What about then the example of Jesus and his ministry and the apostles or the early church regarding social justice? Was that a priority or even a secondary thing that they pursued?
What's their example? John the Baptist has been unjustly imprisoned. Verse 2 of Matthew 11 reads, Now when John, while imprisoned, heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples. That is, John the Baptist sent word to Jesus by a couple of John the Baptist's disciples. Jesus, of course, is well aware. Not only that John is in prison, but why he is in prison.
In verse 3 of Matthew 11, John's disciples ask of Jesus this question, Are you the expected one or shall we look for someone else? From the standpoint of social justice, Jesus, knowing that John was imprisoned unjustly, should have freed John from prison. That would have been the just thing for Jesus to do according to the social justice argument. John the Baptist has been unjustly imprisoned. Jesus is therefore obligated to right that injustice and the only way to do that is to free John from prison, right? But see, Jesus doesn't do that. As I said, Jesus knows that John is in prison unjustly. But instead of freeing John, Jesus leaves John there, knowing that John will soon be executed. The emphasis throughout this dialogue here must be that John is in prison unjustly.
He's going to be executed unjustly. And what is the narrative of the entire social justice argument? It's injustice.
This is either unjust or that's injustice. But Jesus' response to John's disciples is a lesson to us all in what is of most importance to God and what should be of most importance to the church. Verse 4 in Matthew 11 reads, this is Jesus' response to John, go and report to John what you hear and see. Verse 5, the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. Now, this is significant, David, because the Jesus of the social justice movement would have said this. The poor have jobs, or the poor have homes in which to live, or that the poor have food on the table. But notice that in all that Jesus said in response to John the Baptist, in his message to be taken back to John the Baptist, the poor were mentioned last. And Jesus singled them out, not for having met all their felt needs, but for what was the most important thing in this world, even to the poor, which is having the gospel preached to them so that their souls might be saved for all eternity. We hope you gained from this short take of the Christian Worldview radio program. To hear the full program and further connect with this ministry, visit thechristianworldview.org. I'm David Wheaton.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-03-22 01:38:40 / 2024-03-22 01:40:17 / 2
