Welcome to the professional website and personal weblog of Jeremy Del Rio. Whether you're a client, friend, or curious onlooker, please don't stay a spectator. Engage the conversation. Your contributions matter here.
« Happy Birthday, Mom | Home | Monday Morning MP3 »
Jesus Justice: So Easy a Five-Year-Old Can Do It
By Jeremy | May 26, 2007
Part 4 of 5
[Part 3] [Part 2] [Part 1]
[This is reprinted from the May-June issue of the Journal of Student Ministries.]Judah’s not the first son who embodied justice for his father. There’s this teenage boy I know. He appears ordinary enough, with nothing much to distinguish himself except that he’s studious and works with his step-dad in construction. Like many teenagers he’s struggling to find his place and feels like a curiosity. Living in the ghetto is hard, especially since he just immigrated to the neighborhood in the last few years. Try as he might, he hasn’t mastered the accent and local customs. And forget the slang; that’s like learning a third language. Worse, the old-timers all seem to know something about him that he hasn’t figured out yet. He gets the distinct impression that they talk about his family, reinforced by the overheard name-calling. His peers can be especially cruel, teasing him to his face and instigating fights after school. The soldiers occupying the streets find the bullying funny. Sometimes the mocking gets to him. He wants desperately to fight back, but mom forbids it, promising that someday the rejection will make sense. He tries to take comfort in her words, but for now his heart just hurts, and the unfairness makes him angry. So he sneaks off to the outskirts of town and hides behind a gnarly old sycamore tree. There he remembers the hunger and loneliness of the refugee camp and recollects vague memories of a midnight flight from the small town where he spent his childhood. The details are sketchy, but he recalls stories of bloodshed and murder that he barely escaped. Not fitting in has been a recurring struggle for him. Then his memories fade, and he hears the echo of mom’s voice telling him about his birth. No way would his schoolmates ever find out he was born in a barn. The ammunition that would give them! They already call him choice animal names. But really, why did he have to be born in a stable, surrounded by donkey dung and cow manure? And why did it matter that Jose wasn’t his real dad? And why did the gossips congregating at the stoop down the street call him a bastard and his mother a whore? Even if that was true, what business was it of theirs? And why did they disdain him as if he should be dead? Perhaps you know this friend of mine. No longer a nameless and faceless teenager, his name is revered and reviled around the world, and artists have imagined his likeness for centuries. In case you missed it in Sunday school, this boy we call Jesus Christ. When the King of kings decided to usher his Kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven,†he penetrated class lines to do soâ€â€not as a well-intentioned outsider but from within the community. He “became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood,†(John 1:14, The Message) and his manner of doing so invited scorn. He was born into straw poverty made worse by political exile, and lived as an immigrant teenager in the ghetto. (“What good comes out of Nazareth?â€Â) He worked his ministry with no place to lay his head; made his last trip on a borrowed donkey; spent his last evening alive in a borrowed room; watched his lone possession, a robe, become a gambler’s prize at his death; and was buried in a borrowed tomb. He’s been there, done that, and overcome it so that he can meet the marginalized and exploited among usâ€â€those He called “the least of these brothers of mineâ€Ââ€â€and empower them to right the wrongs that got them there. The beauty of the gospel is that its justice extends both to the socio-economically marginalized and the well-off. It’s the great equalizer. Jesus went so far as to begin his longest recorded sermon, the one that spells out for the rest of his Kingdom values, with the counterintuitive idea: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven†(Matthew 5:3). When we recognize that the economically poor and spiritually poor are the same apart from Christ’s grace, we embark on the path of Kingdom justice. When this son grew up, he began his ministry and teaching by declaring his heart for justiceâ€â€not in some abstracted cliché but in concrete statements about his mission and his anointing. “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,†he announced, “because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor†(Luke 4:18-18). Jesus defined his mission as jubileeâ€â€the “year of the Lord’s favorâ€Ââ€â€by quoting Isaiah 61, which describes a God who provides comfort for those who mourn, exchanges beauty for ashes and praise for despair, rebuilds ancient ruins, and restores places long devastated. “Instead of their shame,†Isaiah concludes, “my people will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace they will rejoice in their inheritance … and everlasting joy will be theirs. For I, the Lord, love justice†(Isaiah 61:1-8). And that mission is not limited to the evangelical dichotomy of personal righteousness or social justice. God’s Kingdom, on earth as it is in heaven, offers both. [Part 5 on Tuesday]car caterham super 7 ringtoneringtones 80808cellular crazyfists us 36 ringtoneringtone delay 3sringtone 80808panasonic allure ringtone tx310corp torrington alltech490 jr harrington .410 topper richardson Map
Topics: articles, judah, justice | No Comments »
Comments are closed.