Yesterday at OMHSI forum, "Was Jesus Political?"
…Goh Keat Peng thundered the newly renovated auditorium of PJ Gospel Hall yesterday with strong indictments against the Church of Malaysia: We have chosen to close an ear to socio-political agenda! And even if we are political, we are selfishly selective in our political concern. Do we only care about religious freedom when we cannot get permits for our new church building? Do we only care about religious freedom when a Christian cannot change her religious status in her identity card? What about the freedom of religion for the Buddhists? the Hindus? the Muslims? Orang Asli? What about the immigrants' plights? The oppression of labourers? Gender equality? We are living in the 21st century and only now we ask, “Was Jesus political?”!!
Both main speakers, Dr. Lim Kar Yong and Dr. K.J. John, highlighted the Luke 4:18-19 passage, which I strongly believe is pivotal in ciphering Jesus' self understanding of his ministry, at least in the mind of Luke. By having Jesus to read the Isaiah scroll and having him read specifically at Chapter 61, vv. 1-2 (see v 17 where Luke pointed to Jesus having “unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written” to make the whole reading a conscious delibration on Jesus' part. Note, however, the chapter and verse numberings were not available in Jesus' time), Luke was in effect wanted his reader to be aware that Isaiah 61:1-2 was one of the main, if not the main theme, of Jesus' ministry.
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn (Isaiah 61:1-2)
because the LORD has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn (Isaiah 61:1-2)
Kar Yong aptly pointed out the significance of the “year of YAHWEH's favor” as a Jubilee proclaimation and that the Jubilee proclamation is in itself a political theme. It is the Sabbath of sabbaths, the golden year celebration of Israel as free people, whose freedom, they were constantly reminded was brought with blood, whose liberator, they were constantly reminded was “YAHWEH, your god”. And the year long Jubilee observation was a national reminder that Israel was not freed only to be oppressor of others. I echo Kar Yong that agenda of the Jubilee year was so that no one will remain poor forever while his neigbours got richer and richer.
Treatment of Subordinates and “The Others”
Some may observe that the Jubilee year regulation in Leviticus 25 has no reference to the protection of foreigners and in fact has a concession that Israel may take a foreigner to be slaves forever. Two observation here:
1) The record of god's dealings in the OT was one-sided. I am still working on this and appreciate the comments of others; but after all, the OT was a national document with specific agenda for the national life of Israel. There were really no widespread concern for the other neigbouring nations/races except when such concern was related to Israel. In fact, such nationalistic sentiment was bordering nationalistic-selfishness. Therefore the record saw no problem (and therefore no injustice) that Israel won the war to conquer Canaan land through a massacre of its original inhabitant.
2) The treatment of foreigners need not be enshrined in the Jubilee program. Because it was to be woven into the daily living of the Israelites:
2.1) First of all, the general provisions on slaves. Chris Wright in the chapter on slaves in his book God's People in God's Land, contrast between the acceptable laws of that time concerning slaves and the ethical requirement of the bible. The Akkadian proverb, “man is the shadow of god, while slave is the shadow of man” contrast those of the Wisdom literature of the Hebrew scripture, notably Job, “Did not he who made me in the womb make him (male & female slaves)? And did not one fashion us in the womb? (Job 31:15).
More concretely, the progressive laws concerning slaves was found in Exodus 21:26-27. The passage prohibited altogether any unjust physical injuries done to one's slaves, and if such abuses occured, the owner will loose any property rights over his slaves (and the slaves regained his free). That such comparitively “small injury” as loosing one's tooth was a factor of penalty on slaves owners showed a progressive approach towards treatment of subordinates, even slaves.
2.2) On foreigners, the Mosaic law was clear, You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him (Ex 22:21). Israel was sternly reminded that the basis of justice done to foreigners was their own freedom from oppression - “for your were sojourners in the land of Egypt” (Ex 22:21b). Again, this instruction to be just to foreigners and to do good to them need not wait until the year of Jubilee, it was an injunction for all time, Jubilee or not.
Religion, Political and Politics
It is amazing if one read the Hebrew scriptures and found only “religion”, found only private practices of prayers and rituals, found only a message which speaks to personal morality, found only a call for religious repentance.
The true religion of god concerned itself with how we ought to live as human beings on earth, in this world, not as angels floating in heaven. There were meticulous instructions on social justice, economic equality, political righteousness and with them came the angry indicments against all sorts of evil, injustice, unrighteousness. But unfortunately, we christians concerned ourselves with bigger and grander buildings (with excuses like, we'll serve god and the congregation better, and “well, our building only cost 10 mil compared to Church XYZ which costed 100mil”), and the thing about churches with big buildings is, we are mostly (not all of course) very much into weight lost theology, botox theology and, oddly enough, titanic theology. Why do you want to build a grand building with revolving crosses when all you expect is that earth will be utterly destroyed and you'll fly to polaris in the blink of an eye?
Perhaps the question ought to be rephrased. It is not whether Jesus was political, I mean, everyone who gets real in this real world (i.e. not living out a titanic theology) has to be political. It's the art of being in a community and society. The question therefore is how? How was Jesus political? And Tricia (bravo for her short and forceful speech) asked the question, which political party would Jesus join? May I add, Will he even join one? Which presidential/parliamentary seat candidates will he endorse? Which cause will he take up? I think (and I believe Tricia will agree) these questions are out of our league and perhaps misses the point about Jesus.
Firstly, it is not being political as in joining a political party. And this is definitely a welcoming option to those of us suffering under the guilt of not supporting this or that party (more esp. since most of our politically-savvy friends are rallying under the Oppositions, whether in Malaysia or in USA). Rather it is the awareness that politics is inevitable in our living together as a community (be it the state, or the workplace or in our church); it is the program that powered our activities, the operating machinery, if I may say. And such awareness should lead to participation in this machinery not least as politicians and policy makers, but for the rest of us mere mortals, as responsible members of the community, exercising both our duties and our rights within this community through the political machinery.
Secondly, Jesus' ministry agenda, in line with scriptural injunction of being the true humanity of god and for god, always include the high ideal about a human being. And this is where perhaps we catch a glimpse of what sort of candidates or political manifesto he would be likelier to endorse. Jesus and Scripture concerned themselves with the dignity of man as the acme of god's creation. Of course the ultimate rescue of this dignity is the renewed, or re-polished if you like, image of god in humanity through the identification with Jesus, the true Man. But the true Man and the true humanity called by god did not set his agenda on the spiritual (this word has come to mean “disembodied” which I will perhaps argue against in future writings) things.
The agenda of Jesus was on the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized, the enslaved, the sick, the suffering people whose suffering is the mark of the evil which marred god's image in humanity. The reversal of their fortune is precisely what the redemption is all about. To concern ourselves with the saving of souls (whatever that means again) through the verbal preaching of the gospel (another overused and probably misunderstood term) is great, but making that our sole agenda misses the point about the redemption. God is not only concerned about that “white-ish, immaterial thing 'inside' our body” called the “soul”, his plan is not to make us white robbed winged angels hopping from one white cloud to another. Redemption, we can hardly say enough, is the restoration of true humanity. And that means the reversal of the fortune of the suffering mass. True, we cannot remove all the evils and suffering totally now, just as we cannot be totally holy unto god in this life, but the redeemed humanity is called to live out the world of tomorrow in today's earth. We are to proclaim the New Jerusalem, the fully restored Creation, where there will be no more sickness and tears where darkness will give way to perpectual light, where the whole world will finally become god's temple (therefore “Jerusalem”). We are to proclaim this future through our words and acts within the current world, not only to leave hints of the new world, but as part of the restoration project.
Thirdly, in the light of the redemption program and scriptural view of Creation, not least the glorious view of humanity and human dignity, we as the people of god must not abdicate and hand over the running of this world to the powers of evil. Of course, some of us will have already exhausted our strength doing small acts of charity, setting up food centres, homes for the poor, but the Church must not shrink from taking up the social responsibility to eradicate and eliminate the cause of hunger and poverty through policy making and good governance. These may often involvement in the politics of the country and brushing shoulders with partisan politics. The Church, christians, must have a word to the political leaders of this country, the word which speaks of god's redemption program and god's final restoration of His good earth. It will be most unfortunate for the great breadth and width and depth of the gospel if we are voiceless and cannot respond towards the evil that is running the show.
Fourthly, when we realized that god's program is larger than our popular (and very limited) understanding of “religion” - an understanding which regretfully made some of our friends commented that, 'I am not huge on religion' - we begin to realized that to be human beings and to take part alongside god in his redemption project, knowledge development is crucial. It made sense that the people of god from the days of the OT and throughout church history were forefront in deep and profound thinking exercise. It made sense that the basis of our modern civilizations were for most influenced by ideas of those who thought not least within a judeo-christian worldview - they themselves may not be “christians” in our evangelical sense.
To be a Christian thinker (forgive that label because I know to many of my enlightened friend there is no such thing as a “Christian” thinker, but rather, thinking and natural truth is universal - but I meant simply to say, thinkers of the Christian faith) is not merely to engage in apologetics of religion, vital as it is. I always imagined it is hermeneutics which we really need in seminary, not apologetics, but I won't argue that here. We are called to stand in all areas of life, science, musics, arts, philosophy, law, economics, thinking and working out ideas for human development. One may suspect that I am going down into humanism. But I propose that we review humanism in light of the Scripture, not rejecting the wheats along with the schaff. To be christlike is to be more human, not to be little buddhas or little gods. This is the reason why the gospels which records the life of Jesus Christ more often than not showed us the human side of Jesus. There is no example in the Scripture how we can be “god-like”. But there are ample of examples and teachings not least from Jesus himself how to be the true humanity desired by god. And the Church is called to contribute towards the development of this god-desired humanism. We must continue therefore to ask questions in the public arena and to find the answers towards improving the quality of life here on earth. This of course include making better softwares, faster computers, cheaper and more effective medicine, more sustainable economic models, eco-friendly infrastructures, people-driven business management and the list goes on.
And we Christians are called to see all these through our religious eyes, to expand our understanding of religion from saving souls to shangrila (titanic theology) to participating in the project to proclaim “thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven”. Let us not box our great god in the little shrine of our heart. The goal of god is to let his glory fills the earth as the water fill the sea. His desire is not the little building in Jerusalem, but that the whole world will finally be his Temple. We must therefore think and think and think and think now, how to work out this magnificient construction project as little stones building on a firm foundation.
Don't get me wrong, it goes without saying how much we need the power of god's Holy Spirit as we take part in his redemption project. There is no other way. There is a battle alright, and our battles are ultimately not against flesh and blood, not against our non Christian neighbours, not against Muslim (or Christian or Hindu) terrorists, not against corrupted politicians, but against the powers and principalities in the air, the structure of evil whose agenda is to destroy god's rule by de-valuing the dignity of humanity as the prime of god's Creation and the subject of god's kingdom.
There is great and unspeakable power at work against the work of the Church, but the assurance stands, he who is in us is greater, much much greater than the evils in the world. We must only accomplish our respective roles in god's project in the power of the Holy Spirit by prayers and hand-in-hand in fellowship with one another. But after all said, the question remains for the Malaysian Church, will we move now? Or do we still need another 50 years of nationhood and another bouts of forums to begin thinking?
Other blog entries about the event:
Johnny Ong - glad to meet him, great guy and cool Malaysian boing-boing blog he kept.
Sivin Kit - of course, : ) check out the video clips of the event, and transcript of the wonderful “Our Father” poem Dr. Beth, one of the commentators, recited.
Pearlie? - not sure who, but this fellow's got some stuff to say about the event, ending with this open thought: If not “political”, then what? I can't think of any really. “Was Jesus political?” does after all make you do a double-take and think, and when we start thinking, there is a hope that we start realising and doing.
Peter Rowan's reinforcing msg from Chris Wrights “The Mission Of God” seems timely too…
Great to have met you, finally! I think you have captured the essense of the “political” Jesus much better that what I presented on sat. Good job. Call me up when you are in Klang Valley, or, better still, in Seremban!
Kar Yong
boing boing about wat????? do click the advertisement right at the top of my blog, i'll boing boing bcuz i'm getting paid rm1.75 per click
Thanks for the flattering comment~ heheheh..Jorin and I will be going down to KL next Friday - 28 Sept. I think we'll take a train down to seremban… mail me your hp number, it would be great to tour STM or attend your class if you have any.
scheekeong{at} gmail