Without Love, We Are only Making Noise
The disciples whom Jesus called to follow him were a motley crew to say the least. Fishermen, tax-collectors, the poor and disenfranchised, and even a prostitute or two. The religious community shunned these working poor, thinking that their lot in life was deserved, and a punishment for some sin, either theirs or their parents.
Institutional religions, whatever their brand—be they Jewish, Christian, Muslim or Hindu—tend to favor the prosperous more than the impoverished. Poverty, it is thought, denotes the absence of God’s blessing, a sign of divine disapproval. Of course it doesn’t hurt that the rich can contribute more financial support to the work of these institutions than the poor, a sure way to win the favor of the establishment.
It is human nature for religious people to think that good fortune follows those who deserve it, while misfortune is God’s judgement for evil behavior. To support this belief, passages in Scripture are cited as proof that we reap what we sow. Proverbs 12:21, for example, tells us that “No harm befalls the righteous, but the wicked have their fill of trouble.” Psalm 1, as well as many other biblical passages, subscribe to the idea that bad things simply don’t happen to good people. If you live according to God’s law, you will prosper; if you don’t, you will fail.
Even though we rationally know there is more to this perspective than meets the eye, these verses have become so ingrained in our religious culture that it is difficult for victims of life’s cruel realities not to feel embarrassed or ashamed when life falls apart. After all, if some people enjoy God’s blessing, while others experience one calamity after another, it is assumed by some that the unfortunate have done something evil to offend God.
On the other hand, there are many people who have flouted the laws of God and have achieved remarkable success in this world. It doesn’t appear that these people have suffered the judgements of God or, as the Bible warns, “have their fill of trouble.” Everywhere around us we see and read of people who seemingly go through life with health and wealth and yet have never given God the time of day.
So what are we to make of these confusing disparities? When we dive a little deeper into Scripture, we discover a more seasoned understanding that suggests that health and success shouldn’t necessarily be equated with God’s blessing any more than poverty and sickness should be ascribed to God’s punishment. Life is simply unfair, often with no rhyme or reason why things happen the way they do.
Perhaps the biblical passages that suggest reward for the righteous and retribution for the wicked are better understood as a kind of probability handbook. If you play by God’s rules, often, but not always, you will enjoy a blessed life. Conversely, people who live undisciplined and self-centered lives usually, but not always, crash and burn.
The Book of Job represents a poster child for the reality that bad things do happen, sometimes frequently happen, to good people. Just because we work hard and follow the ways of God doesn’t mean that our life will be spared unjust suffering. If you think that following God will guarantee you a life free from suffering life’s brutal inequities, you will probably be disappointed.
Jesus challenged the prevailing view that the righteous earn God’s favor and are protected from suffering, while the sinful suffer both now and in the world to come. The popular religious sentiment, espoused in the first century and our own time as well, “Where God is, there is no suffering” was altered by Jesus to “Where there is suffering, there God is.” Both Old Testament and New show support for Jesus’ view, but because it doesn’t align with how some religious people think the world should work, it has failed to enter the religious mainstream. It is hard to see the horrors of unjust suffering and think that these terrible tragedies are in no way a sign of God’s displeasure. We much prefer images of health, beauty, and abundance as signs of God’s favor for righteous living, and convince ourselves that the ugliness of suffering and poverty plague lives that have distanced themselves from God.
It must have shocked the sensibilities of the respectably religious when Jesus reached out to the poorer classes, the so-called sinful, and cared for them, and even invited them to follow him. By standards of the day, these people on the margins were thought to be far removed from God’s love, certainly from God’s blessing. The diseased lepers, blind, and sick were elevated by Jesus’ concern and attention given to them that scandalized the religious community. These “unclean” people were from the lower strata of society and were looked down upon as the dregs of humanity, yet Jesus showed love and compassion for them. They were dear to him and to God.
The world hasn’t changed much, has it? Poor people, migrants, and the sick are still viewed with suspicion, if not disgust. We may pity these lowly people, but deep within we feel that they must have done something to have merited their dire circumstances. Instead of feeling compassion for families fleeing their homes and risking their lives to come to America, we often villainize these desperate people, as if they are criminals. The people on the margins or the ones living on the streets, we avoid as much as possible. The sick and infirm have our sympathy, as long as they can pay their medical bills but health care, we tell ourselves, is a privilege and not a right.
The teaching of Jesus reminds us that when our passions and convictions are uncoupled from our compassion and love, we have taken a huge step away from God. Regardless of how fervent our convictions, without love, we are only making noise (I Cor. 13:1).
