Power Struggles and Faith
Embracing a new kind of love begins with the profoundly disorienting parable Jesus offers in Luke 16.[1] A manager caught in wrongdoing reduces debts to secure his future, and Jesus commends his ‘shrewdness.’ Jesus’ commendation of this manager signals to us that this parable is something more. New Testament scholar Brandon Scott contends this is “a social parable that exposes the complex relationships and power struggles of the first century.”[2]
It shocks us because it exposes the aforementioned relationships and struggles. And it exposes the complex relationships and power struggles that entangle us today.
A Vision for Dehumanizing Systems
In 237 words, 35 fewer words than Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Jesus offers a vision of the realm and reign of God that indicts and subverts corrupt and exploitative, oppressive and repressive, economic systems in first century Palestine. Moreover, this vision still indicts and subverts any dehumanizing systems, regimes, administrations, or policies – and those who benefit from them.
Choosing a New Kind of Love
Jesus accomplishes this primarily by upsetting reductive binaries that foment division. This parable does not present us merely with a cruel master and powerless victims seeking vengeance. It shows human beings locked in a tug-of-war between conscience and complicity, covenant and compromise. Much as we are now. We are not just whites and minorities, citizens and illegals, LGBTQIA+ and heterosexuals, housed and unhoused, healthy and infirm, rich and poor, Woke and un-enlightened. We are human beings locked in a tug-of-war between what is right and what is easy; between breaking down barriers to belonging and conducting business as usual; between faithful witness and silent complicity; between the power of the Resurrection and death-dealing modalities.
Jesus uses this parable to reveal that the realm and reign of God is for the vulnerable and for managers who do not get even, pander to fear, or scapegoat – and for refugees and migrants fleeing danger. In so doing, Jesus reminds us that justice is about living with courage, compassion, and openness. Justice is about discerning that the freedom he brings to choose a new kind of love amid disorienting changes and uncertainty and dehumanizing policies.
Learning the Stories of Our Migrant Siblings
St. Francis said, “Preach the Gospel at all times and, when necessary, use words.” Blessed Francis is right: what we need now is not more words, but a new kind of love. A new kind of love rooted in the eternal love of God. We need a new kind of love. A new kind of love that is as old as the Scriptures and as young as a newborn’s first breath. A new kind of love that rejects disagreement rooted in oppression and violence, the denial of any person’s humanity, and their right to exist. A new kind of love that empowers us to reach out to our refugee and migrant siblings and to learn and say and tell their names and stories. A new kind of love that demands that we stand in solidarity with them until we all have faces. May it be so.
[1] Luke 16:1-13
[2] B. Brandon Scott, Hear Then the Parable (Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 1989).
