- Jeremiah 2:4-13 and Psalm 81:1, 10-16 •
- Sirach 10:12-18 or Proverbs 25:6-7 and Psalm 112 •
- Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16 •
- Luke 14:1, 7-14
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| Diego Rivera Wall Street Banquet (1928) |
On the surface, the Gospel for this week takes a radically
egalitarian turn. It is readily interpreted as Jesus’ most powerful statement
of his ‘option for the poor’, and a corresponding rejection of all social
hierarchies. Interpreted in this way, many Christians have seen in it an affirmation
of the Gospel’s compelling relevance to the real world of poverty and injustice.
However, if this passage really is meant to recommend
the abandonment of social, economic and political hierarchies, in reality it can
claim little relevance to human life. Virtually every human society has
distinguished between people in terms of their power, wealth and accomplishments. This reflects such a deep tendency in human beings, that even modern democratic societies are shaped by social divisions of this kind, and there seems
little prospect of its ever being otherwise.
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| Illustration from the Book of Sirach (German, 1751) |
A more nuanced
interpretation of the passage emerges, though, if we consider it in conjunction with the brief reading from Sirach. ‘The beginning of human pride’ the writer says, ‘is to
forsake the Lord; the heart has withdrawn from its Maker’. It is not social
distinction as such that causes destructive divisions between human beings, but
the pride that it so often, and so easily, both reflects and fosters. The key Christian concept
is not social equality but personal humility – a humility born of the constant awareness that neither wealth nor power can render us any less dependent upon the grace of God, in comparison with whose glory even our greatest achievements seem fleeting and paltry.
As several of Jesus parables reveal, the great danger of
wealth and prestige is that it makes it far harder for those who enjoy it to ‘act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with
God’.
