Kin-dom Logic
The prophet John, sometimes known as “John the Baptist,” was a cousin of Jesus and bore some resemblance to the great prophet Elijah from centuries past. He lived humbly in the desert, spoke boldly of repentance and forgiveness of sin, anticipated the coming of the promised Messiah, and baptized many people from Jerusalem and the surrounding countryside. He even baptized Jesus. He was so influential that some think there were still disciples of John running around decades after his death who had not yet learned about the teachings of Jesus.
Sadly, at the time of today’s scripture passage, he has been imprisoned, and he sends two disciples to ask of Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” It’s unclear what his motivation is in asking, and biblical scholar Alan Culpepper suggests four possibilities:
- John is anxious being in prison, and is asking out of uncertainty
- Jesus is a messenger of grace and healing rather than the expected fiery reformer and prophet
- John is simply seeking confirmation that Jesus is indeed the Messiah
- John is trying to prompt Jesus to make a public statement about who he is (Culpepper, 132)
Jesus has a response for his questioners, pointing to the miracles he has performed that have brought healing and good news to those in need. Unfortunately, our English translations of the scripture don’t do justice to the Greek, which scholars believe suggests a rhythmic performance recounting his deeds. A rough estimation might be something like,
“blind receive-sight,
lame walk,
lepers clean,
and deaf hear,
dead raised,
poor good-news-proclaimed.” (Gafney, 177)
Regardless, Jesus answers John’s question, and the details of his response tell us a lot about what the kin-dom of God looks like. Clearly, one aspect of that kin-dom is that God doesn’t want people to be ill. When Jesus, the human manifestation of God, was confronted by a person with an illness, he healed them.
The two passages in Luke that precede today’s involve Jesus healing, first a Roman centurion’s slave and then a widow’s dead son. Jesus often led with healing. It’s almost like he couldn’t help himself. The bodily health of those around him was a top priority.
Based on what it said in scripture — and Jesus was pretty familiar with scripture — it was assumed that if you had the power to heal people, you would. Jesus had the power to do that in a time before many medical advancements. Thankfully, in our time and place, we have the power to do a lot of healing ourselves. We are fortunate that we live in a developed nation, and following many decades of medical breakthroughs that have overcome ailments that plagued humans for millennia. People from the time of Jesus could only wish for the health care available to us today.
Or should I say, available to some of us today.
Sadly, there are many people in our country who needlessly suffer from illness due to lack of medical treatment. Health care is not affordable for them, nor is health insurance. Thus, they experience unnecessary pain, complications, and further illness. Many are unable to work as a result, and some even die.
In recent weeks, a judge in Texas has even decided that justice is best served by having more sick people. His ruling “has invalidated no cost coverage of preventive health services under the Affordable Care Act,” and could affect the approximately “100 million people [who] use various preventive services each year in the United States.” (Kritz)
Clearly, despite the skilled and too-often overworked nurses, doctors, and other medical professionals who dedicate their lives to the healing of others, the system that governs health care in our country is out-of-step with God’s will.
For a variety of reasons, we have an entire profit-driven industry acting as the gatekeeper to healing and reduced suffering. So whereas in most developed countries in the world, where the populace ultimately pays for all of its health care, in our country we ultimately pay for all of the health care we receive . . . as well as the health insurance industry.
Imagine if Luke 7:22 was written to reflect the reality of our society:
those who were blind receive sight . . . provided they or their spouse work for a company that provides health insurance coverage,
those who were lame walk . . . provided they don’t have a pre-existing condition,
those who were diseased-in-skin are cleansed . . . provided they can provide proof of citizenship,
those who were deaf hear . . . provided they are gainfully employed,
those who are poor have good news proclaimed to them . . . provided they have met their deductible.
Thus many thousands of our siblings live in pain, suffer in silence, and die prematurely while corporate executives enjoy bonuses for reaching claim-rejection goals, and politicians receive contributions for maintaining the status quo.
It’s an absurd, unjust, unkind system, one of which every US citizen should be ashamed.
Returning to today’s passage, the response Jesus provides the disciples of John is so like Jesus in that it is indirect and yet vastly informative. It reminds me of when he was asked to identify the most important commandment and he did not cite one of the so-called Ten Commandments; instead, he referenced Leviticus and Deuteronomy, saying to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength and your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:23–31).
Similarly, Jesus does not give a simple reply to his cousin’s question about whether he is the Messiah. I suspect at that time there were different interpretations about the nature of the messiah anticipated by scripture. So Jesus not only provides a passive affirmative response, he also clarifies his nature. No, there was to be no conventional overthrow of the Roman occupiers. No, he was not just the latest iteration of Hebrew prophets in the tradition of Elijah or Isaiah or Jeremiah; rather, the work of the messiah was the manifestation of the justice pointed to by those Hebrew prophets. The sick are healed. The poor receive good news. As scholar Robert Tannehill writes, “The list of Jesus’ works . . . not only shows that he is a great prophet like Elijah and Elisha but reveals that the time of God’s redemption, prophesied in Isaiah, is being realized through Jesus’ ministry. (Tannehill, 130–131)
Then he says, “blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.” I decided to take a closer look at that line, because why would anyone be offended at someone who was healing the sick?
The Greek core of that phrase is σκανδαλισθῇ (skandalisthē), and because that word can be interpreted different ways you’ll find other English translations of this verse, such as “Blessed is the one who does not fall away on account of Me.” In other places in scripture where a form of σκανδαλον is used, the term “stumbling block” is the translation; that points to someone being caused to sin. That didn’t make much sense in this context, though, so I favor another translation of σκανδαλον, which is more along the lines of hindering progress.
How might Jesus hinder progress? By giving people more than they bargained for, or pointing to an unanticipated path. Delivering good news to the poor rather than the powerful. Healing the sick regardless of their status (or the day of the week). Riding into Jerusalem on a donkey rather than a white horse. Submitting to death on a cross rather than seeking a worldly throne.
Jesus knew the kin-dom he preached was not exactly what many had hoped for in his day, and it offers similar challenges for us now.
When you transliterate the Greek letters in σκανδαλον to their closest corresponding letters in English, it’s easy to see the word “scandal” emerge. I think that’s an apt term for today, because that is how many in our society react to mention of kin-dom logic in the face of market-driven logic. If you doubt me, imagine what the odds of success would be for any of the following proposals:
- raising the capital gains tax to help pay for prenatal care for every expectant mother
- scuttling the Space Force and using the savings to pay the educational costs of future nurses and doctors
- converting the for-profit health insurance industry to a single non-profit that ensured everyone received the health care they needed
- decommissioning half our nuclear arsenal and reallocating the funds to make prescription drugs more affordable
Such suggestions are scandalous, and would have corporate executives, defense contractors, and legislators clutching their proverbial pearls in shock.
But blessed is anyone who does not take offense at Jesus. Jesus, who led with healing, who had the power to overcome illness and did so at every opportunity. How can we say we are following his path when we now have the power to eradicate so many illnesses and yet withhold treatment and care?
To me, a choice is offered. We can take offense at Jesus, or we can take offense at a system that allows people to live and die with needless suffering and pain due simply to their station in life or circumstances of their birth.
For Jesus, loving your neighbor, healing the sick, and offering good news to the poor were top priorities. We can claim things are more complicated now, but does that mean our priorities should be different? If not, how can we reorient the way we live — individually and collectively — to reflect those priorities? What values need to be overcome and what narratives need to be overwritten to champion kin-dom logic?
The answer to John’s question then is the same as it is now. Jesus was indeed the one promised to come, and we need wait for no other. Instead, we should join him in his work, in which those who were blind receive sight, those who were lame walk, those who were diseased-in-skin are cleansed, those who were deaf hear, and those who are poor have good news proclaimed to them.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
Works Referenced
Barclay, William. A New Testament Workbook. New York City: Harper & Brothers, 1958.
Culpepper, R. Alan. “The Gospel of Luke.” In New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume III. Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 2015.
Gafney, Wilda C. A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church, Year W. New York City: Church Publishing, 2021.
Kritz, Fran. “Is Your Preventive Care Still Covered? What to Know After Judge Strikes Down Part of ACA.” Verywell Health, April 4, 2023. https://www.verywellhealth.com/aca-preventive-care-texas-judge-strikes-down-7374934.
Tannehill, Robert C. Abingdon New Testament Commentaries: Luke. Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 1996.
