Jesus and the poor

I grew up a second-generation immigrant in the outback of the Western Canadian prairies. Our family was poor economically, subsistence farmers, with the necessities but seldom with much more. My father and mother were charitable to a fault and tried to instil that in us. However, given our own poverty, understandably we did not have much of a vision in terms of social justice. We were the poor.

Growing up in this way can deeply ingrain certain instincts and attitudes inside you, some good, some bad. Positively, you grow to believe that you need to work hard, that nothing is given to you free, that you need to take care of yourself, and everyone else should do the same. Ironically, that very ethos can blind you to some major truths regarding the poor.

I can testify to this. It took me many years, work that took me over many borders, some firsthand encounters with people who didn’t have the basic necessities of life, and countless hours in theology classrooms before I even became aware of some of the basic biblical and Christian truths regarding the poor.

The quality of your faith will be judged by the quality of justice in the land

Now I am struggling to live them, but at least I accept that they are non-negotiable for a Christian, irrespective of denomination or political persuasion. In brief, as a Christian, we are given a non-negotiable mandate to reach out to the poor in compassion and justice. Moreover, this mandate is just as non-negotiable as keeping the commandments, as is clear most everywhere in Scripture.

Here is the essence of that mandate…

• The great Jewish prophets coined this mantra: The quality of your faith will be judged by the quality of justice in the land; and the quality of justice in the land will always be judged by how “widows, orphans, and strangers” (biblical code for the weakest and most vulnerable groups in a society) are doing while you are alive.
• Jesus not only ratifies this; he deepens it, identifying his very person with the poor. (“Whatsoever you do to the least of my people, you do to me.”) He tells us that we will be judged for eternal life based on how we treated the poor.
• Moreover, in both Testaments in the Bible, this is particularly true regarding how we treat foreigners, strangers, and immigrants. How we treat them is how we are in fact treating Jesus.
• Note that Jesus defines his mission with these words: “I have come to bring good news to the poor.” Hence, any teaching, preaching, or government policy that in not good news for the poor may not cloak itself with either Jesus or the Gospel.

God intended the Earth and everything in it for the sake of all human beings. Thus, created goods should flow fairly to all”

As well, most of us have been raised to believe that we have the right to possess whatever comes to us honestly, either through our own work or through legitimate inheritance. No matter how large that wealth might be, it’s ours if we didn’t cheat anyone along the way. By and large, this belief has been enshrined in the laws of democratic countries, and we generally believe that it is morally sanctioned by the Christianity. It is not, as we can see from these truths in Scripture:

• God loves everyone. There are no favourite ones or privileged ones in God’s eyes, and God intended the Earth and everything in it for the sake of all human beings. Thus, created goods should flow fairly to all.
• Wealth and possessions must be understood as ours to steward rather than to possess absolutely.
• No person or nation may have a surplus if others do not have the basic necessities.
• All people are obliged to come to the relief of the poor.
• The condemnation of injustice is a non-negotiable aspect of our discipleship.
• In all situations where there is injustice, unfairness, oppression, grinding poverty, God is not neutral. Rather God wants action against everything and everyone who deals injustice and death.

These principles are strong, so strong in fact that it is easy to believe that Jesus can’t really be asking this of us. Indeed, if taken seriously, these principles would radically disrupt our lives and the social order. It would no longer be business as usual.

To take just one example: there are nearly forty-five million refugees in our world today, most of them looking to cross a border into a new country. Is it realistic for any country today, in biblical terms, “to welcome the stranger”, to simply open its borders and welcome anyone who wants to cross? That’s simply not realist or socially expedient regarding what it would mean practically in terms of our comfort and security.

While that may be granted, what may not be granted is that our (seemingly) necessary social and political pragmatism in dealing with “the widow, the orphan, and the immigrant” may cloak itself with Jesus and the Bible. It may not. This is antithetical to Jesus. Whether or not this upsets our security and comfort, God is always on the underside of history, on the side of the poor.