I can’t fully explain the intellectual connection between this post and an upcoming one expanding on the discussion of social truth, but I somehow just know this has to get in there first.
This teaching from Donald Sensing, How Jesus Invented Individual Liberty gave me one of those “Of course! How could I miss it?” moments. There is the interesting question whether his overall premise is true – that Jesus of Nazareth was the first up with this type of independence from tribe. While there are earlier examples of elites who were expected to transfer their loyalty to a class, I don’t think that’s quite the same thing. Pursue that as you will, but there is another part that struck me forcibly.
When Jesus talks about mother, father, brothers, and separating from them to become part of a new group, he is talking about clans; about tribes. Israel was a tribal society – “…of the Tribe of Isaachar…”– as most societies have been throughout history. As the nation grew, there were further subdivisions, down into clan loyalties. It persists in Arab cultures in that area to this day.
When North Americans, the Anglosphere, and to a lesser extent Western Europeans hear Jesus’s words “who are my mother and my brothers?” or the command to let the dead bury the dead, we cannot help but think of nuclear families. We have a dim awareness that cousinages were closer, aunts and uncles more connected, than in our present day, but the full force of belonging to a clan just isn’t in us. Too many of us live apart from those we were raised with, having struck out on our own years ago, and the descendants of long lines of people who struck out on their own. Clans have kind of a humorous aspect to us, getting to wear tartans or go to family reunions.
It’s not the same. One counted on the clan for getting a job, or a son-in-law, or help in need, and were expected to provide it in return. Look at Mary going to visit Elizabeth – her cousin, please note. People took you in. If you screwed up, they were also shamed, so they had an interest in your actions. There was not much survival outside the clan. Jesus isn’t just talking about Mom and Dad. He is using them as the hyperbole, as he often does. Shall you leave the clan if it comes to that? I come to set brother against brother. Yes, even to that extreme shall you go.
It doesn’t go away at once. Paul refers to providing for one’s family, for example. But this is the same mind-opening concept I got from the Ockenga Institute NT study two years ago: Jesus is not instructing us to become world citizens in our modern sense, but to become part of a new tribe which anyone in the world is eligible for. (I recommend Ockenga couses, BTW, though my wife liked the OT instructor far better than the NT instructor)
Secular readers might note that this would be something to be grateful for, even if you don't think Jesus is God.
Secular readers might note that this would be something to be grateful for, even if you don't think Jesus is God.
Another from Sensing, commenting on the Pew Research thatRepublicans are smarter than Democrats – on a range of political-knowledge questions. My take has long been that the subgroup True Liberals might have a slightly higher verbal IQ than the population as a whole, but fall behind conservatives on math. Further, hard knowledge questions similar to those in this survey are also a conservative strength: a higher count in the Bill of Rights, cleaner distinctions between branches and forms of government, etc. That’s the same as “smarter” only in one sense. Still, it’s the reverse of the conventional wisdom, so it’s worth mentioning.
