The Political Teachings of Jesus by Tod Lindberg

Author:Tod Lindberg [Lindberg, Tod]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion, Political Science, Christianity, Politics, General
ISBN: 9780061373947
Google: sWy3xHxjJQAC
Goodreads: 5059850
Publisher: HarperOne
Published: 2007-06-12T00:00:00+00:00

7.

ELABORATIONS

Many of the parables Jesus tells have the purpose and effect of restating or elaborating on some of the core elements of his political and social teaching. In the previous chapter, we saw the special attention Jesus gives to the propagation of his teaching. In fact, however, the propagation of the teaching and its substance are inseparably linked. The spread of his teaching is not transferable to the spread of some other teaching. In his view, the reason for the astounding promise of what he has to say in terms of its ability to reach people all over the world and over many generations—in principle, everyone, and in some cases whether or not they attribute what they believe to his influence—is that its substance (the specific terms of his guidance) strikes a deeply resonant chord in people. We know what that chord is because he explains it: It’s the desire for righteousness or proper treatment at the hands of the political and social institutions with and through which one lives.

Jesus’s parables about the substance of his teaching emphasize two main themes. First, he seeks to illustrate the value of his teaching, both in itself and as against other things one might choose to value, such as riches or worldly power. Second, he shows that the benefits of the teaching are achievable only by action in accordance with the responsibilities entailed in the teaching. In particular, Jesus is at pains in the parables to insist that no one is excluded, although he does not hesitate to point out that upon one’s inclusion, one incurs exactly the same general obligations others have incurred before.

THE ABSOLUTE VALUE OF THE JESUSIAN TEACHING

The social and political order created in accordance with the Jesusian teaching—the community of goodwill—is mankind’s most precious earthly possession. Two short parables in Matthew speak to Jesus’s view of the inestimable value of his teaching, that of the hidden treasure (Mt. 13:24) and of the pearl (Mt. 13:45–46). In the first, a man discovers treasure in a field; he buries it and then sells everything he has in order to buy the field. In the second, a merchant looking to buy a pearl finds one of exceptional value; he, too, sells all he has in order to buy it. Jesus likens the kingdom of heaven to what happens in each story.

Note, first, that he does not liken the kingdom of heaven just to the pearl or to the treasure; rather, the simile for the kingdom is the whole action of the story. In both cases, a person discerns something of great value, the existence of which is unknown to others. The person who came upon it then gives up everything else of value to others—he sells all he has—for the sake of obtaining this one item, whose value he alone knows and appreciates. The kingdom of heaven, accordingly, is like the human acquisition of this thing of surpassing value, the Jesusian teaching. One might as well drop the figurative elements out: The

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