Jesus mocked the rich
13 June 12
esus
made his reputation as a Jewish economist, one with very strong
opinions about wealth and property, about the relationship between the
rich and the poor.
He also was intensely religious and loved nothing more
than debating the meaning of the law of God or Torah. For instance, he
is presented in the Gospel of Luke as being a precocious 12-year-old boy
absorbed in debating religious leaders about the meaning of Torah.
From early childhood he must have understood that he
was seen as a brash, pushy kid from a small town in Northern Palestine,
an area without religious leadership and an unemployment rate well over
50 percent.
Whether by divine wisdom or genius insight, Jesus
figured out what wealthy and powerful people were doing to the poor,
illiterate people with whom he lived. Primarily through his teaching and
storytelling, he became identified as a populist teacher with a good
deal of influence. He was good news to the poor and bad news for those
who clung to their riches.
Clearly Jesus was fascinated by Torah and its
application to everyday life. Luke’s gospel reports that a lettered
leader of the religious community approached Jesus and asked how to
attain eternal life. Jesus responded with two questions of his own: What
does Torah say? How do you read it? The first question is easy to
answer. The second question is the real test.
Jesus knew what Torah said, and he had strong opinions
about how Torah should be read. Jesus had come to his own understanding
of the property codes in the book of Leviticus. These codes are
credited to Moses, but more probably come from the massive rewrite of
Israelite traditions during the years of Babylonian exile in the sixth
century BCE.
Torah is very straightforward. Land and ultimately all
wealth belong to God, who places property in the control of human
beings, not as owners but as stewards who must share it and return it to
God every 49 years for redistribution.
For Israelites, time was divided into blocks of seven
years. Land was not tilled in the seventh year. After a series of seven,
seven-year blocks of time, a Year of Jubilee was declared. During the
Year of Jubilee, all land was to be returned to the control of the
priests, who, in the name of God, were to make a new and fresh
distribution of all land.
In other words, the wealthy were supposed to surrender
their stewardship and the poorest of the poor were given land with the
encouragement to be productive for God and their fellow Israelites. All
slaves were set free and all debts were canceled.
At the time when the Israelite system of Sabbaths and a
Jubilee was codified, the economic and political structures may have
accommodated such radical economic and social changes in a one-year
observance of Jubilee.
Hundreds of years later, however, when Jesus lived and
taught, the combination of Roman rule, compliant fat-cats and religious
elites made the observance of Jubilee impossible. So, almost every
Israelite knew what Torah said, but the prescription had not been
followed in anyone’s memory. The poor had given up on the idea of a Year
of Jubilee, but apparently not Jesus.
According to Luke’s gospel, early in the public
ministry of Jesus, he went to a synagogue gathering and read a passage
from Isaiah:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. God has sent me to
bring good news to the poor. God has sent me to proclaim release of
captives and liberty to the oppressed. This is the acceptable year of
the Lord.”
Everyone in his hearing understood what he was saying.
Israelites had gone too long without a Year of Jubilee. It was time for
the wealthy to turn loose what they had accumulated. It was time for
the poor to receive their full stewardship.
But most poor people had taken on the understanding of
life that their oppressors presented and taught. It was true then; it
is still true today. So, the Year of Jubilee code was regarded as
impractical. However, the principles of the ownership of God, the end of
slavery, and economic justice still were possible.
The Israelites who held wealth and power knew what was
in Torah, but they were not interested in reading it with new eyes of
compassion and justice. (When Jesus finally took his message to
Jerusalem – riding in on a donkey to mock the rich who favored horses
and turning over the money tables at the Temple to protest religious
corruption – he was deemed an insurrectionist and was executed.)
Jesus died almost 2,000 years ago, but the laws of
Sabbaths and Jubilees are still on the books today. Torah still has a
powerful message, especially since the evils of greed and mindless
ownership are with us in ever growing magnitude. Resulting inequities
and injustices surround us.
We Americans live in a secular society, but Christians
have a responsibility to influence and to train the conscience of our
fellow citizens. Here in election season, Jesus appears on the scene and
asks the same two questions: “What does Torah say? How do you read it?”
The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer, Alaska. His email address is
hdbss@mtaonline.net.
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