Matthew 19:17 - If you wish to have life, keep the commandments.
Jesus is really quoting Moses and Joshua from Exodus. Choose life, i.e. follow the commandments, and you shall live. All would be well with the Israelites so long as they followed the commandments. If they, we, you, I do the right thing, all will be well. This is the underpinning of the just world fallacy. This is the story that those interviewed in Strangers tell themselves. When I do the right thing, I'll be rewarded - all will be well. All isn't well and rather than question the story - which may be a sin - they look to others to blame. Those people, welfare frauds and those who jump in line, affirmative action. Make no mistake, this is racism.
They cannot see and their religion tells them not to ask even if they could, that their own internal conception of the world is what is hurting them. Fox News didn't put that there. Their religion and their culture and their parents did. The people they trusted and continue to trust put those lies there. They are not alone - we have all been lied to by our parents. Not on purpose of course, but because they were lied to as well. It is brutal to discover this. It hurts. Until we realize that we, too, have participated in perpetuating the lie. Maybe in some way, we too have profited from this lie. From encouraging people not to grow up - keeping them dependent. Yes, and even some Christians are profiting from this lie. A brand of Christianity that is not what Jesus preached - although he recognized it and preached against it.
The scriptures have always been twisted by the powerful to support what benefits them. I can't imagine Trump or Falwell or Pence taking Jesus' teachings to heart. Keep the commandments and you will live. Clearly Jesus doesn't say our lives will become pain- and problem-free. In fact, he predicts the opposite. No, he says we will LIVE. He's not talking about physical life, everyone dies, but rather truly live. Life to the fullest. No longer will we be dead souls in living bodies ... But what are the details? What does Jesus mean exactly by "live?" Keeping the commandments requires action - loving God, loving neighbor. It's not a warm, fuzzy feeling. It requires physical action. Doing and living according to the commandments leads to Life, lead to Love.
There are many times when Jesus advises people to go one step further - by taking actions that lead to life flourishing for others. Jesus is always challenging us to go one step further. This takes a lot of self-reflection, which our society frowns on. It causes one to question things that society as whole is not ready to have questioned: racism, sexism, misogyny, heterosexism, ableism, culturalism, white privilege, capitalism. Without having these conversations, we will instead have more events like Charlottesville, VA last weekend. Nazis, white supremacists, and the KKK terrorizing others. I'll have more on that next post.
Keeping the commandments is the mark of maturity. Wanting things our own way all the time is both greedy and immature. Not to mention ultimately destructive. This desire fails to recognize how interdependent all human beings are; all creation is. Our actions create consequences for all of creation - even the smallest irritation has the possibility to multiply itself in the larger world.
Jesus was trying to show his disciples what maturity looked like. It begins by recognizing the humanity of all people - no matter their country of origin, economic status, skin color, gender, age, sexuality, abilities (or disabilities). The tragedy of Trump is the triumph of Toddlerhood; the complete inability or unwillingness for people to grow up and stop feeling entitled to have everything their own way. Keep the commandments and you shall live; live fully, love fully.
B
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