Faith Based Justice Part 3: Jesus of one being with the Father

Power imbalance amongst people is an unfortunate reality.  Whenever this reality works in my favour, I am in a position to serve someone.  Either I can serve myself and my rights (which I often do) or I can serve an issue or person who does not have this same power (which I less often do).  I suppose a third option is apathy.  

I do not pretend that it is easy to understand how Jesus is both God – in particular the creating God that I wrote about several weeks ago – and a human like us.  Normally, an “it just is” argument would irritate me, but over the next couple of posts we will need to be satisfied with one*.  In this post, I want to consider Jesus’ divinity and, in the next, I will consider his humanity.  I hope that each will let me demonstrate how Christian teaching should help us make the choice to use our power in the service of others.  I believe that Jesus is of one being with the Father and this belief is why I am an advocate for social justice.

The second chapter of Paul’s letter to the Philippians is at the centre of my thinking about how Jesus’ divinity leads me to be a Social Justice Christian**, but we need to be careful when we use this passage. 

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:3-8, ESV)      

Before considering what this passage does say, I want to note what this passage does not say.  It does not say that a person lowers her or himself when serving the interests of others.  Inequality exists.  It is not inherent, though.  It is imposed.  Creator Jesus took on the form of a created man and in doing so he took the form of a lesser being.  People cannot imitate Christ by taking on the form of a lesser being because no person is a lesser being than any other person.  

Paul writes about fairness in this passage.  His statement is simple: Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.  Rights are a hot topic of discussion.  Rights are important and, I think, it is necessary to define clearly what given rights are if we are going to realize justice.  A right is useless if there isn’t a pronoun to attach to it.  The predominant pronoun we attach is my.  It is my right to practice a given religion.  It is my right to express myself.  It is my right to vote for whomever I wish.  And so on. 

And so on.

This is where fairness is important.  When a right is violated, I have the responsibility to answer.  The lesson in Philippians, though, is that I should be as particular about your rights as I am about mine.  Further, if there is a conflict between me protecting my rights or protecting yours, I should be careful to skew my efforts in your favour.  

This lesson is particularly important for people in positions of power.  Power is a relative term.  In most circumstances, I am not as powerful as an elected official is, but I am more powerful than an illiterate person is, a drug-addict is, or a sex worker is.  I have a number of powers, in fact, and I take many of them for granted.  

I wrote above that we cannot imitate Jesus and become a lesser being.  We can imitate him in being a servant and in being humble, however.  While Paul’s statement – Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others – is easily understood, it is not easily applied.  Paul undoubtedly knew this, so he added a reminder for readers.  Jesus did not use his divine rights to serve himself, but instead used them in a way that would serve the needs of his creation.  Jesus went further than this, even.  Rather than taking a place of authority in this creation, he took the place of a servant and his efforts ultimately resulted in his execution.  

It is impossible to take the creed seriously if we say, “Of one being with the Father,” without acknowledging Jesus’ humility.  Of course, writing about humility is difficult without appearing incredibly and ironically arrogant***.  I want to use a simple definition of humility – to prioritize the needs of others above what our rights entitle us to have.  With both this danger and this definition in mind, I will conclude that social justice is impossible without humility.

I draw my definition from Jesus’ actions, which reflect his belief that his right to grasp equality with God came second to my need for redemption.  If this is true – and I claim to follow Jesus – I also need to loosen my grip on my rights.  My right to a relaxing weekend is trumped by a homeless man’s need to not freeze.  My right to a respectable city (whatever that even means) is trumped by a sex-worker’s need to be treated with respect and dignity rather than being marginalized even further.  My right to spend what I earn on only myself is trumped by a hungry family’s need to access healthy food.  

Talk of setting aside rights comes with a caveat.  I recall a conversation that I had last year with a friend who works with the less equal (to paraphrase Orwell) and least of these (to quote Jesus) in another city.  

I needed practical advice about how he protected the privacy of the folks he served.  My concern came from an encounter I had a few days previous.  I was walking through Saint John with someone and ran into a man who I knew because he used the homeless shelter where I was volunteering.  He nodded, I did likewise, and we both went on our way.  It was a typical sort of greeting between two people who sort of know each other and happen to cross paths while on their way to something else.  

My walking-mate did not ask how I knew the other man.  This is fortunate because I had not considered until that moment how I could avoid breaking the man’s right to confidentiality about his housing status****.  My friend from the other city reminded me that protecting the rights of a person whom people typically ignore (and sometimes even abuse) and letting him know that I respect his rights is key in providing this person with empowerment. 

All of this to say that being humble in the face of my rights is certainly different than being humble regarding another’s.  

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*N. T. Wright’s Simply Christian and Simply Jesus are helpful to understand Jesus as both divine and human.  It is also worth checking out Rikk Watts’ New Testament Foundations course at Regent College.  Audio is available here.  His lectures on who Jesus is were easily my favourite academic moments during my time at Regent.

**The term “Social Justice Christian” continues to irritate me.  Pretentiousness abounds.  If anyone can suggest an alternative, please make a note in the comment section.

***I’m reminded of the comment made by theologian Al Yankovic in his seminal work AmishParadise:  “Think you’re really righteous?  Think you’re pure of heart?  Well, I know I’m a million times as humble as thou art.”

****The conclusion was to say, “I know him from around town,” and not bring the shelter up at all.