Working Together for Liberation and Justice
We want to take a moment to express our heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you who supports the work of Renewed Heart Ministries. Your generosity makes it possible for us to continue our mission of love, justice, and compassion, even in a time when ministries like ours are being called to do more with less.
Your support means the world to us. Whether we’re speaking into the broader society, engaging within our faith communities, or working one on one alongside others endeavoring to follow Jesus’ teachings of love and justice, we remain committed to advocating for a world that is inclusive, just, and safe for all. Your partnership helps keep our work alive.
To all of our supporters, from all of us at Renewed Heart Ministries, thank you. We are so deeply grateful for you, and we couldn’t do this work without you.
If you’d like to join them in supporting our work, please go to renewedheartministries.com and click on “Donate.”
Working Together for Liberation and Justice
Herb Montgomery | September 4, 2026
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 Matthew:
“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a gentile or a tax collector.
“Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
“Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” (Matthew 18:15-20)
Our reading this week includes early Christian teaching about confronting someone who has wronged another. It offers insight into this early Jesus community: the community is grounded not primarily in punishment but in accountability, restoration, and community. “If your [sibling] sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you.” The first response to wrongdoing is not public humiliation, gossip, retaliation, or exclusion. It is direct conversation. This establishes an important principle: people should be held accountable for harm, but accountability should seek to restore relationships and human dignity rather than simply punish.
The private nature of the first confrontation is especially significant. Public accusation can become a form of social violence, turning a person’s mistake into a permanent identity. Jesus instead encourages a process that gives the person an opportunity to listen, understand the harm, and change. Justice begins with the possibility of transformation. The goal is explicitly relational: “You have won them over.” The language suggests that justice is not merely about determining who is right and who is wrong; it is about recovering people and repairing community.
If the person refuses to listen, Jesus proposes bringing “one or two others” into the process. This introduces another important dimension of justice: testimony and accountability should not depend solely upon the power or perspective of one individual. Others are brought into the process so that “every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.” In a healthy community, truth should be pursued through evidence, multiple perspectives, and responsible discernment rather than through rumor, accusation, or mob judgment.
The final step of bringing the matter before the collective group of Jesus followers makes accountability a communal responsibility. This third step implies that the original wrong was not a private, individual matter. This was a wrongdoing that damaged other people or the integrity of the community. Communities have an obligation to confront injustice rather than protect powerful people, preserve institutional reputation, or remain silent for the sake of comfort. Our reading this week challenges communities to develop structures in which harm can be named and addressed.
The final instruction, “Treat them as you would a gentile or a tax collector” creates a tension within the passage. On one level, it describes excluding someone from the community when they persistently refuses accountability. Social justice sometimes requires boundaries when continued behavior causes harm. Forgiveness does not mean enabling abuse, and reconciliation cannot be genuine without accountability.
At the same time, Matthew’s Gospel complicates any interpretation of exclusion as permanent rejection. Jesus repeatedly associates with tax collectors and outsiders, including those whom respectable society considers morally or socially unacceptable. Consequently, treating someone as an outsider should not mean treating them as less than human. Even in separation, we must hold space for the possibility of change and restoration.
Our reading this week presents collective justice as a process: confrontation before condemnation, testimony before accusation, community discernment before exclusion, and restoration before revenge. It challenges both individuals and institutions to resist the easy satisfactions of shame and punishment. True justice tells the truth about harm while still believing that people can change. It centers victims, protecting those who have been harmed without abandoning the possibility of redemption for those who have caused harm. In this sense, Jesus offers a vision of justice in which accountability and compassion are not opposites but are partners in building a healthier, more just, compassionate, and safe community with the hope of laying the same foundation for larger society as well.
Next, Jesus makes the statement, “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” These words place remarkable responsibility in the hands of the community, and there is a risk they might be coopted. These words are not primarily about supernatural power or individual religious authority. They instead concern communities’ ethical responsibility to decide what relationships, practices, and systems will be upheld or released. Jesus presents the community as an active participant in creating the kind of world that reflects Love’s purposes.
The language of “binding” and “loosing” had important Jewish roots, referring to making authoritative decisions about what was permitted or prohibited and how people should live together. In our reading this week, however, these words occur within Jesus’ teaching about conflict, reconciliation, accountability, forgiveness, and recovering those who have been harmed or excluded. The surrounding context suggests that authority is not given for domination. It is given instead for restoration.
This distinction is essential to restorative justice. “Binding” can mean holding people and communities accountable to standards of justice. It can also mean refusing to tolerate exploitation, abuse, discrimination, or practices that diminish human dignity. A community can bind itself to principles of compassion, equality, truth, and mutual responsibility. Conversely, “loosing” can mean releasing people from conditions that imprison them: shame, exclusion, poverty, oppressive expectations, cycles of retaliation, or systems that deny them a meaningful place within the community.
Jesus is offering an alternative to using authority as a tool to control other people. The purpose of this communal authority is to repair relationships and protect human dignity. Decisions made by a community have consequences, and Jesus insists that such decisions matter before the Divine. This means that “heaven” is not disconnected from the moral choices human beings make here on earth.
These words also include a warning. If human decisions are understood as having heavenly significance, communities must exercise authority with extraordinary humility. This verse cannot legitimately become a blank check for religious leaders to declare their own preferences to be the will of the Divine. When authority becomes a tool for silencing vulnerable people, protecting privilege, or punishing dissent, it contradicts the restorative purpose of Jesus’ teaching.
The significance of “binding and loosing” is therefore found in the community’s responsibility to discern what must be resisted and what must be released. Communities are called to bind themselves to justice and loose themselves from injustice. They are called to bind themselves to solidarity with the vulnerable and loose themselves from indifference, to bind themselves to truth and loose themselves from systems of deception and oppression.
Jesus’ words ultimately suggest that the work of justice is not merely about changing private beliefs. It is also about making concrete decisions about how people will treat one another. What a community permits, prohibits, forgives, confronts, protects, or releases becomes an expression of its understanding of the Divine.
“Whatever you bind” and “whatever you loose” can therefore be heard as a summons to moral responsibility. As humans, we participate in shaping the social world, and our choices matter. Jesus’ “kingdom of God” is not simply something awaited in heaven; it is something communities are called to embody on earth through justice, reconciliation, accountability, compassion, and liberation.
Lastly this week, we read words that I believe the author of Matthew’s Gospel intended to be a source of hope, justice, and transformation. “If two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for” is not simply a promise that we will get whatever we desire. Within the context of the rest of Matthew 18 where Jesus has been speaking about confronting wrongdoing, reconciliation, accountability, and restoring relationships, these words point toward the power of people joining together to seek what is right.
Jesus’ words, “Where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them,” likely echo a Jewish tradition that emphasized God’s presence when people gathered together to study Torah. Rabbinic tradition later preserved this idea explicitly: when two people sit together and engage with the words of Torah, the Divine presence is understood to be among them. Matthew’s formulation resonates with that cultural world but sharpens its focus toward justice. The significance is therefore communal: sacred authority is not confined to priests, rulers, or institutions. When ordinary people gather in Jesus’ name to discern truth, seek justice, reconcile relationships, and challenge oppression, they become a community where Jesus is present.
Societal justice is not achieved by isolated individuals. But when people come together in solidarity, they can challenge systems of exploitation, discrimination, poverty, and oppression that are too powerful for one person to confront alone. Agreement becomes meaningful when rooted in a shared commitment to human dignity and the common good.
Jesus’ declaration, “Where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them”, also challenges the assumption that change happens primarily through powerful institutions or large gatherings. Change can begin with the collective efforts of merely two or three. As the saying goes, usually attributed to Margaret Mead, “Never Doubt That a Small Group of Thoughtful, Committed Citizens Can Change the World; Indeed, It’s the Only Thing That Ever Has.”
Our reading this week offers both encouragement and responsibility. When Christians unite around justice, their collective voice matters. Their gathering becomes an expression of Jesus’ presence in our world today. Wherever people today stand together against oppression and work toward reconciliation, they still embody the liberating community that Jesus envisioned and taught his followers to build.
Discussion Group Questions
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s podcast episode with your discussion group.
2. How does our reading this week inform your own justice work, today? Share and discuss with your group.
3. What can you do this week, big or small, to continue setting in motion the work of shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone?
Thanks for checking in with us, today.
I want to say a special thank you to all of our supporters out there. And if you would like to join them in supporting Renewed Heart Ministries’ work you can do so by going to renewedheartministries.com and clicking donate.
My latest book Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political and Economic Teachings of the Gospels is available now on Amazon in paperback, Kindle and also on Audible in audio book format.
As always, you can find Renewed Heart Ministries each week on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram and Meta’s Threads. If you haven’t done so already, please follow us on your chosen social media platforms for our daily posts.
If you’d like to reach us here at Renewed Heart Ministries through email, you can reach us at info@renewedheartministries.com.
Right where you are, keep living in love, choosing compassion, taking action, and working toward justice.
I love each of you dearly,
I’ll see you next week.
New Episode of The Social Jesus Podcast
A podcast where we talk about the intersection of faith and social justice and what a first century, prophet of the poor from Galilee might have to offer us today in our work of love, compassion and justice.
This week:
Season 3 Episode 37: Working Together for Liberation and Justice
Matthew 18:15-20
Our reading this week presents collective justice as a process: confrontation before condemnation, testimony before accusation, community discernment before exclusion, and restoration before revenge. It challenges both individuals and institutions to resist the easy satisfactions of shame and punishment. True justice tells the truth about harm while still believing that people can change. It centers victims, protecting those who have been harmed without abandoning the possibility of redemption for those who have caused harm. In this sense, Jesus offers a vision of justice in which accountability and compassion are not opposites but are partners in building a healthier, more just, compassionate, and safe community with the hope of laying the same foundation for larger society as well.
Available on all major podcast carriers and at:
https://the-social-jesus-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/working-together-for-liberation-and-justice
Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.
by Herb Montgomery
Available now on Amazon!
In Finding Jesus, author Herb Montgomery delves into the profound and often overlooked political dimensions of the gospels. Through meticulous analysis of biblical texts, historical context, and social discourse, this thought-provoking book unveils the gospels’ socio-political, economic teachings as rooted in a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of the marginalized. The book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, presenting a compelling argument for a more socially engaged and transformative Christianity.
Finding Jesus is not just a scholarly exploration; it is a call to action. It challenges readers to reevaluate their understanding of Christianity’s role in public life and to consider how the radical teachings of the gospels can inspire a renewed commitment to justice, equality, and compassion. This book is a must-read for those seeking a deeper understanding of the social implications of Christian faith and a blueprint for building a more just and inclusive society.
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When Solidarity Comes with a Personal Cost
We want to take a moment to express our heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you who supports the work of Renewed Heart Ministries. Your generosity makes it possible for us to continue our mission of love, justice, and compassion, even in a time when ministries like ours are being called to do more with less.
Your support means the world to us. Whether we’re speaking into the broader society, engaging within our faith communities, or working one on one alongside others endeavoring to follow Jesus’ teachings of love and justice, we remain committed to advocating for a world that is inclusive, just, and safe for all. Your partnership helps keep our work alive.
To all of our supporters, from all of us at Renewed Heart Ministries, thank you. We are so deeply grateful for you, and we couldn’t do this work without you.
If you’d like to join them in supporting our work, please go to renewedheartministries.com and click on “Donate.”
When Solidarity Comes with a Personal Cost
Herb Montgomery | August 28, 2026
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 Matthew:
(Matthew 16:21-28)
From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”
Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “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 will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.
“Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” (Matthew 16:21-28)
Our reading this week begins with Jesus telling his disciples that “he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law.” This statement carries a message for Jesus followers today who are working to make our world a more equitable, just, safe home for everyone. Jesus’ statement locates his suffering within structures of religious, economic, and political power. He is not simply predicting a tragic personal fate. He is identifying what can happen when someone challenges institutions that protect their authority at the expense of vulnerable people.
Jerusalem represents the center of religious, economic, and political power. The elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law were among those who possessed significant authority in Jewish society. Matthew’s account portrays Jesus as confronting systems that could become more concerned with maintaining order, status, control, power, privilege, property, and wealth than with justice, equity, compassion, and human dignity. Jesus’ message of the kingdom challenged arrangements in which some people were excluded, burdened, or treated as less important.
Jesus’ willingness to go to Jerusalem therefore represents a commitment to those being hurt by injustice even when that commitment creates a personal cost. He does not turn away simply because speaking truth may provoke opposition. His suffering exposes the violence that can be directed against those who challenge entrenched power. In this sense, the cross becomes much more than a religious symbol. It is also a revelation of what unjust systems can do to people who refuse to remain silent.
The statement that Jesus will be “raised to life” is equally important. However one interprets the resurrection narratives in the Gospels, resurrection itself declares that oppression and violence don’t have the final word. The powers that seek to silence Jesus cannot ultimately destroy the vision of justice and liberation that he embodies.
For Jesus followers today, this passage calls for solidarity with people who experience injustice and with those who risk their comfort, security, or status to confront it. Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem suggests that discipleship is not merely about personal belief or assurance after death. Instead it is about courageously standing for human dignity, challenging systems that harm people, and trusting that love and justice can ultimately overcome the forces that seek to suppress them.
Next in our reading we meet Peter. Peter’s response to Jesus can be understood as more than an expression of personal affection. Peter rejects Jesus’ announcement that he must suffer, be rejected by the powerful, and be killed. His words reflect a very human desire to protect a beloved leader from violence. Yet Jesus responds sharply: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me.” The exchange raises an important question: What happens when our desire to protect ourselves or those we love prevents us from confronting injustice?
Peter appears to imagine that Jesus should overcome suffering because of his solidarity with the oppressed rather than having to endure it. Peter also narratively represents a hope common in Jesus’ society for a liberation figure who would defeat oppressive powers and restore Israel. Jesus, however, presents a different vision of liberation: he doesn’t embrace domination as the answer to domination, and his kingdom doesn’t seek to become another version of imperial power. Instead, Jesus identifies himself with those who suffer under systems of political and religious power and don’t have access to imperial power. Those not in power often have different tools by necessity, and this helps us make better sense of Jesus’ response.
Jesus’ accusation that Peter has “merely human concerns” can be read as a critique of change methods organized around power, privilege, security, and self-preservation. “Human concerns” are not necessarily evil but become problematic when safety and protecting one’s status matter more than justice, compassion, and faithfulness to those who are vulnerable.
The word “Satan,” meaning adversary or accuser, is especially significant. Peter becomes a “stumbling block” to Jesus because his resistance to Jesus’ path could divert Jesus from confronting the structures that produce suffering. Justice work sometimes requires accepting discomfort, risk, and sacrifice rather than choosing the easier path of protecting ourselves from conflict.
So this passage challenges Jesus followers to examine whether they seek a comfortable religion or a transformative faith. Jesus calls his followers beyond the instinct to preserve power and privilege, and his response to Peter insists that genuine discipleship requires solidarity with suffering people and a willingness to confront injustice, even when doing so includes a personal cost.
A critique of harmful traditional interpretations of Jesus’ next words in our reading can challenge the assumption that losing one’s life is necessarily the highest expression of faithfulness: “Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it” has often been interpreted as a call to self-denial, sacrifice, and even death. Yet, such an interpretation deserves careful examination, especially because many people, women specifically, have historically been taught that love means giving themselves away, enduring suffering, putting others first, or sacrificing their own needs for the sake of family, community, or religious ideals.
Jesus’ taking up the cross does not have to mean choosing death. Indeed, the cross represents a system of political and religious violence that sought to destroy life. Jesus does not glorify the violence done to him but confronts it by refusing to surrender the truth, dignity, and life he embodies. His journey toward Jerusalem can be understood not as a desire for death but as a refusal to let oppression determine the meaning of his life.
From this perspective, “losing one’s life” can mean refusing to live according to the values of domination, exploitation, and fear. It does not necessarily mean abandoning the value of one’s self. Faithfulness requires precisely the opposite: holding tightly to the gift of life and refusing to surrender it to those who would diminish, control, or destroy it. Jesus didn’t choose death. He refused to let go of his hold on life even when threatened with death if he did not do so. Death does not bring life. Life brings life.
We do not need more religious messages telling us that our worth is found in self-sacrifice. Love does not require self-erasure. Compassion does not demand surrendering one’s dignity. Caring for others should not mean abandoning oneself. Again, death does not bring life simply because suffering has been endured. Life brings life when people protect it, nurture it, and refuse to let go of it. In the Jesus story, God does not triumph over injustice, violence and death using more violent death, even just one more death. God overcomes death through reversing, undoing, and triumphing over Jesus’ violent death through resurrecting life. Jesus’ words in our reading this week can be understood as an invitation to hold on to the self, to dignity, to justice, and to life itself. To follow Jesus is not necessarily to seek the cross, but to resist the forces that make crosses inevitable. So the cross only becomes a part of following Jesus when unjust systems threaten us with a cross like they threatened Jesus. It is in those moments of threat from unjust systems that we paradoxically find our life through refusing to let go of life and what is right even when there is a risk of consequences for doing so. Sometimes the most courageous act of discipleship is loving oneself enough to refuse to let go of life.
In this context, Jesus’ words, “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”, offer a powerful critique of a society that measures success by wealth, power, possessions, and status. Jesus’ words challenge the assumption that gaining more necessarily means living better, and they also ask us, when faced with a kind of bribery to be silent about injustice, at what cost are we choosing to stay silent? We may gain the world but lose touch with our humanity. What does going along to get along cost a person on an inner level? A person may accumulate enormous wealth and influence while becoming spiritually, morally and/or ethically impoverished.
These words also question systems that allow some people to “gain the whole world” while others are deprived of food, housing, dignity, opportunity, and security. Wealth gained through exploitation, oppression, the suffering of others, or even through merely remaining silent about such comes at the cost of the soul. Jesus therefore shifts the question from “How much can I acquire?” to “What kind of person am I becoming, and what is the cost of my success to my inner self and others?”
The “soul” represents more than private spirituality. It points toward the deepest center of human identity, conscience, compassion, and relationship with others. To forfeit one’s soul is to lose the capacity to recognize another person’s humanity and even lose connection with our own. Jesus’ teaching calls us to reject a culture of material gain through injustice, and seek a society shaped by justice, compassion, solidarity, and human dignity instead. The truly valuable life is not the one that possesses the most, but the one that refuses to gain at another person’s expense.
Lastly this week, Jesus’ words, “For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels,” evoke the powerful imagery of Daniel 7, where the “Son of Man” appears as a human figure receiving authority from God after oppressive beasts representing unjust and violent empires parade through the scene. In Jesus’ first-century context, this imagery could resonate with Jewish hopes for liberation from Roman domination and the restoration of justice. The Son of Man represents an alternative to imperial power: authority grounded not in violence, conquest, or exploitation but in justice and compassion. Jesus’ language therefore speaks to hope that unjust empires will not be the final word in Earth’s history. And that is a hope that each of us alive today can lean into.
Discussion Group Questions
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s podcast episode with your discussion group.
2. How does our reading this week inform your own justice work, today? Share and discuss with your group.
3. What can you do this week, big or small, to continue setting in motion the work of shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone?
Thanks for checking in with us, today.
I want to say a special thank you to all of our supporters out there. And if you would like to join them in supporting Renewed Heart Ministries’ work you can do so by going to renewedheartministries.com and clicking donate.
My latest book Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political and Economic Teachings of the Gospels is available now on Amazon in paperback, Kindle and also on Audible in audio book format.
As always, you can find Renewed Heart Ministries each week on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram and Meta’s Threads. If you haven’t done so already, please follow us on your chosen social media platforms for our daily posts.
If you’d like to reach us here at Renewed Heart Ministries through email, you can reach us at info@renewedheartministries.com.
Right where you are, keep living in love, choosing compassion, taking action, and working toward justice.
I love each of you dearly,
I’ll see you next week.
New Episode of The Social Jesus Podcast
A podcast where we talk about the intersection of faith and social justice and what a first century, prophet of the poor from Galilee might have to offer us today in our work of love, compassion and justice.
This week:
Season 3 Episode 36: When Solidarity Comes with a Personal Cost
Matthew 16:21-28
The question has to be asked, “At what cost? What kind of person am I becoming?” This week’s reading points toward the deepest center of human identity, conscience, compassion, and relationship with others. To forfeit one’s soul is to lose the capacity to recognize another person’s humanity and even lose connection with our own. Jesus’ teaching calls us to reject a culture of material gain through injustice, and seek a society shaped by justice, compassion, solidarity, and human dignity instead. The truly valuable life is not the one that possesses the most, but the one that refuses to gain at another person’s expense.
Available on all major podcast carriers and at:
https://the-social-jesus-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/when-solidarity-comes-with-a-personal-cost
Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.
by Herb Montgomery
Available now on Amazon!
In Finding Jesus, author Herb Montgomery delves into the profound and often overlooked political dimensions of the gospels. Through meticulous analysis of biblical texts, historical context, and social discourse, this thought-provoking book unveils the gospels’ socio-political, economic teachings as rooted in a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of the marginalized. The book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, presenting a compelling argument for a more socially engaged and transformative Christianity.
Finding Jesus is not just a scholarly exploration; it is a call to action. It challenges readers to reevaluate their understanding of Christianity’s role in public life and to consider how the radical teachings of the gospels can inspire a renewed commitment to justice, equality, and compassion. This book is a must-read for those seeking a deeper understanding of the social implications of Christian faith and a blueprint for building a more just and inclusive society.
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