Journey with Jesus #15

Sorry for the delay in posting this study from August. The Old Testament study that accompanies this one (Jesus and the smallest thing) will be posted in the next few weeks.
Wood Hath Hope will be interrupting it's "Journey with Jesus" to run a short two-week introduction to our Bible theology of non-violence. Our regular schedule will resume after this. Peace - Linda



New Testament - The smallest thing 08/06/09

In Luke 1:52 the Magnificat, Mary’s hymn of praise, announces the gospel’s concern for the small and weak. Mary proclaims that God has brought the powerful from their thrones and exalted the lowly. Again in Luke John the Baptist proclaims the overturning of the established order. He quotes from Isaiah 40: Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low.” High is low and vice versa.

Jesus’ parables are remarkable for their focus on small things. The parables are simple, to the point, and have the power to change your perspective. Matthew 13 is the great chapter for parables. In v.33 we have the parable of the yeast. The woman hides it in the dough. It is lost, no longer visible – and yet has the effect of causing the whole loaf of bread to rise. In v.44 another small thing is hidden – the treasure buried in a field, and in v.45. the small thing is a pearl of great price. These are all small, hidden things that once discovered shift your orientation. The world shifts and changes around you.

Perhaps the most well known “small thing” from the parables is the seed. The seed is a powerful image because it has a vitality and potency that produces newness and life. In Mt 13:31 Jesus uses the example of the mustard seed, “smallest of all the seeds.” This is the classic parable of the small thing that becomes the most important thing. In MK 4:26-29 another parable describes the seed growing secretly. The farmer does not need to do anything, does not even pay attention, yet the seed grows. In these parables Jesus shifts the established world logic that bigger is best.

In Luke 15:3-10 there are two parables of lost small things. The parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin. Jesus recognizes the irrational amounts of time that we often spend in order to save the smallest coin (think coupon clipping, rebates). He taps into the human sense of having to find something that is lost; regardless of its intrinsic value it becomes the obscure object of desire. He translates these human foibles into a parable about the kingdom of God. That same feeling of joy that we have about finding something that has been lost is like the joy in heaven when one sinner repents. The parable of the lost sheep is highly counter- intuitive. The shepherd leaves the remaining ninety-nine sheep unprotected in order to search for the one lost sheep. Again there is joy when the lost is found. The parables tell us to pay attention to the small, lost, hidden element. This is where joy is.

In John 11: 49-50 Caiaphas, the High Priest, states that “it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed”. The Sanhedrin is trying to decide what to do about Jesus. Caiaphas’ position is that the Romans will use Jesus as an excuse to bring down violence on the people. This is a familiar theme in movies , cutting someone off to save the rest– e.g. the mountain climber who saves his friends by cutting the rope that connects him to them. This is also the human logic of war – we have to kill in order to preserve the peace. Eliminating the individual to maintain order is at the heart of sacrifice – a practice common to all traditional cultures. Jesus overturns this fundamental human logic. Sacrifice just perpetuates the cycle of violence. For change to take place the human heart needs to be transformed. We need to surrender our boxed-in way of thinking. Jesus says it is the single sacrificed thing that is important, not the crowd for which it is sacrificed. To think this way is to invert established human logic. And for Jesus to say this meant that he believed the things that box us in can be overcome, especially fear and fear of death which keep us in the old logic.

With Jesus the least and the last become first. Jesus shows us this in practice – he becomes that thing, the last, the least, the lost. He enters into the human process of sacrificing the weakest to save the nation. He says “see me, the hidden thing”. He asks us to pay attention to the least thing, the weakest thing and see its value. Salvation comes by transforming our established human logic. Jesus takes the process we use to save people (sacrifice) and turns it into something that really does save, by changing our whole viewpoint on reality.

In Lk 20:17-18 it is the stone that the builder rejected that becomes the corner stone. The stone is the rejected, the least, last, lost, the hidden –it is Jesus. But this little stone will destroy the kingdoms of this world. (A reference to the stone not cut by human hands which topples the king’s statue and becomes a mighty kingdom in Daniel 2:31-45.)

We are also ourselves the rejected thing that has been redeemed—whatever way in which he have been rendered small, disposable, Jesus makes this valuable. We have thus been given freedom and endless life because we are no longer defined by the world. Through Jesus we can turn away from selfishness and fear. This endless life is for all – God is not exclusive: he sends his rain on the just and unjust alike.