Visions of Hope (Zechariah)
Stephen Terry
Commentary for the June 15, 2013
Sabbath School Lesson
“This is what the Lord Almighty said:
‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not
oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot
evil against each other.’” Zechariah 7:9-10, NIV
An oft
recurring theme with the Minor Prophets and echoed again with Zechariah is the
plight of the oppressed. Strangely, it is not the foreigners that Zechariah is
accusing of this crime. It is God’s chosen people, the Jews. Today’s parallel
might be the Christian church. If it is, we must ask ourselves if we are failing
to show mercy and compassion. Do we show proper care for the widow, the orphan,
the foreigner and the poor? Or are we more likely to feel threatened by them. Do
we suppress feelings of compassion because we worry that their lifestyle
choices might compromise our faith or that of our families? Does schadenfreude cause us to feel that
their mistakes in judgment have brought about their current circumstances, and
we should not interfere with the working of their “karma?”
Is it
possible for a Christian to have responses like these to the suffering around
them? Perhaps to understand the answer to that, we must understand what a
Christian is. There are many organizations and individuals who call themselves
Christian. They put the name of Christ on their buildings and sport Christian
symbols on their persons and vehicles. They listen to Christian music and read
Christian novels. The Christian jargon rolls from their lips with a natural
grace that bears witness to their relationship to Jesus. Or does it?
In spite of
the outward appearance of such affectations, the life tells the story. This was
reflected in the popular phrase “What Would Jesus Do?” If we apply that we can
ask ourselves some pretty clear questions about what it means to be a
Christian. For instance, would Jesus be more likely to shell out fifty dollars
for a ticket to a Michael W. Smith concert, or contribute that same amount to a
clinic providing medical care to the homeless? Would Jesus spend thousands of
dollars to jet one person to a foreign country to help build a church building for
the native people who may be too poor to even have the means to maintain the
building, or would He contribute those thousands to hire ministers who are
native to that country and will spread the gospel more effectively? In
addition, they will be able to feed and educate their families while they do
so. A church with Jesus’ name on it may be an impressive memorial in a country
with few such buildings, but it does little to fill the empty bellies of the
children of that country.
Why do we so
often identify Christianity with things, like buildings, instead of with people’s
needs? This causes us to come across like a plutocrat who gives a Rolls Royce
to a shoeless man he sees walking down the street. Even if he includes a full
tank of gas, eventually the poor man will be doing his shoeless shuffle down
the dusty street again, because the gas will run out, and he does not have the
means to buy more. Instead of things that do not help, Jesus gave people hope
and a future.[i]
When a
person receives an education, he has hope for the future, and when he has a job
that can sustain him and his family, he can work to realize those dreams. Instead
of working to make that possible, our efforts to “spread the gospel” can become
little more than thinly veiled neo-colonialism. Too easily we in the West forget
that our blessings are the result of our good fortune to be born where we were.
We take for granted that we can go to school and one day pursue a career that
will allow us a higher living standard than most of the rest of the world. However,
Eighty percent of the world’s population lives on less than $10.00 per day.[ii]
They are not so fortunate, due to their accident of birth.
Such low incomes
cannot sustain the style of living enjoyed by Western Christians. Is it
reasonable then to expect them to be able to maintain Western sponsored
structures and institutions once the money stops flowing? Yet we continue with
this colonial approach to evangelism.
No doubt,
some of those who are working in this way are sincere in their desire to
introduce the poor natives to Jesus, and the baptisms can be plentiful. But are
the native converts attracted to Jesus as much as to the obvious wealth of
someone who can fly across the globe with expensive technology in tow. Many of
these natives have lived their whole lives in one tiny village, with walking or
a small bike or moped as their primary means of transportation. Then someone
shows up in their village speaking a strange language and wearing clothes that
are nicer than anything they have been able to afford. They talk of places the
natives have never been and have not even heard of. A whole new world of
possibilities has opened up. They are drawn to this friendly person and the Western
world they represent. Then the missionary tells them that he loves Jesus, and
they should, too. Putting two and two together based on their primitive
understanding of religion, the natives may associate the wealth of the visitor
with the power of his or her God. They naturally want to belong to such a
powerful god that can send people half way around the world in a jet airplane.
What is collecting coconuts from a tree and living in a grass hut compared to
that?
Perhaps this
is why Jesus was not born in a king’s palace and had nowhere to lay His head.[iii]
This is not to say that people were not drawn to Him for the wrong reasons.
They even wanted to make Him king when he miraculously fed thousands from a few
loaves of bread and some fish.[iv]
His experience shows that even when we are merely relieving suffering, we may
be misunderstood. However, even those who misunderstood Him did not go away
with empty stomachs. Even after His resurrection, he was ever thoughtful of
others material needs. Calling to his disciples, who had been fishing all
night, He prepared breakfast so they could visit together without hunger.[v]
If we define
being a Christian in terms of being Christ like, maybe we will find ourselves
more in line with the Savior who ministered to people’s needs as opposed to
racking up baptism statistics.[vi] If people’s needs are met from love rather
than to simply get them into the water for baptism, they will be drawn to that
love more than to the material blessings provided. As one author wrote, “If we follow Christ’s
example in doing good, hearts will open to us as they did to Him.”[vii]
What does it
accomplish if a person comes to a nice church once a week, but his Christian
brothers and sisters allow him to spend the other six days in a hovel with not
enough to eat and rags to wear? Have we shown mercy and compassion to such a
one? Some might say it is impossible to make a difference for the entire world,
but if we can make a difference for one, the world is still a better place for
it.
We do not
even need to travel to other countries to make a difference. We have
opportunities to show compassion wherever we live. There are people who attend
our churches each week and the only human touch they have all week is the
greeter’s handshake when they come to church. Sadly, some churches do not even
have greeters, but even if they do, is it enough, or would Jesus go to their
homes and share his healing compassionate touch where they live?
For others,
the occasional potluck meal at church is the only regular meal they receive because
they do not have the means to have such a meal at home. Would Jesus seek these
people out and make sure they were eating properly? Or would He grumble about
the amount they were eating at potluck?
Others may
show up every week for church in a suit or a dress so we assume they are doing
fine. We overlook that the suit or dress is the same one they have worn for
fifteen to twenty years. Would Jesus make comments about their clothing being out
of style or threadbare? Or would He
tactfully share with them without shaming them so they could be better clothed?
Jesus
modeled compassion that came from the heart. Without that compassion, we are
little different from the ancient Jews whose lack of love for one another
destroyed their country and sent them into exile. Can we afford to follow the
same path they did? Perhaps it is not too late to change.
