We have been observing in the Magnificat where Mary speaks freely about her passions and her beliefs. It would be logical to posit that the words she expresses here constitute, at least to some extent, the way she raised Jesus. We have considered her emphasis on: a) praise and obedience to God, b) moral justice, and c) social justice. In this post we will look briefly at economic justice.
Economic
Justice (v. 53)
One of the
most revolutionary economic laws ever written was the Year of Jubilee that
cancelled debt and redistributed the land. Every fiftieth year all land was to
be returned to the descendants of its original owners. No families or clans
were to be allowed to accumulate great fortunes over time. There is no place in
the Scriptures where this law was practiced. Mary’s world was not only dominated
by a small group of wealthy families, being wealthy was considered to be proof
of God’s smile of approval. Jubilee had not been implemented. The rest of the
people remained permanently poor.
She might have
said to Jesus as He was growing up, “Remember Jesus, Yahweh loves the poor, and
gives them beautiful and valuable things, but the rich He sends away empty.
Hold a special place in your heart for the poor. God will never absolve a
nation that is content to allow a few to have too much, while others have too
little.”
There are many
examples of how Mary’s teaching is expressed in Jesus’ ministry. One that
stands out occurs during Passion Week as Jesus was standing outside the
entrance to the Temple.
Lk 20:45—21:4, “While all the people were
listening, Jesus said to his disciples, beware of the
teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be
greeted 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. Such men will be punished most severely.” As he
looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He
also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. I tell you the truth, he said, this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave
their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had
to live on.”
It’s entirely
possible that the widow who put her last two copper coins into the offering
knew that her poverty was attributable to the exploitation of the powerful
“teachers of the law,” Jesus had just described.
This
possibility suggests that the most significant thing here is not that she gave
everything. Jesus seems to be pointing to a deeper issue. In spite of the great
economic injury she had suffered at the hands of the people who run the Temple,
she still gave everything she had in the offering. This powerless widow understood
the principle of giving. She was not giving to the Temple or the “teachers of
the law,” she was giving to God. She was determined to be faithful to God, in
spite of the injustice she had experienced and the hypocrisy around her.
Ron Sider tells
the story about how, one Saturday morning, he was preparing a lecture on poverty;
a poor man came into his office and asked for five dollars. “He was drinking.
He had no food, no job, and no home. The Christ of the poor confronted me in
this man. But I didn’t have the time. I had to prepare a lecture on the
Christian view of poverty. I gave him a couple of dollars, but that wasn’t what
he needed. He needed someone to talk to, someone to love him. He needed my
time. He needed me. But I was too busy.” “Inasmuch as you did it not to the
least of these, you did it not unto me.”
It seems to be
human nature to ascribe higher value to people of means and to tend to devalue
those who have less. The Scriptures are unequivocal; God loves and protects the
poor.
Where are we?
What
should the Evangelical Church’s attitude toward the poor be?
No comments:
Post a Comment