Getting on Jesus' Wavelength... a critical stance toward "the givens"

Recognizing the way that Jesus' way of seeing, knowing, and doing is counter cultural is really just the beginning... Jesus' relationship to the religious and political authorities, and the prevailing cultural conditions and conventions of his time is often depicted as critical of "the givens," those taken for granted assumptions that we live and breath without seeing... like fish in water.

Some examples... the Jewish people of Jesus' time had very strict rules about observing the Sabbath, so that even minor kinds of labor were forbidden. But one Sabbath when Jesus and his disciples are walking through the grain fields, they are hungry and eat handfuls of the raw grains. When challenged, Jesus turns the authorities' logic around and tells that that the Sabbath was made for humanity, not humanity for the Sabbath. From their perspective, he is messing around with one of the most sacred prohibitions in their law. But Jesus puts the practical before the ideological or dogmatic. He is being reflective and critical of "the givens."

In other instances, the disciples are criticized for not fasting, or performing ritual purifications, and Jesus responds to the authorities that they are more concerned with the external observance of these customs, but have no regard for the interior conversion that God calls them to. He is pointing out their hypocrisy, and undermining the authority that these "givens" have in their lives.

In an example from today's scripture reading, the author of Luke's Gospel describes how a sinful woman crashes a dinner where Jesus is laying at table, as was the custom. Moved to tears by her encounter with him, she weeps so copiously that she bends down to dry Jesus' feet with her hair and to anoint them with oil. This kind of contact between an unmarried man and woman was so strictly forbidden that the offending parties could be stoned to death... but again, Jesus defies the conventions in the interest of making this a teachable moment about forgiveness, love, and faith. In being reflective and critical of "the givens," he is able to do something new... in that moment, to reveal a glimpse of the new creation.

In each of these cases, people seem to observe these customs because someone tells them to or because everyone else does so. And how often do we do the same... perpetuating customs and conventions that might have had some value or sigificance grounded in the experience of an individual or community, but now, we do them out of routine or an unreflective and uncritical habit. No doubt, if asked why, we will not hesitate to invent a reason, but if we're honest about it, we just don't know. While this is certainly the case with some of our religious habits and customs, there are other "givens" that are perhaps even more problematic, let alone destructive.

Just today while shopping for plants for my room, I overheard a clerk saying to someone: "be patriotic-- keep shopping!" For some reason, I thought that way of thinking passed with the last presidential administration, but the idea continues, no matter the fact that uncritical consumerism is bad for individuals, nations, and the planet. These idea linking consumerism and patriotism has a life of its own-- like a bad cliche. And this is just one example! Let's pay attention, why don't we, to the ideas, conventions and customs that we take for granted and perpetuate without having good reason or cause. Make sense?