Upside-Down: Power and Position

Winning in Last Place: Power and Position
Upside-Down
January 12/13, 2008
Digging Deeper (Questions are on the last page)
Upside-Down: Winning in Last Place
(Robert Ismon Brown)

Background Notes
Key Scripture Texts: Matthew 5:11-12, Matthew 5:38-48, Matthew 6:14, Matthew 5:7, Matthew 6:1-8, Matthew 20:25-28, Philippians 2:1-11.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy (Matthew 5:7).

11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you (Matthew 5:11-12).

38 "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' 39 But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. 43 "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:38-48).

Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. … For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you (Matthew 6:12, 14).

1 "Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 5 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him (Matthew 6:1-8).

Jesus called them together and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave-- 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:25-28).

1 If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:1-11).

Introduction
When is power important to you? Had we put that question to the audience who heard Jesus' words in the texts cited above, we would have no doubt gotten the simple response: "When you don't have it." That's a frequent answer from people who live under Roman occupation. The Jewish community in Israel, particularly those in Galilee and Judea, knew little of self-determination. Their Roman overlords made sure of that. It was true that Herod the Great had found ways to accommodate the Jewish state to the Roman authority, but in the eyes of observant followers of Torah, too much had been surrendered in allowing for this uneasy peace with the pagans. Herod's efforts to refurbish the Temple put Israel on the map for architectural beauty, but it did little to lessen the humiliation of living under someone else's king. As we noted in our previous study, most of the population in Israel were peasant farmers, and the rest served at the pleasure of the rich elite. It was also troubling for those responsible for the worship of the Temple that the High Priest could not wear his sacred vestments except with the leave of Rome's governor.

Examining Power in the World of Jesus
For all of his unorthodoxy, Herod still laid claim to a title of honor: "King of the Jews". That may have been some solace to Jewish people longing for their former glory days, when real kings sat on the throne. Yet, everybody knew that this king did not descend from David, and, at the end of the day, many still yearned for the promised Messiah whose kingdom would be better than Herod's. He was, after all, ambitious and ruthless, refusing competitors any ground, and occasionally spread the wealth around, such as giving free corn during famines, and even cutting the tax burden during difficult economic times. But he could not hide his propensity to sidle up to the Romans, subsidizing pagan temples right along with the one in Jerusalem. Nor did he particularly embrace Jewish worship and ritual, though he put up with it. On one occasion he fastened a golden Roman eagle above the eastern gate of Jerusalem, inciting retaliation from the faithful who tore it down. In return Herod, wielding his power with Rome's nod, burned the offenders alive. Yes, Herod understood the pagan use of power, and maintained his kingdom from 37 to 4 B.C.E.

But that would abruptly end in 4 B.C.E. with his death. Power was distributed to his three sons:
Herod Antipas ruled Galilee, and would use his power to one day execute John the Baptizer, while later giving approval to the death of Jesus.
Philip assumed authority over Israelite lands northeast of Galilee, and was an unremarkable ruler.
Archelaus ruled Judea, including Jerusalem.
Nothing was automatic about their appointments to these positions. The Roman emperor (Augustus) would need to ratify Herod's will. Yet, even before the official sanction could take place, Archelaus was already flexing political muscle, defrocking the high priest and putting his own man in power. The populace did not take this sitting down. Raising a mob they demanded lower taxes, the release of prisoners, and the return of the high priest. Soldiers seeking to enforce Archelaus' rule were killed by the riots. The offenders were promptly captured by Archelaus and three thousand were put to death He then sailed for Rome and, for what he hoped would be, his confirmation.

While he was gone, more outbursts erupted in Israel, requiring the Roman Syrian general to completely put down the uprisings which had plundered the town of Sepphoris in Galilee, seizing weapons from the armory. From these varied attacks rose "kings" who claimed to rule various parts of Israel. Rome could not allow this and crushed their efforts, killing thousands and burning Sepphoris to the ground. The scene of Jerusalem was also grim, with rebels attacking Roman soldiers from the walls of the Temple and seeking to destroy the Roman fortress. In retaliation, the Romans fired the Temple and stole from the treasury. When Rome rules, no one's treasure is secure.

Upon his return, Archelaus inherits a powder keg of revolutionary activity. During these early years of Archelaus' reign, Jesus grew up in Nazareth, not far from Sepphoris, the site of so much violence and bloodshed. Archelaus was not loved. Most people wanted him removed. Oddly, Augustus gave in to these demands, and, in 6 C.E. he was exiled. For a moment, the people rejoiced. But their jubilance was short-lived. In place of a client-ruler with nominal Jewish connections, the Emperor placed a procurator instead, often called a "governor". Rome had upped the power ante. The procurator ruled directly, responsible to the Emperor. No more political games with Herod's family in Judea: governor Pilate would see to that!

So what did the power of Rome look like in Judea? Pilate reported directly to Caesar and could discharged the army, the courts, and the finances at his own command. He oversaw five cohorts of 600 soldiers each, and placed them in garrisons around his province. In Fort Antonia, in Jerusalem, Pilate placed some 500 troops as permanent guardians of the Temple area. For himself, Pilate made his home in Caesarea, a comfortable distance from Jerusalem on the Mediterranean Sea. During high holy days, the troop levels in Jerusalem were boosted, as thousands of pilgrims thronged the city.

Roman power also meant Roman taxes. The same year Pilate took charge, the Syrian procurator Quirinius executed a census for taxation, immediately triggering more riots. Loyal Jews challenged Rome's land-grab, arguing that Yahweh's land belonged to Him alone, and that the Emperor did not deserve his revered titles of soter and kurios (Savior and Lord). Roman money was defiled by the images it bore, and the rebels refused to trade in it. During some fifty years, including the time of Jesus' ministry, some thirty different resistance groups appeared, encompassing public protests, would-be prophets, would-be messiahs, and miscellaneous bandit groups. Politics, poverty and religious power struggles prompted these movements. And the war cry was the same: "No Lord but God". Power was met with power, blood was shed, professing Messiahs were seized and crucified, and those who took up the sword perished by the sword. If this was the kingdom of God come to earth, it didn't look anything like what the prophets foretold. Eleven bandit groups emerged before the fatal war of 66-70 C.E. Freedom fighters, terrorists, social bandits, local peasants--these became uncomfortable allies in the call for independence from Rome and from its Jewish lackeys like the Herods. Even at the time of Jesus' own trial, the lestes ("brigand"), Barabbas, had been arrested and was only released because the Temple authorities had infiltrated the mob calling for Jesus' crucifixion.

By the time Jesus inaugurated his public ministry in the late 20's C.E., Israel seethed with revolution, with each of several groups advocating for this or that means of bringing justice back to God's chosen people. In each instance, the effective use of power played a key role. Those were times of the power brokers. Each had an agenda to advance, and each sought the means of power to accomplish it. Unfortunately, those who should have wielded legitimate power, the high priests, were under the thumb of Pilate. They could not wear their vestments unless he said so, and that was only on high holy days. To add insult to injury, Rome required a daily sacrifice in the Temple on behalf of the Emperor--this in lieu of having to worship the Emperor in some other unacceptable fashion, which would have been idolatry!

Jesus knew about power and its pitfalls. During his childhood, he had lived in the shadow of revolutionary activity not far from Nazareth. Roman soldiers frequented his hometown when they were on leave. Rome was all around him. He also witnessed the various efforts to defeat Rome using the weapons of war to do so. He knew that violence begets violence. His life was not peaceful. And so when cousin John was immersing would-be citizens of a new kingdom in the Jordan River, Jesus shows up to be baptized himself, fulfilling, in his own words, "all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15). From that moment, the Jesus movement was born--a movement destined to first of all renew Israel under a new definition of "power", and then to spread this message, this "good news" to the ends of the earth. No sooner did the Jordan water drip from his body than Jesus made his way into the wilderness to encounter power in its darkest and most insidious forms. He went to meet the Devil himself. While the tempter offered him things like bread and glory, he at last took Jesus up to a high mountain and, in Matthew's words, "…showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 'All this I will give you,' he said, 'if you will bow down and worship me.' 10 Jesus said to him, 'Away from me, Satan! For it is written: "Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only."' 11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him" (Matthew 4:8-11).

The Devil sought to dazzle Jesus with visions of power and glory, the kind found in "the world", the kosmos, the political state organized by human beings and which obeyed the laws of power. But Jesus said "No", rejecting raw power as the true instrument for governance. Jesus knew the creed of political power and its approval of force, violence, and murder. From that moment on, Jesus' mission would involve the revelation of a new power, a new way of ruling. Rejecting the old power plays, he chose to be king in such a radically different way, so that at his crucifixion, Pilate, in an upside-down gesture, places this title over his cross: "King of the Jews".

And so, when Jesus ascends the Mount and proclaims his "Sermon" (Matthew 5-7), he goes somewhere that symbolizes God's power, not man's. Harkening back to Exodus 20-24, when Moses met Yahweh on Sinai, Jesus announces the arrival of a kingdom that has none of the trappings of pagan power at all. In place of it, he teaches mercy, meekness, purity of heart, and peacemaking. By climbing the Mount, Jesus illustrates the power of God and His presence. His words reject violent force. One thing became clear: the leaders in his kingdom must become as little children and ministering servants. He would become a revolutionary without using the customary means of power to accomplish his purposes. Speaking in ways entirely upside-down, he rejected all forms of coercion, and in its place, urged forgiveness and love of enemies, even to Roman soldiers! Yet he was no weak-kneed, cowardly king. Faced with the misguided interpretations of Torah by the ruling elite, Jesus rejected their Sabbath laws, greed, ostracism of "sinners", and their false understanding of ritual purity. He equally rejected the accommodations made by the left-wing Pharisees and the Sadducees, along with the hirelings of Herod's family. He once called Herod Antipas, "that old fox" (Luke 13:32). In so doing he rattled the status quo for traditionalists and revolutionaries alike. So, yes, one might mistake him for a revolutionary, but his uprising was upside-down. Compassion replaced weapons. And in the hands of Jesus, Torah took one a whole new meaning, becoming the true creed for his upside-down kingdom.

However, on the day of Jesus' temptation by the Devil, he also found himself on the pinnacle of the Temple. Next to Roman power, this building held significant power of its own. Mystery surrounded it and filled it. If Israel sought forgiveness, it was here. The Devil wanted Jesus to make a scene in the Temple and thus preempt the power it represented for Israel. The Temple was a huge structure, after all, 100 feet by 35 feet, rising 60 feet into the air. Thirty-five acres were filled by its various structures. Built of marble and in places overlaid with gold, it shown brilliantly at noon-day. Even Jesus' disciples marveled at the place (Mark 13:1). Long after Herod the Great began its reconstruction, work on the Temple continued until 62 C.E., scarcely eight years before its destruction at the hands of the Romans.

Who managed this place of "religious power"? Day-to-day operations were handled by some 18,000 priests (and Levites). But the elite High Priests oversaw the whole complex. Much was at stake, not only for the souls of the faithful, but for the wealth of Israel, since the treasury was kept here. The power of its money reached into the lives of peasant farmers who worked the lands owned by it. The Temple housed the ritual for Israel's forgiveness. Blood regularly flowed from its great altar, caught in ductwork designed to manage its flow away from the Temple.

At the head of this religious operation was the High Priest who, spiritually, ruled nation and religion. His power also extended to the Sanhedrin, the supreme council holding the final say on internal matters of the Jewish nation. Once Pilate became governor, the role of the High Priest was enhanced, now that no other Jewish ruler held power in Jerusalem. Between 6 and 67 C.E. sixteen High Priests came from the elite families of Jerusalem. Beneath the High Priest were other officials:
Captain of the temple who handled the temple staff.
24 priests who oversaw 24 groups of ordinary priests, comprising some 7,000 men.\
156 manager priests who took care of the work of the daily priests.
Administrative affairs were handled by 7 permanent "overseers".
Three treasurers took care of the Temple treasury, collecting taxes, tithes, purchasing the animals for sacrifices, and retailing these animals to the pilgrims who came to worship during the great festivals.
Ordinary priests, like Zechariah, the father of John the Baptizer (see Luke 1:5, and our previous Notes).
Taking up the rear were 10,000 Levites who did the dirty work: guarding the Temple, and cleaning up garbage and refuse.
Outside the ritual duties, were others who served as scribes, clerks, accountants, and otherwise performing the clerical roles required for Temple efficiency. Not the least were those who copied the Torah and other sacred texts.
Such was the power and position of the Temple.

Then there were the various political parties who competed for power among the people. Some were intricately connected to the Temple establishment. Others were inherently opposed to it, resisting it openly or simply withdrawing. The two power brokers were the Sadducees, who largely ran the Temple and the Sanhedrin, and the Pharisees, who had a significant hand in the synagogue and the schools who studied Torah. Of these, the Sanhedrin took a "live and let leave" approach to Rome, owing in large degree, to the fact that their power derived from Roman permissions and appointments. The Pharisees were a divided lot. Some, the more conservative, argued for strict purity laws and pressured Israelites into strict Torah observance in such matters as tithe, Sabbath, and relationships to the Gentiles. On the left, other Pharisees were more open to the work of God in their own time, and were less committed on the role of Rome in their national life. "If God wills" might well have been their motto.

Counter to these establishment power brokers, were the separatists and the zealots, known as Essenes and Zealots respectively. The Essenes said "No!" to the Temple system, believing it had become corrupted by pagan contacts, vis-à-vis, Rome. In the deserts, south of the Dead Sea, they formed communal enclaves, copying the Scriptures, commenting on them, and waiting for the day when Yahweh would send His Teacher of Righteousness and Messiah from both Judah and Levi. Then, in a great battle, they would join the forces of righteousness and herald the arrival of Yahweh's rightful kingdom. Until then, they lived together, prayed, studied, and hoped--in the desert. But the activists were found among the Zealots. Their movement had its roots in right-wing Pharisaism, particularly with men like Judas the Galilean, who led a revolt in 6 C.E. in response to Quirninius' census. The Romans met such revolts with equal power, crucifying the perpetrators. Those who hung alongside Jesus on the cross, as well as Barabas, where examples of such freedom fighters.

But the idea of Messiah and the Messianic expectation lay in the background of these movements. Even the New Testament bears early witness to the idea that one day Yahweh would once more bring his King to David's throne, a Savior who would deliver Israel from her enemies and grant mercy to sinners in her midst. And so, perched as he was on the Temple pinnacle, Jesus is asked by the Devil to jump down, perhaps in a Messianic display of glorious arrival to Jerusalem, sending a thrill through the hearts of Israelites who would finally welcome his coming. And to this invitation Jesus says "No!" He would come to Israel only in the way consistent with the form of the kingdom His Father was now giving to him. And so the Devil leaves him "for a time", but the struggles over power and how it should be used will follow Jesus until he breathes his last on the cross, that horrific symbol of Rome's fatal power.

In the meantime, Jesus would launch his ministry, and in his words and deeds, would use power in a very different fashion than his contemporaries.
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Sermon on the Mount: Upside-Down Power
When Jesus announced the coming of the kingdom of God, he supported that claim with fresh new interpretations of Israel's Torah. From the beginning of Yahweh's relationship with His people, He communicated his words through a covenant document. Jesus did the same, renewing the covenant through the words found in the so-called "Sermon on the Mount". Through it old truth received new meaning for a new generation of Israelites. Central to this reinterpretation of Torah was the understanding of "power" and how it was to be used by God's restored community. And such teaching didn't come too soon in light of the "power structures" found in Rome and Jerusalem. This new teaching would overturn the old order of thinking about power. None of the political or religious solutions offered by the various groups within Judaism were adequate to implement the kingdom program Jesus offered to his people. Our study will examine the Scriptures chosen for this weekend, and uncover this new thinking. A number of key affirmations about power rise from this material. These will comprise the greater part of our study.

1. The blessings of God are greater than status above others.
They are called the "beatitudes" for a reason! Derived from the Latin, beatitudo, beatus the root meaning of our English word is simply "happy". Further, the notion of beare, "to bless", points to an even more settled condition, in the future, of those who have been exalted by God in the afterlife. Medieval writers, such as Augustine and Aquinas, spoke of the "beatific vision of God", referring to heaven and the final state of those who are "blessed" by God. Matthew wrote in Greek, and his Gospel uses the Greek word makarios, which has an interesting history in the language.

Lutheran scholar Stoffregen notes that in ancient Greek times, makarios referred to the gods. "The blessed ones" were the gods. They had achieved a state of happiness and contentment in life that was beyond all cares, labors, and even death. The blessed ones were beings who lived in some other world away from the cares and problems and worries of ordinary people. To be blessed, you had to be a god. Makarios took on a second meaning. It referred to the "dead". The blessed ones were humans, who, through death, had reached the other world of the gods. They were now beyond the cares and problems and worries of earthly life. To be blessed, you had to be dead. Finally, in Greek usage, makarios came to refer to the elite, the upper crust of society, the wealthy people. It referred to people whose riches and power put them above the normal cares and problems and worries of the lesser folk -- the peons, who constantly struggle and worry and labor in life. To be blessed, you had to be very rich and powerful.

This reminds us of an old Jewish account: The old Rabbi said, "In olden days there were men who saw the face of God." "Why don't they any more?" a young student asked. "Because, nowadays no one stoops so low," he replied. Who wants to be a lowly person? Who wants to be stooped down? Most of us spend a good part of our lives trying to pull ourselves up. We want to walk tall in society. But, according to this rabbi, it is the lowly – those stooped low – who see the face of God. According to Jesus in the Beatitudes, it is the lowly – those stooped low – who are blessed by God. This is an upside-down interpretation of our word for blessed, makarios.

When this word, makarios was used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it took on another meaning. It referred to the results of right living or righteousness. If you lived right, you were blessed. Being blessed meant you received earthly, material things: a good wife, many children, abundant crops, riches, honor, wisdom, beauty, good health, etc. A blessed person had more things and better things than an ordinary person. To be blessed, you had to have big and beautiful things. In all of these meanings, the "blessed" ones lived in a higher plane than the rest of us. They were gods. They were humans who had gone to the world of the gods. They were the wealthy, upper crust. They were those with many possessions. The blessed were those people and beings who lived above the normal cares, problems, and worries of normal people.

Matthew, in his account of The Sermon uses this word in a totally different way. It is not the elite who are blessed. It is not the rich and powerful who are blessed. It is not the high and mighty who are blessed. It is not the people living in huge mansions or expensive penthouses who are blessed. Rather, Jesus pronounces God's blessings on the lowly: the poor, the hungry, the thirsty, the meek, the mourning. Throughout the history of this word, it had always been the other people who were considered blessed: the rich, the filled up, the powerful. Jesus turns it all upside-down. The elite in God's kingdom, the blessed ones in God's kingdom, are those who are at the bottom of the heap of humanity.

In his commentary on Matthew's Gospel, M. Eugene Boring makes these additional observations about the importance of this word:

Neither Jesus nor Matthew invented the beatitude form, which occurs in the Old Testament and in both Jewish and pagan literature. Jesus and early Christianity, including Matthew, reflect the use of beatitudes in the Jewish tradition, where they are found primarily in two settings: wisdom and prophecy. The setting gives the form a distinctive function and meaning: In the wisdom tradition, "makarisms" declare the blessing of those in fortunate circumstances, based on observation and experience (e.g., Sir 25:7-9), and declare their present reward and happiness. In the Prophets "makarisms" declare the present/future blessedness of those who are presently in dire circumstances, but who will be vindicated at the eschatological coming of God's kingdom (Isa 30:18; 32:20; Dan 12:12). In the New Testament outside the synoptics, most beatitudes are found in the prophetic book of Revelation (1:3; 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7, 14).

Put concisely, "being blessed" is the result of God's actions, His declarations, and His new arrival in the kingdom that Jesus is announcing. When the disciples of Jesus genuinely follow his commands, and live the life he calls them to imitate, they find themselves under the favor of God's blessing. By seizing a word already rich with meaning, Matthew's account of The Sermon turns upside-down every preconception about what it means to be "blessed". The kingdom which finally, at last, has broken into human history, brings with it the blessings that people thought would only come "at the end of days". No, Jesus seems to be saying, you don't need to wait for death to experience the state of blessedness. And this new way of being blessed does not entail being better than other people. Instead "the blessed" are the poor, the merciful, the meek, the persecuted, the hungry, the mournful, and the peacemakers. All of which looks quite different, quite upside-down, from the way the power-brokers of the Empire or Second Temple Judaism would have seen it.

The followers of Jesus don't need to deal into the power game. In fact, Jesus says, they should not grandstand their positions or try to remedy their deficits using the ordinary means of power. For example, when a person confronts another human being who is in desperate need, rather than gloating over one's own good fortune, and say, "I'm grateful I'm not like that person", he should exclaim, "But for the blessing of God, I might well be in that predicament", and then take the next step, and be merciful. No follower of Jesus should walk over the fallen lives of the unfortunate. No follower of Jesus should see the failure of another as a sign of divine disfavor. No follower of Jesus should take solace in the loss of another while consoling favor in themselves. Mercy lies at the center of the nine beatitudes in Matthew's Gospel. In numerous ways, it embodies the meaning of "blessedness" and how being blessed renounces the ordinary uses of power. Julia Upton comments:

Mercy is the compassionate care for others whereby one takes on the burden of another as one's own. It is an active quality of the virtue of charity, motivated by love. While mercy is often treated as a rather benign term, its power is conveyed more accurately by looking at it in a scriptural context.

"Mercy", and the Greek word, eleemon, is used as the translation of three Hebrew words, the most common one being hesed, which has a broad range of meaning. It is the covenant love between Abraham and Sarah (Genesis 20:13), David and Jonathan (1 Samuel 20:8), and Yahweh and His people (Exodus 20:6). It is mutual and enduring, implying action on both parts. Rahamim, the plural form of "womb," is also translated as "mercy." God's mercy is a nurturing womb, implying a physical response and demonstrating that mercy is felt in the center of one's body. This dimension of mercy also requires action. Also translated "mercy" is the Hebrew hen/hanan, meaning "grace" or "favor." Unlike the other terms, this is a free gift, with no mutuality either implied or expected. Not necessarily enduring, this quality is dependent solely on the giver and usually occurs between unequal persons. Taken together, these three roots give us an understanding of God's mercy in the Old Testament. It is best demonstrated by Hosea and Jeremiah, who use the analogy of marriage between Yahweh and Israel, showing us that mercy is the fruit of the covenant, forgiving as well as caring and nurturing.

Jesus is the most eloquent witness to mercy in the New Testament. He is never vague in his proclamation of God's mercy, but he reveals God's mercy in his everyday relations with people from all strata of society. Jesus is an active agent of God's mercy — confronting the crowd about to stone the woman taken in adultery, meeting the Samaritan woman at the well, weeping with the other mourners at the death of Lazarus, and ultimately taking up the cross laden with the sins of the world and being led to his death. According to Matthew 25:31-46, mercy will be the quality on which the Christian will ultimately be judged. This "upside-down" quality of mercy requires the follower of Jesus to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, care for the sick, visit those imprisoned, and bury the dead. The spiritual works of mercy include admonishing sinners, instructing the ignorant, counseling the doubtful, comforting the sorrowful, bearing wrongs patiently, forgiving injuries, and praying for others. These build on the biblical foundation that one must "do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8).

Mercy grows in us as a result of our personal experience with the merciful God. It is an important element toward making an effective witness that we share a relationship with Him. Notice these truths from the Psalms:
"The righteous shows mercy and gives" (37:21).
"All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth, to such as keep His covenant and His testimonies" (25:10).
"For You, LORD, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.
"But You, O LORD, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth" (86:5, 15).

John W. Ritenbaugh remarks that "Mercy is not a quality we expect to see much these days. Instead, our eyes, ears and emotions are assaulted daily, even hourly in the case of radio and TV news items, by violence, injustice, willful stubbornness, intransigence, bigotry, scams, prejudice and intolerance. Acts of mercy are so rare that, when they do occur, they make headline news, replete with pictures, in newspapers and magazines and on television. This is not to say that mercy is not admired. It indeed is, which accounts for it making headlines when the media hear of it happening. Though people admire the merciful and wish they were more like them, they rarely take the opportunity to express mercy when such a chance arises".

Perhaps because the Bible is so readily available in the Western world, our culture admires mercy. Ancient Rome did not share our admiration. Romans spoke of four cardinal virtues: wisdom, justice, temperance and courage—but not mercy. The Interpreter's Bible reminds us that the Romans despised pity! The Greeks held similar views, thinking that mercy indicated weakness rather than strength. Aristotle wrote that pity was a troublesome emotion. The Pharisees, harsh in their self-righteous judgments of others, showed little mercy. Jesus saying of them in Matthew 23:23, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the other undone." This difference makes apparent how far apart God and men are on the value we should place upon specific qualities of character.

We need to remind ourselves from time to time that the Beatitudes represent signs of those who are truly Christ's disciples. They help identify those upon whom God's blessings rest to aid them in living joyfully. From another angle, they describe the nature of true happiness.

How much different they are from what the secular mind, driven by appearance, strives to use to achieve happiness! The secular mind desires to possess things, power and social standing because it thinks happiness resides in them. God reveals that the ultimate sense of human well-being comes from possessing and cultivating spiritual qualities that derive from a relationship with Him. These are the elusive characteristics that sinful mankind is looking for and cannot find.

One final caution. We must not be misled into believing that, because Jesus says that the merciful will obtain mercy, this somehow proves salvation by works. Nothing anywhere in the Bible supports this conclusion. Jesus does not describe the foundation of a sinner's hope of receiving God's mercy, but traces the spiritual features of His people.

2. The forgiveness of God is greater than the settling of scores.
An Episcopalian writer, Gale D. Webb, wrote in The Night and Nothing:

The only way to conquer evil is to let it be smothered within a willing, living, human being. When it is absorbed there, like blood in a sponge or a spear thrown into one's heart, it loses its power and goes no further.

M. Scott Peck makes the same point in his conclusion to People of the Lie:

A willing sacrifice is required...He or she must sacrificially absorb the evil...There is a mysterious alchemy whereby the victim becomes the victor...I do not know how this occurs. But I know that it does...Whenever this happens there is a slight shift in the balance of power in the world.

Resentment for wrongs suffered can run deep. Some human beings have photographic memories when it comes to ways people have offended them. They somehow cannot let go, but nurse the hurts of past misdeeds done against them. In a sense, this is also a form of power brokering. If I can keep alive the injury you did to me, it becomes a weapon against you whenever I feel the need to put you down. Nothing you can ever say to me will be accepted "because of what you did to me". My superiority to you lies precisely in your sins against me. You are a sinner, and I intend to keep you that way. Herein lies the difference between kingdom thinking and the secular mind. Those who deal in power always want to keep a few skeletons in the closets of their opponents, particularly when "pay-back" time arrives. "You owe me, big-time", we are inclined to say. All of this sounds devious and mean-spirited, but realistically it belongs to the life-style of power. Jesus disagreed, and in place of score-settling and account-keeping, he thrust the unlikely virtue of forgiveness. For him, nothing disarms the wrongdoer more than extending the possibility of forgiveness. What, then, is the kingdom teaching of Jesus on this essential subject?

The Scriptures understand "forgiveness", not as a rule or spiritual duty, but as a form by which the people of God embody their mission to live as a people who are reconciled to God. Since the Church's very existence is formed by God's forgiveness it operates as a people of forgiveness, forgiven and forgiving, inextricably tied to peacemaking and justice. Philip D. Kenneson, in his book Life On The Vine, "God's intent was not that this one divine act of forgiveness in Jesus Christ would itself magically transform the creation into God's intended paradise. Rather, this supreme act of forgiveness in Christ is the very large rock dropped into the middle of a pond. .. If I refuse such forgiveness for others in the name of justice, is it possible that my view of justice falls short of God's view, where justice, shalom, wholeness and salvation are not opposing goals, but different names for God's singular desire?"

When Christian forgiveness is discussed, it is primarily within the context of God forgiving man. In his book Balancing the Scales of Justice with Forgiveness and Repentance, Randall J. Cecrle makes the point that both forgiveness and repentance focus on the satisfaction of justice, each one side of the two-sided scales that addresses the human need to have justice satisfied. He writes that the means for humans to forgive other humans is the same means as God’s forgiveness of mankind, the substitutionary death of Jesus. When God through the Apostle Paul said “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” (Colossian 3:13), he was giving clear instructions on how to forgive. The author goes on to say “Forgive as God forgave you. Forgive in the same way, using the same means and power that God used to forgive you and me. And God forgave you and me how? He forgave by accepting the blood of Jesus (death at the hands of the executioner) as the substitutionary satisfaction of His justice. To forgive those who have caused us harm, have injured us, caused us loss, we are likewise to: Accept Jesus’ Death as the Satisfaction of Justice!”

Here are some key texts which call for a life of forgiveness:
"Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" (Matthew 6:12).
"Peter came to Jesus and asked, 'Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?' Jesus answered, 'I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times (or seventy times seven)'" (Matthew 18:21-22).
From Jesus' parable of the unforgiving servant, "In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart" (Matthew 18:34-35).
"And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins" (Mark 11:25).
From Jesus on the cross, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).
"Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you" (Ephesians 4:32).

Understanding the Hebrew and Greek words for forgiveness clarifies these passages. Our New Testament uses the word aphesis or aphiemi to communicate the ideas of: "letting go, release; of persons, dismissal; quittance from murder; discharge from a bond; exemption from attendance, leave of absence; exemption from service; remission of a debt; forgiveness; relaxation, exhaustion; divorce; starting of horses in a race; hence, starting-post itself; metaphorically, the first start, beginning of anything; discharge, emission; discharge, release of an engine; release; hence, in concrete sense, conduit, sluice" (Liddell and Scott, Lexicon).

Three Hebrew words in the Old Testament translate as "forgive" in English.
1. "Look upon my affliction and forgive all my sins" (Psalm 25 :18). The word "forgive" in this passage is the Hebrew word, nasa or nasah. This word means "to lift or bare". Nasah is used for undertaking the responsibilities for the sins of others by substitution or representation. In this passage, David is asking God to lift the responsibility for his sins from him. He is asking God to forgive the sins that are causing his affliction and pain.
2. Then there is the Hebrew word sallah, which means "placable or ready to forgive". In Psalm 86:5, we find this word used: "For you, Lord, are good and ready to forgive; and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon you." That is, Yahweh is placable and ready to forgive.
3. Finally we have salah which means "to forgive, forgiven, pardon or spare". Salah is found in Jeremiah 31:34, "And they shall no longer teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." The word salach is reserved especially to mark the pardon extended to the sinner by God. It is never used to denote that inferior kind and measure of forgiveness that is exercised by one man toward another. It is the divine restoration of an offender into favor, whether through his own repentance or the intercession of another. God is always the subject of forgiveness.

For human beings, forgiveness means "letting go" of wrongs sustained from others. It means the willingness to have those wrongs made right. Although an injustice may require restitution, yet the heart of a forgiving person shows a readiness to, in the end, make things right. Emotionally, we may not be able to settle our anger or console our sorrow over wrongs done to us. Practically, we may even believe that it is unwise to merely overlook what has happened to us at the hands of another person. Realistically, we must not avoid dealing with the serious issues of such an injustice. But--and this is a huge caveat--we must be willing to have a process put into play which will eventually lead to reconciliation and peace with others. Even Jesus, in his words from the cross, appealed to his Father when he extended forgiveness to his executioners: "Father, forgive…" Jesus let go of personal retribution and handed over the remediation for the wrongs done to him to God. If our Lord did this, how can we do less?

Once more, we see how forgiveness involves foregoing the application of "power" to resolve a breach between ourselves and others. Tempting though it might be to seek revenge, we forgive by letting go of the means of power to coerce a resolution. Within a society which refuses to "let go" of any scandal or moral indiscretion, such "letting go", seems upside-down. It certainly seemed that way in Jesus' day.

3. The love of God is greater than the injustices of evil persons.
Within Second Temple Judaism, the kind Jesus knew, the concept of "love" was closely joined with the idea of being God's chosen people. Consider these sample Old Testament texts:
37 Because he loved your forefathers and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength, 38 to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today (Deuteronomy 4:37-38).
But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt (Deuteronomy 7:8).
Yet the LORD set his affection on your forefathers and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations, as it is today (Deuteronomy 10:15).
It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them (Psalm 44:3).
He chose our inheritance for us, the pride of Jacob, whom he loved (Psalm 47:4).
But he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved (Psalm 78:68).
The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness (Jeremiah 31:3).
When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son (Hosea 11:1).

Yahweh made it plain to Israel that He chose them, not because of their moral superiority or political power, but because He loved them: "The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples" (Deuteronomy 7:7). To be "the chosen people" was due entirely to the love of God, not to anything intrinsic. Early in its history Israel learned the "power" of God's love to embrace, to receive, and to transform human lives.

And so, when we hear the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:38-48, and his admonition to "love your enemies", this should not have been a great surprise. But it was. The people of Israel had many enemies, some wanting to destroy the national life of the chosen people. The Romans. The privileged elite. The tax collectors. The household of Herod. What's not to hate among all of these? In Donald Kraybill's words, "Is Jesus calling us to be sponges that absorb any insult or injury?" A bit of cultural background sheds light on Matthew 5:38-48, our next passage for consideration.

In Jesus' time masters who slapped the right cheek with the backside of the right hand intended to discipline or humiliate the servant. Moreover, the left hand also had a connotation: it was considered appropriate only for unclean work. If I struck you on the right cheek it meant contempt. Should I do this to an equal, not a servant, it could mean a fine. If I did it with the back of my hand, the fine increased a hundred-fold. But if I did all of these things to a servant, there was no recourse under the law. And so, when Jesus speaks of slapping the cheek, he addressing the problem of insults, not some bar room brawl--insults to persons of lower social status by someone of higher standing, with greater power. The possible scenarios could include: husbands and wives, masters and slaves, owners and renters.

What options would a "lesser" party have when insulted in this way? They could retaliate, leading to a merciless beating, or, they could submit, groveling at their superior's feet. Jesus offers a third option: the upside-down kingdom option, namely, to offer the other cheek and, in so doing, deprive the attacker of his power to shame the subordinate. The servant, in effect, was communicating a not-to-subtle message: "Hit me again. I won't let you shame me." We would call that nonviolent resistance. It gains its power, not from coercion, but from the public exposure of an evil act, putting the master at risk. No, the servant does not comply passively, but actually shows resistance: not from hate, but from love. The other examples Jesus uses underscore the same idea: walk the extra mile, offer a second piece of clothing, etc. These acts of nonviolent resistance do not automatically shame the aggressor, but instead, give him a chance to "repent". Luke 6:27-30 develops similar themes and provides an extended list of persons who might ill-use us:
Aggressor
Non-Kingdom response
Upside-Down Response
Enemies
Haters
Cursers
Abusers
Strikers
Beggars
Thieves
Kill
Hate
Curse
Exploit
Slug
Avoid
Prosecute
Love them
Do good to them
Bless them
Pray for them
Turn the other cheek
Give to meet needs
Do not request return

What does Jesus intend by so radical a turn-about of ordinary values? He wants love to become a transforming power in its own right, but not the sort of power that demands, forces or coerces its opponents. In place of those responses, love truly seeks to change the balance of power, not in favor of us or them, but in favor of the restored relationship. And, reminds Jesus, we are the children of the Father if we act this way. Why? Because God deals with human beings in just this way: he sends sun or rain on human beings irrespective of their moral record. Nature uses no moral metal detectors before offering its seasonal blessings. Perhaps the wicked farmer will one day turn to God because He has been faithful in yielding fruitful crops and preserving prosperous herds, even when the farmer least deserved it. In the same way, argues Jesus, we ought to imitate our Father by loving our enemies, knowing that our Father does nothing less for the whole world.

Oddly, traditional Judaism had muted this message. Jesus precedes his instructions with the words "You have heard that it was said…", an expression used six times in Matthew 5:21-43. Scholars refer to these six statements by Jesus as the "Antitheses" (see Robert Guelich, The Sermon on the Mount). In Jesus' time there were two powerful threads of authority which ran side-by-side: written tradition and oral tradition. The oral tradition equaled "what was said", and could be found in numerous teachings of the Rabbis who tried to interpret the other tradition found in Torah and the other writings of the Hebrew Bible. What Jesus challenges is the accepted understanding, found in oral tradition, of many sayings in the Old Testament. He overturns that interpretation with his own words, "But I tell you" (Greek: ego de lego humin, "I, to the contrary, tell you"). He makes no bones about telling his audience that the "official understanding" of these written texts is patently false, and that he, Jesus, offers a fresh, new oral tradition--a living one which commands human beings to live by a richer and fuller understanding of Scripture. This living "tradition" is the power of love to transform the enemy, the beggar, the thief, the unjust master, or the brutal spouse. Upside-down? Absolutely!

4. Hidden righteousness is greater than public piety.
Unless people see you doing religious things, how will they know you are a righteous person? That might well have characterized the thinking found in official circles in Jesus' time. The authorities of Second Temple Judaism, who hammered out ritual and creed for the people to follow, imagined that God would only accept righteousness if it dotted every "I" and crossed every "T". Embedded in that thinking was the depressive fear that Yahweh had turned away from Israel because of her national sins, and only a coordinated effort to orchestrate a new national religion, disciplined by a strict interpretation of Torah could bring Israel back from exile and into the favor of God. Thus, the devout were encouraged to pray publicly, make a hearty show of their charity to the poor, and do all of these things in precisely "the right way". It was not so much that the Pharisees were killjoys and didn't want people to enjoy their lives. They weren't, in the words of N.T. Wright, "official thought police" who made sure everybody toed the line. One could actually say that they truly believed much of what they taught, but in so doing, they betrayed a miserable view of what God was really like. What sort of deity is so blind that he cannot see our quiet, hidden deeds of love for others? What sort of deity is so deaf that he cannot hear our simple prayers, without shouting or repeating the words over and over again?

You may recall the story of Elijah (see 1 Kings 18:26-29) who held a contest with the prophets of the pagan god Baal. Elijah taunted them mercilessly when their god did not respond to their various rituals and incantations. "Shout louder!" he said. "Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is asleep and must be awakened" (18:27). Here's the irony in relationship to what Jesus has been teaching. The people of his day seem to view the true God, Yahweh, much the way pagans viewed Baal. And Jesus says as much when he chides his audience: "babbling like the pagans" (Matthew 6:7). The word "babble" is from the Greek battalogeo, a verb derived from the name of a king from Cyrene who was known for his "stammering", and so his name "Stammerer". Some scholars see it as onomatopoetic, that is, the sound of the word is like the sound of the praying. It may also have reference to pagan prayer formulas, much like our "abracadabra". Jesus lays stress on the "many words" (Greek: polulogia) used, as if the person praying believed that the more words they used gave greater power to their prayers.

Once again, Jesus challenges his audience to rethink their view of what God is like. Does He need to be impressed by the volume or the quantity of our prayers, our songs, or other religious forms? Do we imagine that He is so far away in His great universe, that only if we stir an uproar, He will cup his ears and listen to what we have to say? Repeatedly Jesus reminds us: that God is our Father who, although He is "in heaven" (Matthew 6:1), still "sees what is done in secret" (6:4); that God is our Father who, although is He "unseen" (6:6), yet he "knows what you need before you ask him" (6:8).

The power of religion does not lie in the complexity of its worship, but rather in the connection of its worshippers to God. The faith of Jesus involves no magical incantations or mystical charms. The Father of Jesus, who is also our Father, does not require coercion to attract his attention. If anything, the use of such methods insult the honor and assault the majesty of the one true God who desires a relationship with His children. God's favor cannot be "bought" with the currency of compulsive religious acts. Indeed, His favor is muted by such human efforts. God does not need to be impressed. And for the people of Jesus' day, that truth came with the force of revelation, since they had become so accustomed to coaxing God their way, but had lost sight of their covenant connection to Him. For Jesus, true piety sprang, not from works but from wonder; not from ritual but from relationship; not from magic but from mystery. Judaism had started to look like paganism, Jesus was telling them. The reliance on right words or approved gestures to attract the favor of God had an eerie animistic feel about it. Pagans broker the forces of nature to fulfill their will. Jesus challenged such use of power, and, in its place, called for a renewed faith in the Father who even then cared about his children and wanted the best for them. And all of this seemed quite upside-down at a time when most people imagined that God was very far away.

5. Service to others is greater than coercive authority.
"It's not what you know, but whom you know that matters." And the "whom" is normally someone in the place of authority, power or influence. The disciples of Jesus lived in a world where position counted, as we have noted in our introductory sections. To someone like Herod the Great, it mattered that he knew Caesar and could extract from him favorable policies toward Israel. To someone like Pilate, the Roman governor, it mattered that he kept the balance of power between High Priest, Emperor, and the various resistance groups in Israel. Economically, you were better off being a landowner than a land-leaser; a tax-collector, than a tax-payer. And so when Jesus preached the coming of the new kingdom, even his followers had some heady ideas about what that could mean for them. In the eyes of the general population, at least in Galilee, Jesus was enormously popular. His message offered hope, and it challenged the many forces which held them down. Although Jesus increasingly spoke of his coming death, they seemed to fixate on the kingdom scene, and where they might fit in.

Matthew 20:20-28 tells the story of a Jewish mother who wants the best for her sons. That's not so unusual, and the reader easily chuckles at her efforts to find a special place for "the sons of Zebedee". "Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom" (20:21). That was a perfectly comprehensible request in light of how other kings ordered their palaces. She wanted the same for her sons, and her boldness impresses us. Jesus does not scold her, but turns to the two men, who could just as easily asked for themselves (The Gospel of Mark's account, 10:35-45, says they did!), and poses the decisive question: "Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?" (20:22), to which they reply, "We can". Later in the Gospels, the writers will connect the "cup", dramatized in the Garden of Gethsemane, with suffering and death--in Jesus' case, on the cross. But then Jesus turns the tables. He accepts their answer, "Yes, you will drink my cup", that is, you will meet up with suffering and death. Yet, he declines their request on the grounds that only God the Father may grant such special places in the kingdom that is coming. Notice what Jesus does: he lets go of his own power and yields to his Father's will.

"Those places", says Jesus, are "prepared" by my Father. In a single stroke, Jesus sweeps away any presumptuous claim, even one he might endow on them. He then turns to the principle at work in what he tells them. Prompted by the irritation of the other disciples, Jesus engages in a special "huddle" with the Twelve. Matthew tells us that he "gathered them together" (Greek: proskaleo, "to summon", "to call", often used of official meetings). His action may have symbolic value. By gathering them together, he places them in peer relationship to each other, so that he can teach them about how power should be handled when they are together in community. After all, Jesus is forming a covenant community, drawn from the ranks of Israel, a renewed nation, citizens of the new kingdom now taking shape on earth. And what does he tell them about power and position?
1. Using a clever rhetorical method, Jesus invokes the name "Gentiles" and talks about their rulers. That would have gotten a rise out of any Jewish audience who belonged to the 90% peasant population! Just the mention of such persons would have elicited emotions of anger, contempt, and resistance. Nobody likes those Gentiles, especially the leaders of the occupation, governor Pilate, his cohorts, the military attaché, and Herod Antipas, Caesar's puppet.
2. Having successfully provoked such reactions, no doubt, Jesus skillfully proceeds to say, "And you don't want to be like those guys, do you?"
3. In making this rhetorical argument, Jesus uses the language of power:
a. Rulers: Greek, archontes, "ruler, commander, chief, captain, magistrate"
b. Lord it over: From the Greek, katakurieuo, "to gain dominion over", effectively describing the well-known power-plays employed by political figures jostling for positions within the Empire. Buried inside that verb is the word kurios, the word for "Lord".
c. High officials: Greek, megaloi, from the root megas which includes the meanings "big, great, vast, high, strong, mighty, greatness (as in, "the king rose to greatness"), violent, prevailing, important, esteemed".
d. Exercise authority over: From kataexousiazo, "to exercise lordship over". The word exousia is its root idea, meaning "power, authority to do a thing, abundance of means, an office."
At the conclusion of this detailed exhibition of terms for "power", Jesus says, in effect, "Forget all of that. It's not for you: ouch houtos estai en humin, "not thus shall it be among you". The stress falls on the "among you" which differs from the pagan "above you", "below you", "over you", or "under you". No, Jesus tells them, power lives "among you", even "in you", but not in some hierarchical layering of authority. "Peer power" replaces "pagan power".
4. Jesus presses the argument to its startling conclusion, by laying out the positive side of the point he is making.
a. Ironically, though Jesus eschews the pagan forms of power brokering, he acknowledges that his followers will "wish to be first", "wish to be great". What he seems to be avoiding is a herd mentality about the community, as if each follower looks like every other follower--the height of mediocrity! But to be "first", in an absolute sense, or to be "great", in the highest sense--these have no place among the followers of Jesus. He carefully includes the words "among you" each time he mentions "first" or "great". There is a "first-ness" among the community, and there is a "greatness" among the community as well. But the emphasis is placed on the "among you", not on some imagined hierarchy of power.
b. How then does the Christ follower experience such "greatness" and this special kind of "first" place? Jesus speaks of the master-slave role under new auspices. Earlier, in his Sermon, Jesus made references to servants being struck on the cheek, and how they should respond to their aggressors. Here, he brings the idea of servant (Greek: diakonos, "servant, minister, deacon") and slave (Greek: doulos, "born bondman, slave") into focus. We need to be cautious about the degree of distinction Jesus intends as Matthew uses these two different words. There is some poetry in the saying Jesus crafts:
He who would be great (Greek: megas)
A servant he must become [choice]
He who would be first (Greek: protos)
A slave he must be [continuing status]
What Jesus does here is begin with a change in attitude, with Matthew using the Greek verb "to become", implying an alteration of status or situation (Greek: ginesthai). To become a diakonos simply means to serve at the behest of another, whether as "man-in-waiting" or as "messenger". The emphasis is on why we live in community: that we might serve each other, and not, as the pagans so amply illustrate, dominate others. But then, the four line poem takes a shocking turn. This is no temporary change, but drills deeply into what we are: "bond slaves", that is, slaves from birth, although a new kind of birth. In this case, Matthew captures Jesus' meaning with the verb "to be", einai. We become servants, but we remain slaves. It is our true being, our true nature, as new-born children of the Father. And, unlike slaves of pagan masters, we gladly choose to be what we are. In the days of Jesus, a servant might well earn the right of emancipation, and his master could choose to grant it, allowing the servant to freely go his way. But if a deep relationship had grown up between master and servant, the servant might request that his ear be pierced by the master, and a ring inserted placing him in life-long servitude to the master--not out of obligation, but from love. In the same way, once the disciple of Jesus chooses to lay aside the ordinary means of power, and adopts a servant role toward his fellows, he takes the next, more dramatic step, of binding himself forever in covenant love to his brothers and sisters in the Christ community.

Letting Go of Power: Celebration of the Christ-Hymn
For our last comments, we turn from the Gospel accounts and look at a single passage in the letters of St. Paul. As is the case elsewhere in his writings, Paul provides thoughtful reflections on the meaning of Jesus for our own lives. While Paul is known for his theology (that is, his doctrinal studies), he rarely places it by itself, but draws from it serious implications for living in the Christ-community. The passage before us, in Philippians 2:1-11, is not exception. Coincidentally, we will be examining the entire book of Philippians as the next major topic, and so our comments here will be limited to the theme at hand, namely, how power is turned upside-down in the teaching of Jesus. Nevertheless, it's difficult to skimp on the details, since they form the heart of Paul's argument.

First, we can divide our text into two distinct parts, variously labeled, 1) Instruction to live a life of humility (Philippians 2:1-5); 2) Illustration of humility in the life of Jesus (2:6-11). In other words, Paul begins with a command, and then goes on to support it by drawing on the life of Jesus himself. He starts with ethics, and then argues from doctrine in support of the ethics. That being said, we don't want to leave the impression that ethics and doctrine relate to each other like some proof in geometry. For Paul, the heart of theology was Christ and the cross. And, at the same time, the heart of living the life of faith was also found in Christ and the cross. What I believe and what I do are both found in Christ's finished work on Calvary. It is in Philippians that we see this conviction spelled out clearly, when Paul writes:
10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:10-11).
Notice how the ideas of "power" are intimately tied to suffering and death. Resurrection power only appears after the fellowship of suffering and death. It is in this spirit that Paul pens the text we will briefly consider, namely, 2:1-11.

The Ethical Instruction
Paul presupposes the existence of the Christ-community in his opening words: "being united with Christ", "from his love", in "fellowship with the Spirit" (2:1). This three-fold affirmation about the unity of the church lies at the basis of what Paul is about to say. To be concise, Paul is saying, "We are united with Christ by his love and in the Spirit." Those are rock-solid facts. And so when Paul uses the conjunction "if", he really means "since", which is how the Greek word often operates in such contexts.

But, says Paul, if we are already in the body of Christ, certain things flow from this:
encouragement: paraklesis, "a calling alongside of", compare the word Jesus uses for the Spirit in John's Gospel: "the paraklete". The community brings us alongside each other.
comfort: paramuthion, "address, exhortation, assuagement, abatement". The community is where we hear helpful words from each other.
fellowship: koinonia, "commonness, communion, partnership". Through the community we share with each other.
tenderness and compassion: splagchna and oiktirmoi, words which communicate deep, inward feelings which get expressed through merciful and compassionate actions. Comes close to our notions of sympathy and empathy. The first of these Greek words actually refers to the visceral organs of the body, kidneys and liver!
Already, Paul is telling the Philippians, you have become a community marked by these qualities because of your connection to Christ and the Spirit. They are your birth-right, your legacy, and your fundamental identity.

However, Paul is simply building up to something more significant. After this string of "ifs" (which are really a series of hidden "sinces"), the apostle wants to press for his "then", which he describes as the fulfillment of his joy. Now for a Jewish thinker like Paul, "joy" has strong connections to the arrival of the Messianic kingdom. This is no ordinary, personal, subjective feeling of happiness. Paul is not saying, "Hey, folks, make me happy, humor me here…" The idea of "joy" goes deeper. Because God's kingdom has arrived in Jesus, the Messiah, joy has returned to Israel and is even now flowing out into the Gentile world. It is the "joy of salvation" (Psalm 51:12) after a long night of sin and despair. Paul uses the verb pleroo, "to fulfill, to fill full", to express his meaning. God's promises for the restored community have been fulfilled in the coming of the Messiah, Jesus. And along with this fulfillment, joy. Paul wants the community life of the Philippians to consistently demonstrate that this is actually true in their own lives.

So what more does Paul want from them? His burden is "unity", the genuine fruit of the Jewish notion of "shalom", "peace". "Wholeness" of mind, spirit, purpose, and love. In other words, "live together", "love together", "think together", and "be together". That's what community means. All of the wonderful endowments Christ has given them in 2:1 should enable them to live this way. Apparently unity was a sticking point with the Philippians, and Paul now gives them instructions for resolving this problem. How so?

Paul rejects a series of very pagan values, "power values", and in their place he installs Christ values.
selfish ambition: eritheian, that is, "one who electioneers for office, courting popular applause by trickery, courting distinction, desire to put oneself forward, partisan and factious spirit". A word which embodies the quintessential power broker, maneuvering himself into first place against a field of competitors.
vain conceit: kenodoxian, that is, "empty glory, vain self-estimation". The Greek term kenos means "empty". The person who proclaims his own glory, but the claim is empty and without merit. Paul strategically uses this word negatively in this section, so that later, he can juxtapose it to the attitude of Jesus in which he "emptied himself of the glory".
look to own interests: ta heauton ekastos skopountes, that is, "to observe, contemplate, look at, care for, have regard for" one's own private "things". The privacy of such a person's concerns isolates them from the collective concerns of the whole community.

Had there been "electioneering" at Philippi? We know from Philippians 4:2 that two members of the community had yet to resolve their differences. But we also hear of the conflict between those who follow Christ fully, and those who, in Paul's words, "have confidence in the flesh" (Philippians 3:3-4). This is a not-so-oblique reference to the "Judaizers", certain purported followers of the Jesus community who still relied on the mandates of Torah as interpreted by the rabbis. Paul calls them "enemies of the cross of Christ" (3:18). This lingering threat to the purity of the gospel took great pleasure in "boasting" of its religious achievements, seeking to outdo each other in the fulfillment of strict Torah interpretations. Paul himself, after offering his credentials in 3:4b-6, proceeds to "count as loss" all these false advantages, as he puts it, "for the sake of Christ". That said, Paul's remarks in chapter 2 follow closely with the "party-spirit" prevalent within the Judaism of his time. Since the Christ-community welcomes the new kingdom of God, all of these old credentials are so much "excrement" (3:8), but unfortunately they are the driving values which threaten the unity of the Jesus followers at Philippi.

The Christ Example: Power Laid Aside
The catalogue of selfish values which Paul lists seem impossible to overcome. What "power" is strong enough to displace them? Paul responds, "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus" (2:5). The Greek is a bit more terse: touto phroneite en humin ho kai en Christo Iesou. The word "attitude" in the NIV translation does not appear as a noun in this passage, but rather as a verb, from phroneo, having this range of meanings: "to have understanding, to feel, to think, to have an opinion of oneself, think of oneself, to direct one's mind to a thing, to seek or strive for, to seek one's interest or advantage, to be of one's party, to side with, to be intent on". The scholar has much food for thought in this list. I am inclined toward the meaning, "have this opinion", used in conjunction with "among yourselves" (translating en humin as a collective, since the word for "you" is in the plural). "Think about yourselves", "form an opinion of yourselves", in the same way Christ Jesus formed an opinion of himself in relationship to others.

Paul proceeds to explain what that opinion was by incorporating what has come to be known as the "Christ Hymn", 2:6-11. In stair-step fashion, Paul shows how Christ Jesus descended from his exalted position in relation to God his Father, and, at last, died as a common criminal. The whole passage is written like a poem, and most good translations typeset it in that fashion. It appears to have three stanzas, the first two developing the theme of Christ's "humiliation", while the last one reaches a crescendo with his final exaltation. Frankly, the dissecting of this hymn seems pointless, since it brims with beauty and overflows with majesty. It was no doubt sung in the early Christian communities, and this was likely the reason Paul gave it to the Philippian church. Perhaps Paul believed that what the believers required was not a lengthy dissertation, but a hymn which they would sing again and again. And each time they sang it, the implications of its message would sink in yet deeper. The music of the community often accomplishes what prosaic exposition cannot, namely, it saturates the heart and soul with the truth of its words through the grandeur of its melody and lyric.

Some simple observations rise from this part of the text:
1. Unmistakably, Christ was God in His essence, or, as Paul phrases it, he was God morphically (from the Greek: morphe). Lightfoot long maintained that this word expresses the essential and intrinsic nature of Christ--that he was truly God. And if Christ was truly God, he could not be anything greater than that! No need to strive or contest for a higher place. No need to seek a better role.
2. Confident of who he really is, Christ did not view "equality with God" something he had to "seize" or "rob" or "held fast" as if it would slip out of his hands. Why? Because Christ had the abiding confidence of his own divinity, grounded as it was, in the reality of his relationship to the Father. He knew he was God, and so there was no additional need to compete for that status.
3. "He emptied himself" (Greek: heauton ekenosen). Of course, he could not cease to be God, but he could choose to lay aside the prerogatives of God. That is, he chose to not avail himself of the privileges of Godhood, even though they were plainly his. Recall how Paul used the idea of "empty glory" when he was describing the pagan values his readers were to lay aside? In this passage, Christ empties himself of the glory.
4. "Form of a servant". Paul uses the same Greek word as he does when he speaks of "the form of God". Christ was just as truly a servant, as he was truly God. To be the one does not preclude the other. That is, of course, Paul's point. The assuming of the servant's role in no way compromises a Christian's identity, any more than Christ's taking the form of a servant meant that he ceased to be in essence, God.
5. Paul uses two different words to underscore Jesus' relationship to his humanity:
a. "in human likeness": Greek, homoiomati, meaning, "that which has been made after the likeness of something, a figure, image, likeness, representation, equality, identity". Anyone looking at him, interacting with him, and being around him would find a true human being in every respect. There was nothing "plastic" about Jesus becoming a human being. He was no demi-god or mythical half-god, half-man creature. As the creed expresses, "Fully God, and fully man".
b. "in human fashion": Greek, schemati, meaning, "habit, figure, bearing, discourse, actions, manner of life". So as to reinforce the first term, Paul invokes yet another word that validates the true humanity of Jesus, and certifies that Jesus became a human being beyond dispute.
6. Why is so much emphasis placed on demonstrating the true humanity of Jesus? Much of Paul's argument that Christians should set aside prideful ambition rests with the truth that Jesus did much more than that. Ironically, there were some teachers who would claim that Jesus did not really "come in the flesh" (see 1 John 4:1-3), that the idea of God becoming human was preposterous, and even blasphemous. Among the Jewish community it sounded like idolatry. Among the Greeks it seemed outright ridiculous that gods would freely choose to become human beings except as actors. To counter this resistance to the incarnation, Paul makes himself quite clear through the language he uses.
7. But isn’t the incarnation enough? No, Paul goes on to affirm, he humbled himself even further by accepting the shameful death of the cross. The "humiliation" of Christ (Greek: etapeinosen, from tapeinoo, meaning "to make low, bring low, to bring to humble condition, reduce to meaner circumstances, assign a lower rank or place, ranked below those who are honored, to cause to blush") made him lower than even his common humanity required. If leaving behind the majesty and privilege of being God was not enough, Jesus voluntarily submitted to the basest form of death in the Roman Empire, namely, that of a criminal. To the Roman mind, he was a enemy of the state, and threat to the Empire. To the Jewish mind, he was a failed Messiah, and an embarrassment to the nation of Israel. Yet, in spite of this lowered reputation, Jesus accepted his situation freely. Of course, Paul's point is simple. If the heart of our gospel is the incarnation and humiliation of Christ, God's Son, how can we, the Christ-community, live any differently? Must not we lay aside our claim to "glory"? In the service of others and for their sake, should we not be willing to humiliate ourselves even further? And does not the knowledge that we are "God's children" serve as sufficient confidence for us, allowing us to let go of power when the needs of others demands it?
8. Finally, Jesus does not remain in his humiliation, though he chooses it without coercion. "God highly exalted him" (2:9), Paul writes, and invests him as King with the "name above every name" (Greek: to onoma to huper pan onoma). Paul has in mind both the resurrection of Jesus and his enthronement at God's right hand. The language used in this passage echoes Old Testament texts such as Isaiah 45:23 in which all of creation will bow before Yahweh. In Paul's argument, the final vindication of Jesus comes when all bow before him and confess that he alone if kurios, "Lord". And for whose glory does all this happen? Eis doxa theos patros, "unto God the Father's glory". While it might seem reasonable that the glory is given to Jesus in his exaltation, Paul wants the argument to place God the Father in the role of glory-getter. It was Jesus who laid aside everything to redeem lost humanity and thereby bring glory to his Father. Likewise, Paul wants his readers to absorb the same truth: they are to lay down their lives in service for each other, so that their community life may bring glory to God.

And so Paul places the capstone on our discussion of power and position. For God to become human is an upside-down event. But for the people of God to imitate the servant-hood of Jesus requires no less an adjustment of values as they pertain to the use of power. The only power we truly embrace is that which God graces His people. We lay aside all other claims to personal prerogative or pursuit of self-serving position. And we do it, not because power is evil in itself, but because it is an offence to the glory of God. It is not what we do, but what He does through us that counts as true achievement. Paul offers no other argument for this radical change in values than that presented in the cross of Jesus. That remained his only glory, his only boast, and the source of his only accomplishments. Consistent with the teaching of Jesus in Matthew, Paul's account of the incarnation reinforces that instruction and places it squarely in the midst of real flesh and blood Christian communities. More than a slogan, it puts flesh on what could be a tired cliché: "What would Jesus do?" And it extends one octave higher: "What would Jesus have us do?"

Glory to God! Amen.
Digger Deeper: Upside-Down: Winning in Last Place
(Bob Brown)

To gain a deeper understanding of Upside-Down: Winning in Last Place, carefully read the selected passages below. To aid you in your study, we invite you to visit the website http://notes.chicagofirstnaz.org, or pick up a copy of the notes at the Connect desk, or from your ABF leader. Now consider the following questions, as you ask the Lord to teach you.

Special Note: The Background Notes are especially useful in working through some of these questions. You are encouraged to secure a copy as you begin.

1. Matthew 5-7 contains the "Sermon on the Mount". Read 5:1-12 and pick out groups of people for whom "power" is a significant problem. Why do you think Jesus calls them "blessed"? In what ways does Jesus turn their situation "upside-down"?
2. Jesus asks his followers to practice forgiveness. Read Matthew 6:12, 14. In what sense is offering forgiveness or withholding it a question of "power"? How does the refusal to forgive become a form of coercion?
3. When people practice their religion "publicly", what sorts of risks do they take? Consider Matthew 6:1-8 in your answer. Identify the different religious "acts" described by Jesus in this passage. How can each of them be a "chip" in the religious power game?
4. What do religious practices reveal about a person's view of God? How does Jesus try to correct that misunderstanding of God's true character?
5. In Matthew 20:25-28, Jesus refers to "Gentiles" as examples of the improper use of power. How might Jesus' audience react when he mentions "Gentiles"? What negative power strategies does Jesus identify in the lives of Gentile rulers?
6. According to Jesus, how should his followers differ in their relationship to power and position?
7. What role does Jesus see for himself in the "power game"?
8. Paul, in Philippians 2:1-11, provides additional insights on how Christians should relate to each other in community. Outline this passage, breaking it into at least two main sections.
a. What is the main theme of the first section?
b. Why does Paul write the second section?
9. Paul, in the first section, lists both positive and negative values which apply directly to the use of power in the community. List these and try to give some basic definitions of the words Paul uses for these values.
10. To support his argument that we should live harmonious lives within the church, what major example does Paul give?
11. In what ways does Jesus give "moral force" to Paul's argument in Philippians 2? See if you can trace the "stair-like" steps Jesus takes from heaven to earth and back again, according to Paul.
12. Why do you suppose Paul chose to write the second section as a "hymn" or "poem"?
13. Using Jesus as an example, who is suppose to gain the glory from the way we manage power and position?

Upside-Down: Gaining Through Giving Up

Gaining Through Giving Up
Upside-Down
January 5/6, 2008
Digging Deeper (Questions are on the last page)
Upside-Down: Gaining Through Giving Up
(Robert Ismon Brown)

Study Notes
Key Scripture Text: Matthew 6:19-34

Matthew 6:19-34 19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! 24 "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. 25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Introduction to the Upside-Down Series
3 A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. 5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken (Isaiah 40:3-5; compare Luke 3:4-6).

49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me-- holy is his name. 50 His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. 51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. 52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty (Part of Mary's Magnificat from Luke 1:49-53).

You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "He did not make me"? Can the pot say of the potter, "He knows nothing"? (Isaiah 29:16)

I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line used against Samaria and the plumb line used against the house of Ahab. I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down (2 Kings 21:13).

6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, "These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. 7 "Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king -- Jesus" (Spoken about the followers of Jesus in the first century, from Acts 17:6-7).

If you live in the Southern Hemisphere, are you upside-down? Spherical geometry has its own paradoxes, though none of them at all troubling to the mathematician (watch an episode of Numbers), or the geographer (remember Columbus?)! Orientation is a question of location, and one's point of view. I recently read about "The Upside-Down House", a project created by a Polish businessman and philanthropist named Daniel Czapiewski. The house is located in the tiny village of Szymbark, Poland. Rather than simply being a bizarre tourist attraction, this house is meant to be a profound statement about the Communist era and the state of the world. Czapiewski’s company would normally take three weeks to construct a house, but this one took 114 days because the workers were disorientated by the strange angles of the walls. Many tourists who visit complain of mild seasickness and dizziness after just a few minutes of being in the structure, most likely due to the body's need to calibrate out its equilibrium. The building was to be an allegory of the modern world where everything is turned upside-down. Upside-Down House looks like God’s cruel joke on the construction industry, but Daniel intends it to have a serious message. However, it will likely take more than a disoriented house to alter human behavior, Czapiewski's activism notwithstanding.

Our new, three-part weekend series explores living an "upside-down" life in an already "upside-down" world. As the Scripture passages above indicate, crooked paths needs straightening, valleys need filling, mountains need to be leveled, and rough roads need paving. What happens when "up is down" and "down is up"? It is the cultural equivalent of feeling dizzy and seasick. The story told by the Bible is about the world turned upside-down, and the continuing need to make things right again. When Mary sings her Magnificat (see above), she speaks of scattering the proud and pulling down mighty kings from their thrones, while, at the same time, lifting up the lowly and feeding the hungry. Had you asked anybody in Mary's generation what her situation was in the world at the time of Jesus' birth, this is the sort of answer you would have received:
Who are we? We are Israel, the chosen people of the Creator God.
Where are we? We are in the holy land, focused on the Temple; but ironically we feel like we are still in exile.
What is wrong? We have the wrong rulers; pagans on the one hand, compromised Jews on the other, or half-way between, Herod and his family. We are all involved in a less-than-ideal situation.
What is the solution? Our God must act again to give us the true sort of rule, that is, his own kingship exercised through properly appointed officials; and in the meantime, Israel must be faithful to this covenant charter.

Into such a world stepped Jesus of Nazareth, preaching "good news" and calling people "to repent" because something called "the kingdom of God" was coming. Change was on the way, as the prophet Isaiah wrote (see above), "Prepare the way of the Lord". "To repent" meant a radical change of agenda, giving up one's own view of the world, upside-down as it was, and adopt Jesus' view which was upside-down in its own way. And so when we read through the early chapters of the Gospels, such as Matthew, Mark and Luke, we discover Jesus saying things like: The way up is down. The way home is first to go into exile. The way to be first is to be last. You want to rule? Then learn to serve. You want to live, truly? Then die. You want to follow Jesus? Then "deny yourself, take up your cross" and follow him (Luke 9:23). Hardly a page of the Gospels is turned without meeting these ideas. Jesus was turning the world and its viewpoint upside-down and "on its head" (or was it "on its feet"?). The parables of Jesus reflect this "upside-down" way of thinking. In a real sense, they embody it by telling stories that have unexpected endings; stories with a "twist in the tail", so to speak. When Jesus tells us about The Prodigal Son, he's really telling us about the "prodigal father" who did wholly unexpected things, such as racing out to meet his lost son, when all along the townsfolk would have written the kid off as a lost cause for taking the family inheritance and leaving home before his dad was dead. In an upside-down fashion, the father gives him the royal robe, the family ring, and kills the fatted calf in celebration. What sort of father does such outrageous things for a wayward and seemingly ungrateful son (Luke 15:11-32)?

Time and time again Jesus said and did things wholly counter-cultural, such as eating with all the wrong people—tax collectors, Samaritans and other "sinners", yet railing against "important people"—high priests, Pharisees and King Herod Antipas, by calling them to repent of their sins and return to God. He would have agreed that the wrong people are on the throne, and that power alone cannot bring in the kingdom of God. Yet, unlike Zealots or right-wing Pharisees or dissident Essenes, Jesus did not think the answer came from acts of violence or revolutionary reprisals. Instead, he called on people to love their enemies, do good to those who misused them. And if a Roman soldier asked you for your coat or demanded that you walk with him for a mile, you should double up the favor in return.

Then, when the end of his earthly life approached, this same Jesus talked about bringing in the kingdom by going to the cross. That made no sense to his followers, and the outspoken leader of his disciples, Simon Peter, begged him--in fact "beseeched him"--not to walk that road, a path that seemed "unworthy" of a person wanting to be the Messiah, the deliverer of Israel (Mark 8:31-33; Matthew 16:21-28; Luke 9:22-27). Still, Jesus set his eyes on the cross, laying down his life in company with revolutionary criminals, those lestes, resistance fighters. But once more, the unexpected happened. Through dying, Jesus lived again, beating the odds makers, pulling off the most remarkable coup-d'etat in human history. Evil imagined its triumph over Jesus by killing him. Evil was wrong, because evil had it upside-down.

The ways of God are not the ways of humankind in an upside-down world. Consider the words of the prophet:
6 Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. 8 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. 9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:6-9).
In Kingdom thinking, there is an "up", and it is God; there is "a down", and it is us. God's thoughts are high, while ours are low. But when the two are confused, and attempt to live counterpoised to each other, the result is an upside-down world that will need to be righted, will need to be upended once more. Jesus came for that express purpose, namely, to put the world to rights, to turn the upside-down world, upside-down. And his efforts were not in vain. Within a short time after his return to heaven, we read the stories of the early Christians "turning the world upside-down" (see the Acts passage above). That's what Kingdom revolutions do. That's what revolutions in general do: they cause things to "revolve", "to turn". Revolutions are needed because the tilt of human life is inverted, and human values disoriented, like the tourists in Daniel Czapiewski's house.

In his wonderfully written book, The Upside-Down Kingdom, Donald Kraybill writes:
Jesus was a revolutionary in violating Sabbath laws, criticizing the greedy, eating with sinners, and provoking the Pharisees. His message of the kingdom threatened the power of vested interest groups. The Romans considered him a threat to their false political tranquility. The right-wing Sadducees hated his condemnation of their lucrative temple operation. Progressive Pharisees decried his disrespect for their laws of ritual purity. And the freedom fighters couldn't stand his talk about suffering. The temptation to use violence was difficult to shove aside. But to endorse violence would have negated his entire platform of suffering love.

Jesus was revolutionary when he attacked the root of the problem--the evil which often laces human intentions and institutions. He called for repentance. He pled for love. He announced that only God should be worshipped. He admitted before Pilate that indeed he was Lord of this new kingdom. But his upside-down revolution replaced force with suffering and violence with love.

Jesus did threaten the status quo. He rocked the cozy boats of Sadducees, Pharisees, Romans and rebels alike. In some ways he looked like other insurrectionists of his day. But his revolution was upside-down. It touted acts of compassion, not daggers. Love was the new Torah, the standard of his upside-down kingdom. [pp.54-44].

Jeremiah, the Old Testament prophet, had become accustomed to having Yahweh, the God of Israel, radically alter the course of its life. In two distinct passages we read:
See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant (Jeremiah 1:10)

27 "The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will plant the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the offspring of men and of animals. 28 Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, and to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant," declares the LORD (Jeremiah 31:27-28).
Now that's revolution! The same God who tears down, also builds up; the same Lord who uproots, also plants.

It was the same with Jesus. He came as the upside-down Messiah, revealing nothing of what people expected, but uprooting all of their popular expectations, and tearing down their falsely pinned hopes on a violent overthrow of Roman rule. But Jesus also had no use for "right-side-up" religion, and even ridiculed the sort of religion practiced by Second Temple Judaism, calling the Temple itself a "den of brigands" (Mark 11:17; Matthew 21:13; Luke 19:46). Yet, he affirmed the Torah, sending cured lepers to see a priest as Moses required, and he instructed Peter to pay the temple tax. But Jesus could not countenance dead-letter interpretations of Torah, and often denounced the structures of the religious elite. He talked about himself in ways people normally talked about the Temple, calling people to come to him for the things they would have gone to the Temple to receive. No longer, he told the woman at Samaria's well, would people sanctify physical space, such as Jerusalem or Gerazim, and call them places of worship (see John 4). Worship would have little to do with ornate buildings or convoluted ritual, for, Jesus said, "Someone greater than the Temple stands here!" (Matthew 12:6). Worship must be "in Spirit and truth" instead.

Life was about sacrifice, proclaimed Jesus, not about "burnt offerings". In place of ritual, he erected love for God and neighbor. He had no place for gaudy shows, but often required his followers to keep the notion of his Messiahship "a secret", not wanting all the wrong political connotations to contaminate it. He loved the riddle, the parable, the puzzling and seemingly paradoxical saying. He didn't toot his own horn or wave a magical wand, often refusing to perform miracles when people demanded he do so. Lost people attracted his compassion, sinners his forgiveness, outcasts his acceptance, and enemies his love. Once again, Kraybill hits the nail on the head:

The new heroes were the castaways of institutional religion. They were repentant sinners, publicans, confessing tax collectors, and harlots. And what of the old heroes--scribes, priests, Pharisees, and Sadducees--the guardians of sacred ritual? They now were dethroned, brought low, and told to become like children. No wonder his message annoyed them. No wonder they killed him. [p.70]

To paraphrase a few chapter titles from Kraybill's book, Jesus offered bread people in the wilderness, freedom for slaves, luxury to the poor, right-side-up detours to the lost. He spoke of impious piety, lovable enemies, inside outsiders in a world where low is high and failure is success. Jesus was not simply trying to tell people how to succeed or how to be happy. His kingdom message proclaimed the establishment of a community created by Yahweh, under a covenant renewal enacted by Jesus. The main text of his kingdom program is found in the so-called "Sermon on the Mount" (according to Matthew 5-7), or "Sermon on the Plain" (according to Luke 6:17-49), an interesting contrast in itself! Throughout this provocative instruction, Jesus formulates what is required by God if Israel is to become God's restored kingdom people once again. His words do not set forth some ritualized way for a person to "get saved", but instead they are invitations for Israel to truly be God's people. Kingdom work is community building work. Most of what Jesus says calls us to live together in righteous ways under the rule of God. But such a vocation flies in the face of conventional values. It sounds like an upside-down agenda in an upside-down world. And Jesus intended it to be just that.

Like the words of the prophets we have cited above, Jesus' words call on us to "overturn", "uproot", "tear down", before they invite us to "build up" and "plant". When Jesus speaks, we shudder. When Jesus preaches, we cringe. We cannot help but be disturbed by him. He challenges our most cherished beliefs about how the world should be put together, and how it should be ruled. To the Western mind, he gives no comfort, for he rejects the foundations of an economy built on greed and selfishness, and the reigns of power tethered to coercion, might and fear. To the Eastern ear, he refuses the course of personal violence and retaliation, and unmasks the deception of state terrorism and injustice. In a world marked by gross inequities, where 90% of the Jewish population lived as peasant farmers, and 10% as ruling elite and their retainers, his words about wealth and poverty, power and slavery, had a ready audience in his own time. They still do. Third world countries, strapped by overwhelming debt and exploited by multi-national corporations, cannot help but synchronize with Jesus' kingdom message. And if the community of Jesus would allow themselves to hear his message truly, they would surely rise up and call for a year of Jubilee and the cancellation of debt as Yahweh's Torah required in sabbatical years. Such is the message of the upside-down Messiah.

Among the most violent enemies of the Jesus' community was the right-wing Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus. In the Jesus message he instantly saw a real threat to his own agenda. The thought of "low-lives" being brought into the fellowship of Israel turned his stomach. His anger turned to zeal, and zeal to murder, as Saul dragged the Jesus followers into court and threatened them with death. On the road to the Syrian capital of Damascus, Saul's life encountered its own revolution. He lost more than his sight that day. He fell off more than his horse. Struck blind by the blazing light from heaven, and blistered by the words of the risen Jesus, Saul's life was turned upside-down. And before many years past, he did an odd thing. He began using his Roman name, Paul, given him by his father, a Roman citizen. He did so because Yahweh was calling him to yet more unexpected things: to bring the kingdom message of Israel to, of all people, the Gentiles, the goyim, the unclean and uncircumcised multitudes of the Roman Empire. Nothing could have been more out of character for him.

Writing about his new perspective some years later, Paul penned these "upside-down" words, in a lengthy passage from his first letter to the Corinthians:
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." 20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. 26 Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things-- and the things that are not-- to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God-- that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:18-31).
Perhaps we should simply allow Paul's words to sink in without further comment. They express, in his own way, what we mean when we say that God calls us to live "the upside-down life in an upside-down world". And they offer us a fitting introduction to this three-part series. For Paul, center of the upside-down life lies within the cross, the central paradox of the Christian faith. Although the symbol of the cross has come to represent God's gracious offer of salvation, it once meant nothing less than the execution instrument of criminals against Rome. How did that transformation of meaning take place? Paul's words above supply the answer. And as we explore three aspects of this paradox in the weeks ahead, perhaps the power of this transformation will become even clearer to us.

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This Week's Topic: Gaining through Giving Up
Our Scripture this week, taken from Matthew 6:19-34, appears in the middle of Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount". To his Jewish audience, the symbolism of Jesus ascending a hillside and then making the sort of statements he made in Matthew 5-7, must have been powerful indeed. People had become accustomed to hearing about would-be messiahs taking their followers up into the hills where they would plan raids against the Romans or against their Jewish retainers within the court of Herod. But they also remembered their history. Was it not on a mountain that Yahweh had originally delivered the Torah to Israel? And was not Torah the foundation of Jewish belief and practice? It was, in fact, the written form of the covenant which Yahweh had made with his people, transforming them into a nation. as they gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai. Therefore, when Jesus takes his place on the "mount", and starts to speak, those gathered would have gotten the idea that he was up to something quite important, and, perhaps, quite subversive. Through his "Sermon", Jesus would remind his audience, "I have come to fulfill Torah and the Prophets, not destroy them (Matthew 5:17). He would accomplish this by "filling full" what had already been given, but needed "renewing", in fresh ways, for Israel.
1. "Blessed are..." he began each hopeful line, offering hope to the "poor, the mournful, the meek, the hungry" and the like (5:1-12).
2. Israel was, in his words, to be the "light of the world" and "the salt of the earth" (5:13-16). The vocation to which Jesus called Israel was not only for itself, but for the world.
3. Then, with precise detail, laced with powerful figures of speech and provocative similes, Jesus fills in the practical instructions for living in "the kingdom of God". In previous Background Notes (see "Greatest Hero" in the Real Heroes series, August 18/19, 2007) we presented a comprehensive list of what Jesus taught the people:
a. Manage anger and forswear hatred
b. Control your lust
c. Preserve marriage
d. Don't make hasty promises
e. Reject retaliation against your enemies (even if they are Romans!)
f. Love your enemies instead
g. Give to the poor
h. Pray meaningfully to God as your Father ("Abba")
i. Don't make self-righteous displays of disciplines like fasting
j. Make God your true treasure
k. See the future through God's eyes not your anxious ones
l. Stop judging others
m. See God as responsive to your requests
n. Live the unique life of treating others as you wish to be treated
o. True prophets live fruitful lives; false ones do not
p. Following Jesus means more than saying a few words (such as "Lord")
q. Kingdom life is about building on "a rock", not on the sifting sands
4. The seriousness of his words and the symbolic setting in which they were placed lead some scholars to see this whole event (Matthew 5-7) as a covenant renewal event. What does that mean? Throughout Israel's history, when the nation had significant drifted off course, Yahweh would send his prophets to call the people back in wholehearted faithfulness to Himself. The words of Torah would be read, often with special explanations of their meaning, and the people were given renewed encouragement to live the righteous life. This usually meant a significant "overturning" of old ways of living into which they had fallen. It meant an "upside-down" correction of failures and sins which required repentance (that is, a change of mind and heart). A good example of such renewals is the entire book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament. Likewise, Jesus, on this occasion recorded by Matthew, calls the people to start living the life of the kingdom once again. But to do so would be, for many, an "upside-down" transformation.
5. Jesus was inaugurating a "kingdom revolution"--an overturning of the way things had been, and their replacement by a fresh reading of Torah and its application to people's lives. When he was finished, the people were left breathless, and Matthew records their response: "And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29 for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes" (7:28-29). When they heard him speak, it was as if they heard the voice of God Himself, for that is the implication of the word "authority" used here. When Jesus spoke, God spoke and was turning their world upside-down.

Our text, Matthew 6:19-34, belongs to this covenant renewal narration. The main theme is material things and how the children of the kingdom should view them. The commentators usually see two main divisions within this passage, outlined as:
Storing Treasures (6:19-24)
Worrying about Necessities (6:25-34)

To be sure, both sections address the problem of wealth, but from rather different perspectives. We'd like to make that distinction from the outset. In the first section, 6:19-24, Jesus teaches the proper attitude to "storing up", that is, to saving, investing, and protecting wealth. But in the second section, 6:25-34, his focus shifts to the necessities of day-to-day existence: what to wear, what to eat, what to drink. Jesus likely had a two-fold audience in view. On the one hand, there were those who had sufficient success with material things which allowed them to "store up" and "accumulate" the excess beyond what was required for daily existence. Such persons could easily be called "the rich". But most people in Jesus' time did not have the luxury to "store up". Their existence was always "on the edge", having sufficient resources to meet the daily obligations, perhaps, but nothing left over to "save". These were "the poor", and they made up some 90% of Jewish society, while the rich and their retainers made up the rest.

Prevailing Economic Conditions
To put this economic situation in sharper focus, consider the analysis offered by Marcus Borg, New Testament scholar:
Many Jewish farmers were still small landholders, producing primarily grain, vegetables, fruits, wine, oil and dates, as well as sheep, cattle, and goats. As did most farmers in the ancient world, they produced everything (and little more) for their own use; a small portion would be sold or battered for absolute necessities, and there was little opportunity for saving. One or two years of bad crops could easily result in the loss of the farm, with the farmer then becoming a "hireling" or worse. [Borg, Conflict, Holiness and Politics in the Teaching of Jesus, p.47, emphasis mine].

But the economic pressures on Jewish life were intensified by the extraction of the "tithes". Borg continues:
Jewish agriculture was tied to the sabbatical cycle; in every seventh year, the land was to be left fallow. During the other six years, the tithes referred to in various portions of the written Torah combined as follows:
1. Every year, the "wave offering" or "first fruits" offering; the exact amount was not specified, but ranged from 1 percent to 3 percent of the produce.
2. Every year, the first tithe of 10 percent, to be given to the priests or Levites for the support of the theocracy.
3. In the first, second, fourth, and fifth years of the cycle, a "second tithe," also of 10 percent.
4. In the third and sixth years, the "poor man's tithe" of 10 percent.
There were other taxes as well, such as the annual Temple tax of a half shekel (about one day's wages), but these were relatively minor. The amount of taxation on agricultural produce, required by the Torah, was slightly over 20 percent.

To this system of taxation, the Romans added their own: crop and land taxes, a poll tax (the famous "tribute" tax), customs, and tolls. Many of these could be exorbitant, especially customs and tolls; though certainty about exact percentage is impossible, the figure of 25 percent has been cited; moreover, since they were added each time a product crossed an administrative boundary, they accumulated. The famous poll tax was comparatively modest. Levied on everybody except children and old people, it amounted to about one day's wages. Though all of these taxes affected the farmer directly or indirectly, the land and crop taxes had the greatest impact. The former was 1 percent of the value of the land; the latter we 12.5 percent of the produce.

Thus Jews in Palestine were subject to two systems of taxation, both of which they were powerful to affect. The one was dictated by Roman policy, over which they had no control, and the second was required by divine revelation. For the small landowner who farmed his own land, the burden was extraordinary: in addition to his need to save for the sabbatical year, the double system demanded from 35 to 40 percent of his produce, perhaps even more.

The impact of the economic crunch was severe, producing signs of social disintegration, such as widespread emigration, a growing number of landless "hirelings", and a social class of robbers and beggars. Moreover, the double obligation faced the population with an economic dilemma which was at the same time a test of religious loyalty. In addition to paying the Roman taxes, enforced by Roman police power, should one, could one, also pay the taxes required by Torah? Many could survive only by being nonobservant. The price paid for nonobservance was social and religious ostracism by those who sought to be faithful. Under Roman rule, such ostracism was the only form of Jewish sanction left, and a large social class was born, known as "the people of the land," the amme ha aretz. Hence the double system of taxation, in addition to causing economic hardship and political resentment, also accelerated the tendency toward assimilation and loss of Jewish identity, not because of the attractiveness of Hellenistic (Greek) culture, but because of economic exigency [Borg, pp.47-49, emphasis mine].

We include this background material to show the severity of Israel's economic condition at the time of Jesus. These circumstances were a hotbed of revolutionary irritation. Resistance fighters, dubbed the lestai (bandits or brigands) continued to espouse the use of violence to free true Jews from their foreign masters and Jewish retainers. From the brief summary of taxation given above, the reader can see why. Every time Rome talked about a census for taxation, yet one more seed for revolt was planted. And Jesus was aware of the hardships as well.
In announcing the coming kingdom of heaven (see Matthew 4:17), Jesus called for a complete change of heart about all things, including material possessions. The times required it, and Yahweh, most of all, desired it.

Storing Treasure
Our text opens with the words "Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth" (6:19). Matthew uses the Greek word for "treasure" in both its verb and noun forms: literally, "do not treasure (me thesaurizete) to yourselves treasures (thesaurous)." The English reader recognizes the word "thesaurus" embedded in the Greek root: "a resource for words and their synonyms". The Greek scholar, Hauck, points out the following connotations for thesaurus and its derivatives, especially in classical Greek usage:
What is deposited.
Store of what is valuable.
Treasure.
The place where a thing is stored.
Treasure chamber, chest or house, including the state warehouse, temple treasury, or temple storehouse for offerings in kind.
Payments into the thesauros are temple offerings, sacrificial and guilt offerings, or thanks offerings.
The erection of a thesauros in the temple seems to have spread to Greece from Egypt.

The Greek translation of the Old Testament, known as the Septuagint (abbreviated, LXX), commonly translates the Hebrew word 'otzar into this word.
The Old Testament uses this idea for material treasures (see Joshua 6:19, 24), including the ones found in Yahweh's temple (see 1 Kings 7:51; 14:26; 15:18).
The Wisdom Writer warns about trusting in material treasures (Proverbs 10:2).
Wisdom and the fear of God are treasures in Isaiah 33:6, and He also dispenses the elements of nature from his heavenly storehouses (Jeremiah 51:16, Job 38:22).
Later Jewish thought (outside the Old and New Testaments) taught that the good works of the righteous, such as almsgiving, are a thesauros which is laid up with God in heaven. Interest on this "treasure" may accrue to man in this life in the form of happy results, while the capital remains in heaven until the day of judgment when it will be paid back (see Tobit 4:8, 4 Esdras 6:5 where the phrase "to lay up treasures of faith" is used; 7:7). From the Targums we read "My fathers have laid up treasures for below, I have laid up treasures for above…My fathers have laid up treasures which pay no interest, I have laid up treasures which pay interest" (Strack and Billerbeck, Commentary on the New Testament, Talmud and Midrash, I, 430). A Jewish commentary on Deuteronomy affirmed: "All that Israel lays up in the form of fulfillments of Torah and good works, it lays up for its Father in heaven" (Ibid, 431).
Eternal life itself is called a thesauros. In Jewish thought the seventh heaven is the place where the souls of those who are not yet born reside. During the lifetime of man these are in the hand of the Creator (Job 12:10). At death they mount up to heaven. The souls of the righteous go into a treasure house (Hebrew: 'otzar) of life and are preserved by God, being bound in the bundle (Greek: desmos) of the living (1 Samuel 25:29), while the ungodly are rejected.

In the New Testament, some of these meanings are taken up and others expanded:
The word is used for actual "treasure" (Matthew 13:44; Hebrews 11:26).
But also refers to the inner store in the heart of man (Matthew 12:35).
The New Testament places it in contexts where there is a contrast between heavenly and earthly treasure. Jesus picks up the Jewish thought that we should not hoard earthly and material things, but that we should do good actions by which the righteous lay up treasure in heaven (the present text, Mark 10:21 and Luke 12:33).
However, for the Christ follower, this treasure does not store up merit with God, to later be paid back.
Paul writes about treasures of wisdom and knowledge found in Christ (Colossians 2:3) and contrasts them with human wisdom (2:4, 8). The glory of the new life in Christ is called a treasure contained in clay pots (2 Corinthians 4:7) which are frail and rough.

The teachings of Jesus address the problem of "treasures" and give guidance on their proper importance in the kingdom of God:
Jesus repudiates the laying up of earthly goods, and instead, urges the pursuit of loving actions and obedience to God in light of the coming day of judgment.
To heap up earthly goods is to express a this-worldly and selfish attitude in contradiction to God (Luke 12:21; James 5:3).
At times earthly goods have to be given up (Matthew 6:19-21).
Paul sees the setting aside of monetary offerings out of love as a true treasure (2 Corinthians 12:14; 1 Corinthians 16:2).
By contrast, Paul sees the unrepentant as laying up treasure for the coming day of wrath (Romans 2:5), as does Peter (2 Peter 3:7).

Keeping these insights in mind, we hear Jesus telling his audience about the perils of relying on earthly storehouses. He, like his Jewish forebears, contrasted "heavenly" with "earthly" treasures, noting that the earthly ones will one day fail through moth, rust and theft. Earthly storehouses cannot be trusted. They are not secure against destruction and loss. Ironically, the reason people "store up" is to preserve against the coming day of famine, war, or depression. Jesus warns that, in kingdom terms, that thinking is upside-down. No earthly storehouse is that secure. Even the one found in the sacred precincts of the Temple would one day succumb to the invading armies of Rome, who would strip the gold from Herod's temple and carry off the sacred treasures to Rome where they would be used to build the Coliseum. Titus' arch of triumph engraved that scene in stone.

But the loss of material thesauros is the least of our worries. Jesus reminds the listener that "where your thesauros is, there is also your heart (Greek: kardia). To ask the question "where is your treasure?" is the same thing as asking, "where is your heart?" We draw some thoughts from an earlier series Punching In, "Treasure", November 17/18, 2007):
The "heart", in Jewish understanding, was the center of one's thought and choice. Not referring to the physical heart, the term however is a metaphor expressing the true "pulse" of human life. To summarize:
The heart (Greek: kardia; Hebrew: leb) consists of four elements: emotion (John 14: 1, Matthew 5: 28), will or volition (Exodus 35: 5), the intellect (John 12: 40, Romans 1: 21), and the conscience (Acts 2: 37). Each is essential. Man is to "obey from the heart …" (Romans 6: 17). Obedience from the heart involves will and emotion and to obey requires the intellect to understand and determine. [Note: the world of Jesus' time did not think the "brain" was very important as an organ of thought or feeling. Instead, the "head" was viewed as a "source" of life for the body in some unknown way. The heart functioned as we now know the brain does. The Bible simply follows common usage so as to be understood by its readers.]
When Jesus connects heart and treasure, he implies that what influences our pursuit of possessions, ultimately reveals the true intentions of our inward life. Show me your "treasures", and I will tell you what you really want out of life. This is no small claim. It lays bare our motivations, as well as our ambitions. Possessions are outward and quite visible expressions of our life project. They become symbols easily used to define us. If I have possession x, it may well be a status marker. And the amount of energy I consume in acquiring and keeping it, can only be drawn from the "nerve center" of my life, namely, my heart. Such preoccupations have my attention and my commitment. The real question is are they worth it? Jesus says, "No," for they cannot be preserved, since they are vulnerable to destruction from all sides.

Considering the disproportionate distribution of wealth in Jewish society at that time, the command not to store up ran against the cultural norms of the ruling elite and their retainers. For them, the thesauros truly defined them and was the mark of their success. But the idea of "storing up" was remote for the 90% who barely met their daily necessities. For them, there was, to use Borg's words, "little to save", in material terms. And Jesus knew this as well. It would be tempting for the have-nots to envy those who were able to "store up". What Jesus tells them in this passage is to consider the deeper treasure, namely, the values found in the human heart. Whereas in their eyes, the world was badly upside-down, and they were not dealt into the financial game at all, in God's eyes things looked quite different. Though poor in human terms, they were capable of far greater wealth in God's heavenly kingdom.

To reinforce his argument, Jesus borrows a well-known analogy and common saying. His focus is on "the eye" where light enters into the body, as well as all of the images light has captured from the world outside. What we see with our eyes, floods our bodies with desire. And that can yield either a good result or a bad one. Jewish writers used two expressions to describe this:
If you had a "good eye" (Hebrew: 'ayin tobah), it meant you were "generous".
If you had a "bad eye" (Hebrew: 'ayin ra'ah), it meant you were "stingy".
Jesus, in effect, quotes that proverb in what he says here. Of special interest to us is the connection of the "eye" to the corrosive sin of "covetousness". Recall the commandment: "Do no covet" (Exodus 20:17). This sin begins with the "eye" and spawns desire in the heart. 1 John 2:15-17 elaborates:
5 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world-- the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does-- comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever (1 John 2:15-17)
As with Jesus' instructions in Matthew 6:19-21, the stress is on the "lust of the eyes" which kindles an all-encompassing desire that one day will "pass away". But, by contrast, doing God's will, as with laying up of treasures in heaven, leads to everlasting life. Even Paul picks up this idea when, in Romans 7, he provides his rendition of how covetousness is, in the end, the root of sin's desires: "But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire" (Romans 7:8).

From Jesus' perspective, a false understanding of treasures damages the heart, as well as the body, since he mentions both human dimensions in Matthew 6:19-23. And, of the body, he warns, that the darkness brought by a covetous eye is the darkest of darkness! (Greek: to skotos poson) Once afflicted by the greed of hoarding material things on earth, the whole of human life is changed. Whereas, the heavenly things of God should matter most, under the influence of covetous greed, they matter least. In effect, the world of spiritual value is turned upside-down. Although heaven is more secure than earth, the hoarder of treasures imagines just the opposite.

Then, to cinch his argument about "storing up", Jesus cuts to the heart of the matter. Beyond the simple questions of what we store-up and what consumes our lives, is the larger issue of "who is our master". Of course, for the top 10% of the Jewish population, they were their own masters, owner of their estates, and of their workers. To the 90% of the dependent peasant farmers, they wanted to be the masters of all they had. But Jesus places both groups on notice: "You cannot serve two masters (oudeis dunatai dusoi kuriois doulein)", literally, "You are not able to serve two masters." Matthew uses the word kurios to translate Jesus' Aramaic word for "master". This is the word "lord" used frequently throughout the New Testament (as in Lord Jesus Christ). Kurios implies absolute lordship without equal and without competition. Caesar was called kurios. Jesus tells his audience that they must choose: God (theos) or Money (mamon). This later word is actually a transliteration of the name of the Syria god of riches, a pagan deity. "Riches" will have become your god if you try to serve them by "storing up" for them.
Jesus may well be using a double entendre here. Even as the Temple had its thesauros where the tithes were securely stored, so, implies Jesus, individuals, and even whole nations, may erect treasure stores within the temples of the hearts and bodies. But these are not for the one true God, but for a pagan god of materialism; the god Mamon. Jesus' hearers would have been stunned by this accusation. How could he think they were like the pagans? Didn't they try to keep Torah and satisfy all of Yahweh's tithes? Still, Jesus rejoins, this is a matter of where your love lies. He uses the familiar Greek word agape, "love", in the first instance, and then parallels it with the word "to cleave or hold onto" in the second (Greek: antecho). Love, devotion--these are the marks of "serving" God or money. Hate, contempt--these are the signs of refusal to serve. All of the words have emotional and volitional components in them. Our relationship to the "treasures" in our lives are never merely questions of intellect. They are absolutely matters of the heart. And it is from the heart that we offer obedience to the one or the other.

For those who have "discretionary resources", the temptation to store-up is significant. As Borg reminded us in his analysis of economic life in the first century, the power to tax was significant for both the Roman and Jewish ruling classes. In their minds, the ability to "lay up treasures" was the ultimate security. But in the upside-down kingdom of Jesus it was the ultimate insecurity. The damage is done, not to wealth itself, but to the heart of its possessor. And so the rich are at peril, precisely through their riches. To them Jesus declares, "Choose your master".

Worrying about Necessities
But what about the rest of the population? Distressed economically and taxed exorbitantly, their constant companion was "worry" about psuche, "human life in all its dimensions". Using the word merimnao, Matthew draws out the meaning of "worry": to care for, be anxious about, think earnestly upon, scan minutely. The ancient Greeks even had a word for "the mother of worries" (merimno-tokos)! The peasant farmer lived on the margins of human existence. To him, worry came naturally and focused on the necessities of life, as Jesus plainly concedes in his list: "eat, drink, wear". Ordinary folks need these things, and Jesus does not intend to minimize that need. What he does intend to do is counsel against the "worry" such needs provoke. He would be the first to challenge the exploitation of the poor by the rich (see James 5 for a further indictment of this inequity by Jesus' half-brother).

But the spiritual peril of the less fortunate is different from the rich. The rich stand in danger of losing everything they possess, and losing their souls as well. The poor stand in danger of losing faith in their heavenly Father who takes care of them. When a person's economic life hangs in the balance, the whole world looks different. Indeed, the whole world seems to be falling down all around--upside-down. The poor wants to be where the rich now lives, but more importantly, the poor somehow sees the situation as hopeless. "You have", Jesus tells them, "a real opportunity to strip the mask off the wealthy, and show them to be pagans after all!" (Matthew 6:31). Jesus teaches a foundational creation ethic to the poor. "This is my Father's world", he is saying in effect. "The birds of the air, the lilies of the field are also God's children. But they lack conscious thought and so are incapable of worry, yet they lack nothing. The Father feeds them, the Father clothes them. So what does that mean for you, the poor, who are in constant vigilance about eating, drinking and clothing?"

Enormous energy is consumed by the poor in maintaining life. Jesus accepts that premise. He does not deny the needs. What he wants to do is relieve the poor of worry, the daily preoccupation with tomorrow's necessities. How does he accomplish this without seeming heartless and passive?
The person in need is important to God (6:26). The need does not define the poor. On the contrary, "Are you not more valuable" than the birds of the air? Jesus asks. The word commonly translated "valuable or important" is the Greek word diaphero having the basic meaning "to carry over or across", and so, metaphorically, "to surpass, excel, be better". In arriving at this latter meaning, we need to take into consideration the notion of "being different". It is as if Jesus is saying to the person, living at subsistence, worrying about where his next meal is coming from, "Are you not, in the eyes of your heavenly Father, radically different from the birds of the air?" And so, the reason why the person in need is important to God is because God is their Father, the Creator of all things, but especially the personal Father of the one in need.
Worry cannot add an hour to one's life (6:27). Jesus sets aside the usefulness of worry by citing its overwhelming failure to accomplish anything. Desperate worry leads to desperate actions. Second Temple Judaism had already discovered that. Living on the margins, men are driven to violent actions, and the rudiments of the Zealot movement had already, more than once, gone into action with deadly results. Worried about Roman encroachment of Jewish liberties, Judas the Galilean struck a blow for the resistance movement, only to meet a crushing defeat and the death of three thousand on Roman crosses. Not only does worry not add an hour to one's life, it can shorten life noticeably!
Don't let your needs turn you into a pagan. "For the pagans run after all these things:" (6:32). Once again, Jesus turns the tables on prevailing belief, that is, he turns it upside-down. "Run after" (from the Greek: epizeteo, "to seek, wish for, miss") has a "hunting-for-game" connotation. But, as the word suggests, the pursuit may well be lengthened when the "game" is not easily found. "Chase after" might also capture the essence of the meaning here. "Ironic", Jesus seems to be implying, "that as the children of the heavenly Father you should live like pagans when it comes to food, drink and clothing. These are the most basic of human necessities, yet you live like pagans in trying to secure them. You act as if your Father doesn't know that you need every one of these things (Greek: hapanton, a variation of pas, meaning "all").Why would someone not know this? How could a Jewish person, blessed with a rich history of covenant promises, come to the place where he no longer trusted Yahweh for the basic necessities of life? Why must Jesus teach them such a basic truth? Once again, we need to consider the circumstances of first century life in Israel, and the constant sense that the exile has not ended, that Israel still lives under the continuing judgment of Yahweh for its sins. Poor people can falsely believe that they are victims, and that their condition has no remedy. Jesus underscores this when he says, "O you of little faith" (6:30). We should not see callousness in those words. Believing under such harsh economic conditions is not easy. But then again, ancient Israel in Egypt, or in Babylonian exile, or under Roman occupation faced similar challenges to faith. It's easy to slip into paganism under such pressures of life. Israel had done it before, and risked doing so again.
Embrace the Kingdom message and its way of life, and you will discover afresh that God will be faithful to you through His covenant blessings.
"Seek first God's kingdom". Recall that the word "kingdom", as used by Jesus, refers to the active rule or reign of God. Jesus has already announced that God is becoming King once again, and He calls on His subjects to recommit themselves to His will and purpose. We have noted that the larger "Sermon on the Mount" message belongs to a covenant renewal context. With the arrival of Jesus, God's Son and Heir, the business of the kingdom is taking a leap forward. But the harsh reality of economic life could easily sidetrack God's people from this new development. Chasing after basic necessities or storing up wealth for the future are actions of those who don't really believe God's kingdom has arrived with fresh vigor and power. That is why Jesus enjoins his audience to "seek first" the kingdom. Yet, that sounds like upside-down thinking to those for whom life's needs are uppermost in their minds. "How can we devote ourselves to this coming kingdom if we can't be sure about foot, drink and clothing?" people might well be asking. To which Jesus lays down his challenge and then offers his promise.
"and His righteousness" (dikaiosune). Early in his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus made three unvarnished declarations about "righteousness": Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled (Matthew 5:6).Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:10).For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:20).This "righteousness" is God's activity in ruling His world through His Word, whereby he makes known His will and purposes for human beings, and seeks to bring them into line with those purposes. Throughout the Sermon, Jesus has been setting forth that "will", reminding the people of Israel what the Lord requires of them. To "seek…righteousness" means to pursue what God wants, and to embrace His purposes for the world, while laying aside our own agendas. In this teaching, we hear echoes of the prophet Micah:He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8).The instruction Jesus gives in Matthew 6:19-34 comes down to this finely focused requirement to seek the kingdom purposes of God above all other purposes. And while this might not make sense in a world where people face intense economic need, yet, in God's upside-down kingdom, people gain by giving up. In this case, they give up the wanton pursuit of material things in deference to the higher intentions of the God who, through His Son, is bringing righteous rule into the world. In Jesus, God has come to put the world to rights, and through the preaching of Jesus He calls on covetous and worried Israel to lay aside its own agendas and take up His.
"and all these things will be added to you" (tauta panta prostethesetai humin). Matthew employs the passive voice of the verb "to add", making it clear that the Christ-followers are not the agents of their material well-being: God is. This is a hard saying, but wholly consistent with the covenant model of the Old Testament. It has always been God's pattern to seek obedience and then to offer blessing. Among the most powerful texts from the Hebrew Bible is this one:15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Deuteronomy 30:15-20).When Jesus calls on the people of his day to "seek the kingdom", he is, in effect, telling them what Yahweh had already told Moses during the great covenant renewal ceremony recorded in Deuteronomy: "love Yahweh your God, walk in his way, keep his commands, decrees and laws". If they obeyed, "then you will live and increase and Yahweh your God will bless you…"
The "benefit" offered by Jesus in response to obedient faith is not the work of "storing up" or the consequence of "worrying about tomorrow". Rather, the "gain" comes from "giving up" control of the entire economic process, and surrendering it to God. God's coming kingdom offers the promise of covenant blessings on those who will devote themselves to His purposes as Jesus has instructed. Somehow, during the years since the exile, Israel had lost its sense of this larger "rule of God". Perhaps the silence of the prophets and certainly the Roman occupation have robbed Israel of its confidence in the presence and activity of God in their midst. Now with the coming of Jesus also arrives a new hope, but one that is found, not in the cleverness of human plans, but in seeking God's kingdom and His righteous rule in the world.
The shadows of tomorrow cannot destroy the blessings God gives forever. The language of "moth, rust, and thieves" was used earlier by Jesus to warn about the temporal and fleeting nature of material treasures. Contrary to every attempt to keep our "gains" safe, this three-fold enemy will, at a moment's notice, invades the storehouse and makes off with what we thought was secure. To this list of "thieves" Jesus now adds "time". Of course, the fuel for worry is preoccupation with the future. In a sense, time becomes its own "treasure". For the person who invests, time ought to be a friendly partner. For the needy soul, caught in the vicious cycle of poverty and want, time is a hateful enemy, bringing worry and care in its retinue. But, Jesus counsels, in Matthew 6:34, "… do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own". What is his point?"Tomorrow" is personified in this verse, and becomes its own "worrier". In effect, Jesus lifts the anxiety of worry from the hearts of "kingdom people", and places it back on "tomorrow". Time is not king, Jesus is telling his audience, but God is. Time rules time, but it cannot rule us. Tomorrow has its "realm", but it is not supreme over all. Between today and tomorrow there exists no iron-clad law by which tomorrow rules today, or today rules tomorrow. All of time is ruled by the same kingdom which Jesus asks us to "seek". Such ways of "kingdom thinking" radically "overturn" how we ordinarily look at time and its power over us. Philosophers write about "the inevitable and merciless march of time" over which no one has control, and human beings are invariably caught within its tyrannical rule. To such fatalistic perspectives Jesus addresses this simple proverb: tomorrow only rules tomorrow and has no power over today. Each day must take its stand before the Lord of all time, and the evil each day might do must, in the end, submit to the righteous rule of God's everlasting kingdom.

Placing Gain and Loss in Perspective: Upside-Down Thinking
In light of Jesus' teaching, the words "gain" and "loss" acquire new meanings. It is not tomorrow which promises either gain or loss, but God instead, who "adds all things these". Our value in His eyes does not depend on the return-on-investment (ROI) which time affords. We are of "much more value" than that, Jesus reminds us. Gain and loss acquire importance only in the context of eternity, not only in terms of today or tomorrow. James, the half-brother of Jesus, penned these words, supporting this point of view:

13 Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that" (James 4:13-15).

"Upside-down thinking" is "kingdom of God thinking". Through this new vision of the world, we see all our possessions in a different light. Humanly speaking, we propose our own projects, and cast our own business plans. We gamble on the business cycle, and exact a promise from the future. We become much like the man of whom Jesus spoke in Luke. Having had a run of "good luck" with his crops, the farmer began "feeling his oats" in other ways:

17 He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' 18 "Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry."' 20 "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' 21 "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God" (Luke 12:17-21).

Much like the text in James, this story shows a man who presumes on the future, and, in Jesus' words, "is not rich toward God", an expression implying that he does not rely on God for his "gain", but on himself instead. Both passages encourage a change in thinking about the future and its promise for "gain". True repentance requires us to exchange "I will"-thinking for "God's will"-thinking. Once confronted with James' sobering question, "What is your life?" and God's frank assessment of the successful farmer, "You fool!", we are driven to reassess the things that matter for the long-term. Upside-down thinking tells us "let go" and "give away", not because we are encouraged to become careless, but because we are being called into a kingdom where God rules over all. Glory to God! Amen.
Digger Deeper: Upside-Down: Gaining Through Giving Up
(Bob Brown)

To gain a deeper understanding of Upside-Down: Gaining Through Giving Up, carefully read the selected passages below. To aid you in your study, we invite you to visit the website http://notes.chicagofirstnaz.org, or pick up a copy of the notes at the Connect desk, or from your ABF leader. Now consider the following questions, as you ask the Lord to teach you.

Special Note: The Background Notes are especially useful in working through some of these questions. You are encouraged to secure a copy as you begin.

1. God looks at things differently than we do. Read the following passages, and comment on the differences: Luke 1:49-53, Isaiah 29:16, 2 Kings 21:13, Isaiah 55:6-9, and 1 Corinthians 1:18-31.
2. According to the following Scriptures, what must God do to this world to make it right? Isaiah 40:3-5, Jeremiah 1:10, 31:27-28.
3. What did Jesus do in the Temple, according to Mark 11:12-17? What do his actions and his words tells us about how he viewed Israel's religious life?
4. Our key passage, Matthew 6:19-34, belongs to a larger speech given by Jesus. What is this speech commonly called? Skimming Matthew 5-7, what seem to be the "big themes" Jesus is emphasizing?
5. If we divide our key passage into 1) 6:19-24 and 2) 6:25-34, how would you label each section? List the main ideas stressed in each section.
6. Examining Matthew 6:19-24, what are the characteristics of a "treasure"? What are the biggest concerns people have about their "treasures"?
7. What reasons does Jesus give for not "storing up" treasures? Why does he contrast "heaven" and "earth"?
8. What connection does Jesus make between treasure and the "heart"?
9. Examining Matthew 6:25-34, what kinds of things do people "worry about", according to Jesus? What is it about those things that make us anxious? Are some people more prone to this anxiety than others? Be specific.
10. What arguments does Jesus use to minimize worry? List them, and explain why they are good reasons.
11. When Jesus compares worriers to "pagans", what does he mean? How would a first century Jew hear those words?
12. What all embracing principle does Jesus propose in 6:33? How does that principle summarizing everything he has been saying in Matthew 6:19-32? Try to explain the meaning of the following words found in this verse: Seek, Kingdom of God, Righteousness.
13. When Jesus says "and all these things will be added to you", is he laying down a hard and fast rule of economics, or is he promising covenant blessings from the Father?
14. Why do you suppose Jesus concludes this section with Matthew 6:34? If that verse were missing from the passage, how would it change the meaning? What does the expression "each day has enough trouble of its own" mean? What does it mean for "tomorrow to worry for itself"?
15. How does Jesus' perspective on material things help us to adjust our own perspectives? What one thing might you change because of Jesus' teaching here?