We’re living in very difficult times where we’re being forced to ask, “What is the worth of a human being?” Does an unborn baby have worth? If so, at what point? How many weeks? months? trimesters? If viable? If not viable? Does a baby have worth only after it has brain activity, or heartbeat, or pain response can be measured? Does a baby have worth only if it possesses the right chromosomes, or if a woman says it has value? Does a baby have worth based upon the physical, emotional, psychological, financial, or environmental hardships it might present upon birth? Does a baby have worth only depending upon the circumstances in which it’s conceived—if it’s wanted versus not wanted, planned versus not planned, ill begotten or lovingly begotten? Who gets to set the value of a human being—some pastor, some scientist, some doctor, a father, a mother, popular sentiment? And what if it’s determined by another that your life doesn’t meet these criteria? Or an elderly parent, or loved one?
Who determines the value of the stranger, of someone “other” than self? Is a person’s worth less because of their gender (male, female), or because of their confusion about their own gender? Are they of less worth because of their race, their skin color, their nationality? Are they of less worth because they are Jewish, Hindu, Islamic, Christian, Atheist, etc.?
This past week the shooter in New Zealand was triggered by the presence of people he deemed “invaders.” He traveled throughout Europe and felt alarmed by the prominence of Muslims not just in various cities, but even most remote communities. In our own land, there are dueling forces seeking to rip our great nation apart. In part the next election will be based upon how we choose to see the stranger—are they an existential threat or an opportunity? friend or foe? Should our nation aspire to a borderless, wall-less, globalism or a self-protective nationalism?
There is a very strong effort to abolish the death penalty. Historically, and I would add Biblically, the death penalty was warranted whenever someone killed a fellow human being, created in the image of God. The death penalty declared the value of the life (or lives) taken while also warning a community not to dare tread upon God’s gift. Does every murderer, despite the carnage they cause, remain a person of worth? Does a person found guilty of violence, robbery, rape, incest, pedophilia have value? What about the mentally ill? What about the addict? The sexually immoral? The deadbeat parent? The ungrateful? The wicked? The poor, needy, destitute?
Matthew 25:35-36, “I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you visited Me.’”
Every moment of every day we’re being forced to ask, “What is the worth of a single human being?” We’ve all established a hierarchy of worth to our fellow human beings. We want to draw a sharp line between insider/outside, worthy/unworthy, us/them, neighbor/enemy.
Matthew 5:43-45, “You have heard that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” May I suggest that if we could get the worth of our fellow human beings right, maybe we can get our behavior right, and our laws, and our policies, and our politics, and our attitudes, and our worship, and our ministries, and everything else right? But to the extent we devalue the worth of certain categories of people, we’ll tolerate injustice, violence, murder, war, or even terrorism against certain groups.
Jesus was a champion of human worth. In Christ, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, male nor female, slave nor free. There is just plain worth and dignity. The reason we are so afraid of “valuing the least” or those of “lesser worth” is because it creates a crisis. “You mean I have to look at this person? Understand, listen to, subject myself to, pause for, walk with, go the extra mile for, share with, loan to, pray over, feed, refresh, house, cloth, provide healthcare for, look after, go visit?”
Most of us our vested in our own personal affluence and personal peace. What greater threat is there to personal affluence and peace if not the stranger? “You stay over there, I’ll stay over here. You stay on that side, I’ll stay on this side.” I think conceptually most of us would say, “Yes, every human being created in the image of God has value.” But what we reject are the implications of that belief. If it’s true that even my enemy has infinite worth, “how then should we live?” The untethered, un-whitewashed Jesus created a crisis of worth always, in every circumstance. Remember the Pharisees’ question, Jesus who is my neighbor? Who is worthy of love?
One category of people devalued in the 1st Century were children. Some are you are saying, “What? Children! Are you kidding me? What society could possible de-value its own flesh and blood?” The answer is, “Our kind of society.” American society!
Every kind of evil, every kind of injustice, has a philosophical pretext. We can devalue this life because its less than human, malformed, ill-conceived, morally inferior, racially impure, etc. If we agree with the pretext of injustice, we deem an action good. If we disagree with the pretext of injustice, its evil. A society can become so depraved that what is good becomes evil, and evil good! In Jesus’ day males > females, racial/religious Jews > racial/religious Gentiles, masters > slaves, adults > children, rich > poor, moral > immoral. We always devalue to justify. We say to ourselves, “It’s okay to feel this, think this, act against other” because “that other person is less, least.”
In Jesus’ day children were among the less/least. You need not read any further than Jesus’ genealogy in Matthew to be confronted with a crisis of human worth. Consider Jesus’ own lineage. Matthew 1:3, “Judah fathered Perez and Zerah by Tamar.” Matthew 1:5, “Salmon fathered Boaz by Rahab, Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth”. Matthew 1:6, “David fathered Solomon by Uriah’s wife.” Matthew 1:16, “Jacob fathered Joseph the husband of Mary, who gave birth to Jesus who is called the Christ.” Neither the incest of Judah/Tamar, the prostitution of Rahab, the adultery of David/Bathsheba, nor the out-of-wedlock pregnancy of Mary… (a) precluded the worth of a child, nor (b) preempted the power of God to bring about his purpose/plan in Christ Jesus. A life is a life, regardless of the pretext/justification we might invent to devalue it. Jesus’ genealogy is a testament of how by faith anyone can be part of God’s eternal purpose. It’s a vivid illustration of how all things work for the good of those who venture to love God!
In Matthew 18:1, “…the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “So who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Again, we have this innate hierarchy of worthy so deeply ingrained in out psyche. God has no such hierarchy. Matthew 18:2-5, Jesus “called a child and had him stand among them. “Truly I tell you,” he said, “unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child—this one is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one child like this in my name welcomes me.”
Hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, imprisoned, felon, born, unborn, child… Whatever you do to the least of these you do unto me. You welcome this child into the world, you welcome me. You cast this child away, you cast me away. Notice how at every turn, Jesus expresses total solidarity with “the least.” Who are the least? The least are whoever we devalue! To value a human is to value Christ. To devalue any fellow human being is to devalue Christ himself, in whom all people are created in the image. Talk about a paradigm shift!
Jesus minced no words about doing evil against others. Matthew 18:6, “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to fall away—it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea.” God is a ferocious advocate of the orphan/child.
In regard to the status of children before God, Jesus couldn’t have been clearer. Matthew 18:10-14, “See to it that you don’t despise one of these little ones, because I tell you that in heaven their angels continually view the face of my Father in heaven. What do you think? If someone has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, won’t he leave the ninety-nine on the hillside and go and search for the stray? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over that sheep more than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. In the same way, it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones perish.” That is talking about God’s heart for the least!
It’s okay to feel the weight of Jesus’ words—because our depraved minds need to be recalibrated. In our culture’s down is up, and up is down. The “good” our culture shouts/celebrates/defends is “evil” in the eyes of the Lord. But God’s face is upon the least. He has declared solidarity with the poor, the downtrodden, the sick, the unhealthy, the vulnerable. The discardable is the valued. The discardable is pursued.
Matthew 19:13-14, “Then children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them. Jesus said, “Leave the children alone, and don’t try to keep them from coming to me, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Just because you don’t think a person should have a place with God, doesn’t mean they don’t. In Matthew 21:15-16, “When the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonders that Jesus did and the children shouting in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant and said to Jesus, “Do you hear what these children are saying?” Jesus replied, “Yes, have you never read: You have prepared praise from the mouths of infants and nursing babies?”
Jesus’ words radically reorient us to the worth of every human being. We tend to be worry about the least—what is their standing before God? The people we should be worried about are those who think they’re the greatest. The greater we think we are the further we are from the Kingdom. The further we push the “stranger” away, the further we’re actually pushing Christ Jesus away. The violence we do to “others”, we actually do unto Christ. [READ MATTHEW 5:43-48]
The cross was an instrument of terrorism against the least. By dying on the cross Jesus declared solidarity with the least. He joins in our suffering, he tastes the violence, cruelty, and injustice. But in dying on the cross Jesus did something even greater. He declared the infinite value/worth of every human being. “For God so loved [so valued] the world, he sent his One and Only Son to die that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” 1 Peter 1:18-25, “For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was revealed in these last times for you. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
On that cross Jesus fundamentally changed human relationships. Since you have purified yourselves by your obedience to the truth, so that you show sincere brotherly love for each other, from a pure heart love one another constantly, because you have been born again—not of perishable seed but of imperishable—through the living and enduring word of God. For All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like a flower of the grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this word is the gospel that was proclaimed to you.”