Equality

Matthew23:8 – “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one teacher and you are all brothers and sisters.”

In Hebrew, ‘Rabbi’ means ‘my great one,’ and was used as an honorific for addressing teachers as well as talking about them when they weren’t around. In telling his disciples not to honor each other in this way, Jesus was reminding them that he was their teacher and that they were on equal footing as disciples. They were not to walk around lording it over others as the Pharisees did.

The same applies to us. If we call Jesus ‘Lord,’ we recognize our equality with our brothers and sisters around the world. Ideally. In real life, we idolize basketball players, musicians, poets, authors, artists, and even presidents. We think that, somehow they are better, more deserving than we are. In idolizing some people, however, we open the door for the opposite to happen. We open the door to denigrating others. Superhumanizing people inevitably leads to dehumanizing others.

Dehumanizing others leads to Jim Crow laws, taking children from their parents as a punishment for daring to seek asylum in the US, the murder of Black Americans by police (with impunity), the cuffing of Black schoolchildren for minor infractions, moving away from our neighborhood out of fear the property values will go down when Black people move in, branding all Muslims as terrorists regardless of their actions, making the lives of LGBTQ+ people more difficult than necessary because of who they love, making the lives of those of us who have different physical needs than most of the population harder because ‘it’s good business,’ women being sexually harassed (again with impunity), and the denigration of the experiences of all these people when they push back.

But, we, as followers of Christ, are not to idolize or demonize others in this way. All human life has value. All of us are precious to God. No matter how productive we are, or how non-productive we are God loves us more than we are able to imagine. Jesus calls us to love others in response. He calls us to love those we judge ‘unlovely’ as well as those we find easy to love. This includes that person whose name popped into your head. Love them. Love while you push back against those who would judge some people as more deserving than others of love and attention, even if that person is you.

Love them, love yourself, love God. That is always our first and highest calling and our biggest challenge. Jesus says do it anyway.