Category: Justice

Each: How to Be a Ruler in Your Corner of the Kingdom of God Today

We are vassals of King Jesus, a royal priesthood, ambassadors of Christ

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“Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice. Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land. Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the ears of those who hear will give attention.”

Isaiah 32:1-3 ESV

A king will reign in righteousness!

What king in the history of the world has ruled in righteousness?

Maybe there is one I don’t know about. If you believe the Bible, though, no man is righteous. Not one. (Romans 3:10-12)

Only one person in history might fit this description, and his name is Jesus. Pilate called him “king of Jews”, and Jesus didn’t deny it (John 18:33), but he died on a cross at the hands of the dominant power in the First Century: Rome.

During his life, Jesus predicted his death, but he said he would come again. (See, for instance, John 5:28-29, 14:1-3; Luke 21:25-28; and Matthew 24:23, 36-44) His First Century followers claimed that Jesus rose from the dead, and he ascended to the right hand of God. (Revelation 3:21; Matthew 22:44; Acts 2:33) They wrote about his coming back to rule the earth. (See, 2 Peter 3:10, 4:7: 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, 5:1-3; Hebrews 9:28) In the vision John the Apostle famously saw, he says:

“Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.“

Revelation 1:7

“See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end….”

Revelation 12:12

During his life, Jesus said he came to preach the good news of the kingdom of God, (Luke 4:43), and he traveled around from town to town “proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.” (Luke 8:12) He said the kingdom of God has come (Luke 10:9), and it is in our midst. (Luke 17:21)

From these things, we learn that Jesus claimed to have brought the kingdom of God to earth, but he also said he would die. He also said he would rise from the dead, and come again. His followers claim he did rise and return in the flesh, but only for 40 days. Then, he left and ascended into heaven.

Jesus said, and his followers claim, that he would come again (again), but that hasn’t happened yet. In the meantime, Jesus claims he introduced the kingdom of heaven on earth. So, where is it?

Jesus told Pilate his kingdom is “not of this world.” (John 18:36) And, he said this right before he was crucified We might write Jesus off as a lunatic except for the fact that he seems to have risen from the dead according to hundreds of his followers (1 Corinthians 15:3-8), and he spent time with them over 40 days before he reportedly ascended to the right hand of God. (Acts 1: 3–4)

Even for people who have difficulty believing these claims, no one can deny the lasting influence Jesus has had. One has to wonder how such a person who was not born into nobility, who was not even a ranking religious leader in his local community, who worked with his hands, who never had political power or influence, who was poor, and who is more famous for dying than living could have become the symbol and hope of Western Civilization. Not only that, but he is revered, followed and worshipped in every nation around the world.

Paul called followers of Jesus “ambassadors” with a “message of reconciliation”. (2 Corinthians 5:18-21) He says this because Jesus came to reconcile the world to himself – to God the Father, with whom Jesus called himself one. He cam to reconcile the world to God, and we who follow him are commissioned to share the same message.

This is the good news of the kingdom of God: freedom for people who are imprisoned and oppressed, recovery of sight to the blind, and an invitation to enter into God’s favor – His kingdom. (Luke 4:18-19) Jesus is the king of this kingdom that is not of this world.

But, we are to be despised of all people on the earth if we have nothing but a kingdom that is not of this world (and nothing beyond it). If Jesus was not raised from the dead, we have nothing, and our faith is less than useless.

Thus, the testimony of those early followers who watched him die on a Roman cross and be buried and who claimed that he appeared to them, sat with them and broke bread with them, and taught them for 40 days before he ascended into heaven is the foundation of our faith. (1 Corinthians 15:3-7)

Because of their witness, we believe his promise that he will come again to bring his other-worldly kingdom to this earth in a final resolution and redemption of all that God created. If we trust the Bible, we find that his coming was foretold centuries before he was born:

“Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.”

Isaiah 5:9-7

“One like the son of man” was also foretold by Daniel, a person who would be “given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him….” (Daniel 7:13-14) Jesus claimed to be this “Son of Man”. (See, Matthew 16:13-20 and Luke 22:48) Indeed, Christians believe Jesus is this Son of Man who was foretold, and that he will come again to judge the living and the dead.

Jesus is the “king who will reign in righteousness!” And Isaiah says that “princes [rulers, officials, captains] will rule in justice.” Among the meanings of the Hebrew word sar (שַׂר) is a vassal (a protected servant of the king), who has power and authority under a king. As followers of Jesus, that is us!

We are all vassals of King Jesus. Peter calls us a “royal priesthood”. (1 Peter 2:9) Isaiah says that each of the vassals of the king of righteousness will rule with justice. Each of us!

How do we do that today in the kingdom of God that is not of this world?

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Current Lessons in the Parable of the Good Samaritan: Focusing on the Weightier Matters of the Law

We often fail to help people in need because we are focused on the good things we are doing

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I have been involved in the faith-based legal aid organization, Administer Justice, in different capacities for about 12 years. I am an attorney. AJ is an organization founded by an attorney, Bruce Strom, who left his lucrative law practice to provide pro bono (free) legal services for people who can’t afford a lawyer. AJ helps churches run Gospel Justice Centers.

Bruce’s book, Gospel Justice, describes his calling and the journey he began over 20 years ago. Gospel Justice follows the familiar parable of the Good Samaritan and what it means to love your neighbor as God commands. Implicit in the parable is the question: who is my neighbor?

I have learned recently, that parables were common in the rabbinical tradition of the time, and the set up of a priest, a Levite and a third person was a common parable structure. It is the equivalent to the modern set up for a joke: a priest, an Irishman, and a Scotsman walk into a bar…..

According to Marty Solomon of the BEMA Podcast, the third person (the one through whom the lesson is learned) was often a Pharisee in the rabbinical Jewish tradition of the First Century. Jesus turned the tables by making the third person a Samaritan.

Samaritans had Hebrew DNA. They were ancestors of the Israelites who were left behind during the exile. They had intermarried and changed their religious practices to accommodate their mixed marriages and life without the Temple. The Jewish remnant that returned to rebuild the Temple saw them as mongrels who abandoned the faith. For Centuries, Samaritans were despised by the Jews who rebuilt the Temple and carried on the traditions of the Mosaic Law.

The priests and Levites represent good, religious people and the devotion to traditional values. They represent respectable, hard-working people who have faithfully kept those traditional values through hundreds of years of faithful adherence in difficult times.

When the priest and Levite in the parable pass by the anonymous, injured man on the road, we react with modern sensibilities that are honed by two millennia of Christian thought, tradition, and conditioning to judge them. First Century Pharisees, however, would have viewed the situation differently.

The injured man had no identify. They might have wondered who he was. (Raising the question: who is my neighbor?) Pharisees and Sadducees may have disagreed on whether aid should be offered to Gentiles, but they would have agreed that the mongrel Samaritans did not merit their aid.

They also would have recognized that the priest and the Levite had good reasons to pass over to the other side of the road and keep going. Among other things, priests were forbidden to touch a corpse. (Lev. 21:1–3) Touching a corpse, or even being in the same space as a corpse meant impurity, and they needed to maintain purity to perform their duties.

The rules that governed these things were complex and nuanced. (See Introduction to the Jewish Rules of Purity and Impurity) Becoming impure meant that a priest could not attend to his ritual duties without going through a time of ritual cleansing. The risk that the injured man might be dead was no small consideration to them.

Perhaps, this seems like being generous to them, but their lives revolved around the rituals handed down centuries ago in the Torah. They were sacred, and their identity and their purpose in life revolved around maintaining those rituals, which they had done since the time of Moses, the great, great grandson of Levi.

If we think times and people are different now, they are, but less so than we might be tempted to think. Most modern Americans (even religious ones) do not practice ritual like First Century Jewish leaders did. We are less religiously ritualistic, perhaps, than ever before. Yet, we are no different, really, in our devotion to our own values and doctrines.

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Favoritism in the Bible, The Here & the Hereafter

God’s mercy shows no bounds, and He is equally merciful to all of us.

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“Now in those days, when the disciples were growing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Greek-speaking Jews against the native Hebraic Jews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.”

Acts 6:1

Even in the early church led by the 12 apostles who lived with Jesus and learned at his feet, the Church was susceptible to favoritism. The early church embraced a radical, communal life in which they pooled their resources, and everyone in need was taken care of. More or less!

The native, Hebrew widows were being taken care of, but the foreign, Greek-speaking widows were being overlooked. Things were not perfect then, and they never are. People are people, and we tend to fall short, even in our best moments.

People naturally tend to look after our own. “Me and mine”, as Pete might have said in the iconic Coen brothers film, O Brother Where Are Thou?

This human characteristic is not all bad. It prompts mothers and fathers to care for and look after their own children. It inspires family members to look after other family members and friends to look after friends.

At the same time, this human characteristic causes us to care more for our own children and families than for others and to care more for our friends than for our neighbors. It causes us to “take care of our own” to the exclusion of “others”, and that can lead to things like racial discrimination, nepotism, and a failure to have empathy for strangers.

James, the half-brother of Jesus, also deals with favoritism in his letter to the early Church. (James 2:1-13) He called the Church to account for showing “special attention” to men “wearing fine clothes” by giving them the best seats while making the poor churchgoers stand or sit on the floor. (James 2:1-4)

James called favoring the wealthy over the poor sin in no uncertain terms! (James 2:9) He described it as breaking the law of God – the law of loving your neighbor as yourself. (James 2:1-2)

James was clear that this kind of favoritism has no place in the family of God. If any favoritism is sanctioned by God, it is the kind of favoritism that focuses on the poor, the less fortunate, and the people that are marginalized by our human tendencies to show favoritism for our own, personal benefit.

When our favoritism is motivated by selfishness, it is sin. James was particularly strong in his condemnation of favoritism motivated by selfish desires. If we “favor” the marginalized, the vulnerable, and the ones who have less influence in this world, we do it without expectation of personal benefit, and we follow in the example of Jesus.

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God’s Radical, Generous Unfairness

This theme is, perhaps, more prominent in Scripture than we might realize.

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If you are like me and most people I know, the parable of the workers in the vineyard is hard to understand and appreciate. This parable that Jesus told is recorded in Matthew 20:1-16. Jesus set the context of the parable with the statement,

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.”

matthew 20:1-2

The context of this is a parable is the kingdom of heaven.

According to the parable, a vineyard owner hired some workers for the day to work in his vineyard. Those first workers began early in the morning, and they agreed to work for a denarius. The comments in the margin of the NIV translation notes that a denarius was the usual wage paid for a day’s work at that time. This makes sense so far.

As the parable goes, the vineyard owner went back out to the marketplace throughout the day, and he continued to solicit people to come work in the vineyard, saying, “I will pay you whatever is right.” And so, additional workers began working at 9:00 AM, at noon, at 3:00 PM, and again at 5:00 PM.

When the work day ended at 6:00 PM, the vineyard owner told his foreman,

“Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.”

Mathew 20:8

Beginning with the workers who started at 5:00 PM, each one was paid a denarius. The workers who began at 3:00 PM were also paid a denarius, and so on.

When the workers who began the day early and worked through the entire day stepped forward, they expected to get more than the other workers. Each one, however, only received a denarius.

They naturally began to complain to the vineyard owner about the unfairness of the vineyard owner. Why should the workers who worked only an hour (or three hours or just half a day) receive the same compensation as the workers who worked all day? Doesn’t that seem unfair?

The early workers agreed to work for a denarius; they got what they agreed to work for; and a denarius was, in fact, the going rate of compensation for a day’s work. From that standpoint, the wage they were paid was fair, but why should a worker who worked for only one hour be paid the same wage?

The relative compensation seems patently unfair to us. Though the first workers got what they bargained for and got what was considered to be a fair wage, the later workers got the same wage for less work.

One thing I had not noticed before is that the point of this parable is to provoke our sense of fairness. How do we know that?

Go back and look at verse 8: Jesus says the vineyard owner specifically informed the foreman to pay the last workers first … in front of all the other workers. If he had paid the first workers first, they would have gotten what they expected, been satisfied with it, and left – not knowing that the later workers were paid the same wage. Instead, he made a point of paying the last workers first.

This parable “works” precisely because it offends our sense of fairness. It seems God expects it to offend us! But what does that say about God?

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The Dilemma of God Demanding Justice from Beings Incapable of Meeting God’s Standard

There is one critique of the Christian notion of sin and the justice of God that is troubling on its face. That key critique for anyone who claims that God demands justice for sin is that God is seemingly unjust to require justice of beings who can’t measure up.

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Many modern people bristle at the Christian idea of sin, and they bristle even more at the idea that God would punish sinners. Frankly, I think many modern people simply don’t understand what sin is and who God is.

But, that aside, there is one critique of the Christian notion of sin and the justice of God that is troubling on its face. That key critique for anyone who claims that God demands justice for sin is that God is seemingly unjust to require justice of beings who can’t measure up.

Alongside the notion that the God of the Bible and demands judgment for not measuring up to God’s just standard is the notion that all people are sinners who don’t measure up. In fact, the New Testament is fairly read to say that people are incapable of living up to God’s standard.

The doctrine of original sin says that we are all corrupted because the sin of Adam and Eve has been passed down generation after generation. Even if we don’t believe in the doctrine of original sin, however, the Bible is clear from the Old Testament to the New Testament that human beings don’t measure up to God’s standard:

They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;
    there is none who does good,
    not even one.

Psalm 14:3

They have all fallen away;
    together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
    not even one.

Isaiah 53:5

as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;
   ….
 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
    no one does good,
    not even one.”

Romans 1:10-12

Jesus said, “No one is good except God alone.” (Mark 10:18 (NIV)) Yet, he says, “Be perfect … as your heavenly Father is perfect?” (Matthew 5:48)

This is the dilemma: How can we be perfect?! “To err is human” the bard once said, and so it seems we are imperfect by our very nature.

Many people reject the idea that God can be just and demand justice from people incapable of measuring up to the standards God’s justice demands. They say it would be unjust for God to demand justice from beings who have no ability to act other than they do, and so fail to meet God’s standards.

God seems to be acting unfairly to demand that we meet His standards when we are 1) created beings, 2) born into sin, and 3) incapable of living up to the perfection God requires.

Other questions tumble after these thoughts: Why didn’t God create us perfect? If we are born sinful, how can God blame us for being sinful? If we are incapable of being perfect, how can God punish us for our imperfection?

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