Overfullness of Life Luke 12:49-51
Text: 49 “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! 51 Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.”
If you go to Wikipedia and look up “Snowflake generation,” you will find this: Generation Snowflake, or Snowflake Generation, is a neologistic term used to characterize the young adults of the 2010s as being more prone to taking offence and having less psychological resilience than previous generations, or as being too emotionally vulnerable to cope with views that challenge their own. The term is considered derogatory. Until recently, the snowflake generation has been mainly confined to college campuses. One recent example can be seen at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, where students are now being invited to report to the school’s bias response team if they feel “belittled, disrespected, or isolated.” Well, who has not at some point in their life felt belittled, disrespected, or isolated?” In days gone by if you were belittled, disrespected or isolated, you moved on, you got over it, you stood up for yourself, or you do some introspection to see if the accusation fits, or, if necessary, you fought back with powerful rhetoric or a good sock in the mouth. Not so today, it seems. Now people report the least little personal infraction or offense to the proper authorities to seek justice and fairness. They succumb rather than learn to overcome. They too readily take on the title of victim, rather than earn and own the title of a fighter, of an overcomer.
Increasingly the snowflake phenomenon is operating in public schools, public places and, surprisingly, even in churches. Children learn about tolerance and fairness and justice, but they are not taught to stand their ground, to have self-respect, to know how to defend their argument, their position, their territory and their physical person. Defending against an aggressor gets you the same punishment as aggressing.
I will tell you how times have changed. I was in gym class in seventh grade at Van Buren Junior High School. We were have free time, where we could do whatever activity we wanted to – basketball, volleyball, and so on. I was taking a rest on the stage at the end of the gym floor and talking to the gym instructor with some other classmates when at the other end of the floor a fight broke out at the other end of the floor between one of the class bullies, named Mike, and another poor soul. Surprisingly the gym instructor just looked on, keeping an eye to make sure things didn’t get too out of hand. I told him, “Coach, I’d never want to fight Mike. He’s mean.” The coach replied, “Yes, but look at how wide he swings and how his arms flail. He’s out of control. All you have to do is duck once and give him a quick, straight on right-left, and you would have him on the ground.” Now, can you imagine what kind of trouble a teacher would get into today for giving that kind of advice to one of his students?
One of the perennial criticisms of Christianity is that it makes is adherents and weak and easily manipulated. After all, are not Christians referred to by Jesus as sheep? Sheep are characterized as blind followers who helplessly rely on a shepherd to lead them through life. Frederick Nietzsche, one of the greatest critics of Christians in history, observed that there was a weakening, pampering effect of Christianity which makes for a sickly disposition and outlook on life. Today, I am not going to argue against those criticisms, because I believe such critiques have merit. If you look around to see what much of so-called Christianity has become in our time, it is a pallid, milquetoast bastion of people who have miscalculated and misunderstood what Jesus had to say about the role of strength, power and passion in the life of one who lives and moves in the Spirit.
There is a misunderstanding that to be a follower of Jesus is to retire from the world, seek peaceful repose, avoid conflict and wait for the Christ to come flying down on a white horse to make it all better. In the meantime, we’re supposed to be weak, indifferent, and quiet, even when there are voices around us that are destroying our culture and setting us up for societal suicide.
But this idea that we are supposed to be weak, indifferent and quiet in the face of aggression against us personally and against our culture miscalculates the role that Jesus played in his culture and that we are expected to play in our culture. Jesus did say turn the other cheek. That tactic itself was a power tactic to use if you have no other position from which to defend yourself. More on that in a minute.
First of all, let’s listen to the words of Jesus: “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). “He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one” (Luke 22:36). What are we to do with these self-descriptions? We take Jesus at his word and realize that Jesus did not retire from life but placed himself in the middle of it. We are expected to do the same.
Jesus teaches us to be strong, to embrace and welcome struggle, to overcome, to gain self-mastery. There are already too many people walking around who have no control over their lives, their feelings, their actions, their thoughts. Their minds are controlled by messaging from movies, media, educational institutions and even churches that tell them to value tolerance, and equality more than anything, even if it means that your own cultural heritage and way of life our threatened. That is bad messaging. Our premise should also be: We will not accept any message that has the potential to cause harm to our way of life or our people. Do not let your hearts be manipulate and controlled by sentimentality born of weakness. Otherwise, your actions will be manipulated and controlled to become a submissive, uncritical, unthinking herd that has no self discipline and no ability to think for yourself. Too many Christians have succumbed to the messaging that calls us to be submissive, uncritical and merely entertained by Netflix, social media and feel-good music.
To our discredit, Christians have been too engaged in this pallid, empty, mind-controlled culture. We are guility of promoting this weakness of character. We talk about God as a loving and accepting God, but not about God as fire on the mountain who forges our lives through discipline and struggle, who teaches us to be strong, mighty warriors in a world of woe and danger. We pretend like there is going to be peace in our time, when all evidence to contrary, including the words of Jesus, tell us we had better plan for struggle, division and assaults on our culture. We are told that we are to be tolerant and accepting of other belief systems, even a religion that denigrates women, speak of killing non-believers, and whose stated goal is world conquest and domination. Even in the church, the focus has been on doing whatever we can to make everyone feel welcome, satisfied and happy, rather than speak about what can we do to ensure that the people of our culture are armed with the power of Christ to withstand the struggle and the changes that await us if the present direction of our culture and politics continues.
You see there are two overriding states of being that are being put forward in our world today. There is the “overfullness of life” and “the impoverishment of life.” The promulgators and pushers of the impoverishment of life are the loudest voices, and their power is on the ascendancy in our culture. The impoverishers of life speak of equality at any cost. They deny that there is a hierarchy of merit and competency, and so everyone gets a trophy. The impoverishers of life say everyone should win, when in reality there are winners and losers, and so we no longer know how to lose without crying and playing victim. The impoverishers of life talk of a world where there are no distinctions between people, even between the sexes. They blur the lines and try to convince us that there are no differences. They say that we should tear down all boundaries, distinctions and barriers and everyone will just get along. Well, that is hogwash, if you haven’t figured that out yet. The impoverishers of life honor weakness and bend over backwards to offer safe spaces rather than teaching people to grow a backbone and overcome. It promotes a weak, bland, equal, negative, reactionary, resentful world. This is the world that the impoverishers of life desire for you and desire to create in our society.
Those who live and move in the overfullnes of life love difference, not merely a lip-service to diversity, but a true diversity of abilities and strengths and overcomers. Overcomers love that there are winners and losers. They relish in struggle, because they know that struggle makes them stronger. They honor hierarchies of merit and competency. They celebrate that there are people with higher physical skills, intellectual abilities and artisan skills than them. I am not good with my hands in building things, but I marvel at those that can build, carve, and create out of raw materials. I’m not resentful about it. I don’t want to punish them because of their abilities. I want them to thrive, to create, to make beautiful things. Meanwhile, I will strive to improve my personal abilities and strengths, always struggling to better myself in mind, body and spirit.
Overcomers who value the fullness of life want the talented to succeed. Those who live in the fullness of life are not resentful of those with power or money. Those who live in the fullness of life know that if they are willing and committed they can overcome any obstacle in their way. They are not afraid to take risks and fail. They are not afraid to be misunderstood. They love their culture and want to see it remain strong. They are worried about why their young adults are not getting married and having children and what that means for their culture when their children don’t want children. Those who live in the fullness of life are deeply concerned that tolerance and sameness and equality are the chief virtues of society today rather than honor, courage, industriousness, strength, truthfulness and overcoming.
There are weak souls in the world, and there are great souls in the world. Our heritage and culture has traditionally taught young men and women to be great souls. Great souls are not afraid to carry a sword and uphold honor, courage, friendship, truth and loyalty, and to celebrate the overfullness of soul.
Aristotle in a passage from the Nicomachean Ethics describes what it means to be great-souled. Listen to these descriptions of the great-souled person:
- He deserves and claims honor
- He is good in the highest degree, in every virtue, never acting cowardly or wronging another person. He is never satisfied with mediocrity.
- He is indifferent to what fate brings him, neither overjoyed by good fortune or over-pained by evil and cares not for power and wealth, rather to be honored
- He doesn’t court danger, but if he encounters it, he faces it unsparing of his life
- He asks for nothing but gives readily
- He does not stoop or grovel before anyone, but hold his shoulders back and stands tall even among the rich and powerful
- He is a man of few deeds, but they are fantastic
- He cares more for truth than what other people think
- He is a straight-talker. He is outspoken and frank rather than timid
- He does not bear a grudge, for it is not a mark of greatness to recall things against people
These were the kind of human qualities of greatness that were honored and celebrated in our own culture until the impoverishers of life gained controlled of the bullhorn in our society. It is reminiscent of the strong and mighty Jesus who said let your yes be yes and your no be no. It sounds like the Jesus who said, by gentle as doves but wise as serpents. It sounds to me like the Jesus who said peace in our time at any cost is not the goal, rather a refiner’s fire that is always forging us into something new and stronger.
But what of “turn the other cheek?” New Testament scholar Walter Wink, whom I disagree with on so much, has a great exegesis of Matthew, Chapter. (You see people striving to be great souls can disagree with someone but still think they can have a good idea every now and then.) Wink says that to turn the other cheek is actually a tactical use of power when one has no other power to use:
“If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also.” Why the right cheek? A blow by the right fist in that right-handed world would land on the left cheek of the opponent. An open-handed slap would also strike the left cheek. To hit the right cheek with a fist would require using the left hand, but in that society the left hand was used only for unclean tasks. Even to gesture with the left hand at Qumran carried the penalty of ten days’ penance. The only way one could naturally strike the right cheek with the right hand would be with the back of the hand. We are dealing here with insult, not a fistfight. The intention is clearly not to injure but to humiliate, to put someone in his or her place… A backhand slap was the usual way of admonishing inferiors. Masters backhanded slaves; husbands, wives; parents, children; men, women; Romans, Jews. We have here a set of unequal relations, in each of which retaliation would be suicidal. The only normal response would be cowering submission. Part of the confusion surrounding these sayings arises from the failure to ask who Jesus’ audience was. In all three of the examples in Matt. 5:39b-41, Jesus’ listeners are not those who strike, initiate lawsuits, or impose forced labor, but their victims (“If anyone strikes you…wants to sue you…forces you to go one mile…”). There are among his hearers people who were subjected to these very indignities, forced to stifle outrage at their dehumanizing treatment by the hierarchical system of caste and class, race and gender, age and status, and as a result of imperial occupation. ?Why then does he counsel these already humiliated people to turn the other cheek? Because this action robs the oppressor of the power to humiliate. The person who turns the other cheek is saying, in effect, “Try again. Your first blow failed to achieve its intended effect. I deny you the power to humiliate me. I am a human being just like you. Your status does not alter that fact. You cannot demean me.” ? Such a response would create enormous difficulties for the striker. Purely logistically, how would he hit the other cheek now turned to him? He cannot backhand it with his right hand (one only need try this to see the problem). If he hits with a fist, he makes the other his equal, acknowledging him as a peer. But the point of the back of the hand is to reinforce institutionalized inequality.
To be great of soul is so important, because chaos is always pushing up against the lives. There is always danger lurking. There are always wolves waiting to devour. We must reject the impoverishers of life who teach us sameness, equality without merit, weakness, mediocrity, whining, bitterness, resentfulness. These are qualities of weak people who want to get power by making you ashamed of your power and strength. Do not listen to them. A healthy division that separates the wheat from the chaff, kindling fires that forge strength, and the sword of truth, courage, greatness, and overcoming are nothing to be ashamed of. They are just what we need in times like these.
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