This is What Equality Looks Like

Matthew 20:26 - "It will not be so with you. Whoever wishes to be great among you must become your servant."

And we're bback to the last will be first - phrased differently. "It will not be so among you" refers to the previous verse in which he described contemporary rulers lording it over their subjects. He is giving James and John a friendly rebuke along with his reiteration of the upside-down hierarchy of his kin-dom. As members of Jesus' kin-dom, are instructed not to aspire to be great as the world sees greatness but rather to aspire to serve.

Jesus describing for them the upside-down nature of his kin-dom. Rather than working our way up the ladder, we are to work our way down toward those whose access is limited or non-existent, the outcasts. Contemporary outcasts include people experiencing homelessness, people who aren't "white," people who commit crimes while not being "white," people with little or poor education, people with disabilities including mental health issues, people whose sexuality doesn't match the one male-one female paradigm. I could go one. Jesus challenges the disciples yet again to go further in being in the world but not worldly.

Jesus is always challenging our ways of seeing (perception) and our ways of being in the world. He wants us to discover love and for many of us, dependent as we seem to be on TV, facebook, twitter and other media, that means being with those we find unlovable - at least at first. Once we spend time with those the world rejects, we begin to see more clearly how other people's stories intersect with our own. We begin to see how our systems - political, economic, social - are geared toward keeping white cishet men in power and keeping all others down. It's no one person's fault. As we begin to see it, we can no longer be satisfied with the accumulation of things as a measure of success, we can no longer be satisfied with the status quo.

The deeper we go in love, the more we see how unloving our old ways were. I'm extrapolating from my own experience here. I thought success meant having a good-paying job and being responsible. The world (at least in America) would add a college degree, owning a house, being married, having children, having good credit, having status symbols such as cars, jewelry, second homes. These things need to be protected so we get a security system, fence our yards in, and gate our communities to keep "those people" out. Our hearts become small and insular rather than opening up to the love of others. Jesus tells us this is not the way to love. It is the primrose path to demonization and hate of the other.

Going toward love (down) challenges us to be open to letting go of our possessions; our addictions to drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, cigars, TV, social media, fiction, books, shopping, gambling, love, sex, and all the other things we substitute for getting to know ourselves and others. Going toward love frees us to not worry about what we wear or how we will get our next meal. Going toward love frees us to spend our time loving others, hearing their stories, serving them. Going toward love is the way to be great in the kin-dom of love.
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