John's Advice: Behavior Change
Luke 3:7-17 (part two)
(esp. vv. 12-14)
When asked what they need to do in the face of judgment, John tells the crowd they must do acts of justice. His two examples are of equal distribution of resources: coats and food - the one with two coats must give to her who has none, the one with food must give to him who has none. And then specific kinds of people come up to him, asking for advice: tax collectors and soldiers.
(Surely, Luke is at least partly interested in setting the literary stage here: tax collectors and soldiers as populations reviled in an occupied Palestine, one group within the religious community and the other entirely outside Abrahamic culture. They approach John, as later they will encounter Jesus. So this vignette with John may serve partly as foreshadowing for the rest of the Gospel. But my interest right now isn't the literary role of these two classes of people.)
What grabs and unsettles me this morning is verses 12-14, John's answer to the tax collector and soldier. The tax collector asks, and in reply John says merely "collect no more than the amount proscribed to you." And to the soldier he says: "do not extort money from anyone by threats... and be satisfied by your wages." A verse earlier John is saying we should redistribute resources and wealth equally among all, which would seriously upset the social/political/economic structures of his time, and then he gives permission for people to continue to participate in those same unequal structures but not use them for their own unfair gain.
I'm certain that my labor background is making me balk at the idea of advice to a soldier being "be satisfied with your wages." That is, honestly, the last thing I'd tell a soldier. There are so many other things I'd rather them do, including dissatisfaction with their wages (who can pay one enough to kill?), not to mention the larger implication of telling workers anywhere to be satisfied with their wages (setting them up for perpetual and abhorrent exploitation at the hands of their employers!).
There is the obvious context to those sentences: John is telling them they should deal more fairly with the people they meet - don't take advantage of them despite your ability to do so, your station is not to be lorded over people. This is a good message in itself, but is hardly comprehensive.
Perhaps this is where Luke plans on having Jesus pick up the baptist's message and bring it closer to fulfillment. Luke might be wanting Jesus to take John's message of "not abusing your unequal station" a step further, to one of "abandon your unequal stations because their very existence treats people unfairly." Jesus' ministry is preluded by John's message.
John says he baptizes with water, while another will baptize with the Spirit. John begins people with a physical act, calling them to mere behavioral changes in the face of abject inequity. Jesus will be calling them to change the way they think about the world and themselves, calling them to more than behavioral changes, calling them to spiritual transformation.
So often we substitute fundamental spiritual change with superficial behavioral changes. We spend a holiday serving at the soup kitchen and somehow manage to come out unchanged but thinking well of ourselves. We give a set amount of our money to church or charity, but give no thought to how we earned that money (was it a Christ-like activity?) or that the very existence of monied interests represents unequal distribution of resources and power. It seems we'd all rather be disciples of John the Baptist - just needing to change our behavior a little bit, still being able to go about our lives participating in all kinds of structures and activities that in themselves perpetuate inequality, but as long as it is the structure's fault and not our own, then we have no problem facing judgment! We'd rather not really listen to Jesus' message that participation in these unequal mechanisms is itself unholy. We must be changed through and through, to give us the vision and resolve necessary for discipleship.
"Be satisfied with your wages..." is half-assed advice, which is why it falls on the lips of John and not Jesus.
(esp. vv. 12-14)
When asked what they need to do in the face of judgment, John tells the crowd they must do acts of justice. His two examples are of equal distribution of resources: coats and food - the one with two coats must give to her who has none, the one with food must give to him who has none. And then specific kinds of people come up to him, asking for advice: tax collectors and soldiers.
(Surely, Luke is at least partly interested in setting the literary stage here: tax collectors and soldiers as populations reviled in an occupied Palestine, one group within the religious community and the other entirely outside Abrahamic culture. They approach John, as later they will encounter Jesus. So this vignette with John may serve partly as foreshadowing for the rest of the Gospel. But my interest right now isn't the literary role of these two classes of people.)
What grabs and unsettles me this morning is verses 12-14, John's answer to the tax collector and soldier. The tax collector asks, and in reply John says merely "collect no more than the amount proscribed to you." And to the soldier he says: "do not extort money from anyone by threats... and be satisfied by your wages." A verse earlier John is saying we should redistribute resources and wealth equally among all, which would seriously upset the social/political/economic structures of his time, and then he gives permission for people to continue to participate in those same unequal structures but not use them for their own unfair gain.
I'm certain that my labor background is making me balk at the idea of advice to a soldier being "be satisfied with your wages." That is, honestly, the last thing I'd tell a soldier. There are so many other things I'd rather them do, including dissatisfaction with their wages (who can pay one enough to kill?), not to mention the larger implication of telling workers anywhere to be satisfied with their wages (setting them up for perpetual and abhorrent exploitation at the hands of their employers!).
There is the obvious context to those sentences: John is telling them they should deal more fairly with the people they meet - don't take advantage of them despite your ability to do so, your station is not to be lorded over people. This is a good message in itself, but is hardly comprehensive.
Perhaps this is where Luke plans on having Jesus pick up the baptist's message and bring it closer to fulfillment. Luke might be wanting Jesus to take John's message of "not abusing your unequal station" a step further, to one of "abandon your unequal stations because their very existence treats people unfairly." Jesus' ministry is preluded by John's message.
John says he baptizes with water, while another will baptize with the Spirit. John begins people with a physical act, calling them to mere behavioral changes in the face of abject inequity. Jesus will be calling them to change the way they think about the world and themselves, calling them to more than behavioral changes, calling them to spiritual transformation.
So often we substitute fundamental spiritual change with superficial behavioral changes. We spend a holiday serving at the soup kitchen and somehow manage to come out unchanged but thinking well of ourselves. We give a set amount of our money to church or charity, but give no thought to how we earned that money (was it a Christ-like activity?) or that the very existence of monied interests represents unequal distribution of resources and power. It seems we'd all rather be disciples of John the Baptist - just needing to change our behavior a little bit, still being able to go about our lives participating in all kinds of structures and activities that in themselves perpetuate inequality, but as long as it is the structure's fault and not our own, then we have no problem facing judgment! We'd rather not really listen to Jesus' message that participation in these unequal mechanisms is itself unholy. We must be changed through and through, to give us the vision and resolve necessary for discipleship.
"Be satisfied with your wages..." is half-assed advice, which is why it falls on the lips of John and not Jesus.
posted by Christian at 9:57 AM
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