-8, 14-15, 21-23. Lectionary B, Proper 16
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:
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 1 Episode 21: Jesus, a Greek Woman and a Magical Cure
Mark 7:24-36
“Intersectionality is such a rich lens through which to relate to this Jesus story as we consider how it may inform our justice work today. We each occupy intersecting social positions within our own society’s systems, where we can simultaneously be both oppressor and oppressed. Our privilege or disadvantage intersects depending on different aspects of our identities in relation to society. This story illustrates how, in the areas where we hold privilege, we can learn to listen with compassion to those who are marginalized or excluded in those same areas. At the same time, in aspects of our identity where we are deemed “less than” by others, the story encourages us to stand up and hold accountable those who diminish us—no matter who they are, even if it’s Jesus.”
Available on all major podcast carriers and at:
https://the-social-jesus-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/jesus-a-greek-woman-and-a-magical-cure
Now Available on Audible!
Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.
by Herb Montgomery, Narrated by Jeff Moon
Available now on Audible!
After two successful decades of preaching a gospel of love within the Christian faith tradition Herb felt like something was missing. He went back to the gospels and began reading them through the interpretive lenses of various marginalized communities and what he found radically changed his life forever. The teachings of the Jesus in the gospel stories express a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of those in marginalized communities. This book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, and presents a compelling argument for a more socially compassionate and just expression of Christianity. Herb’s findings in his latest book are shared in the hopes that it will dramatically impact how you practice your Christianity, too.
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