Biblical Reflections

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JUSTICE. PARTICIPATION AND PEACE

Kim Yong Bock

Dr. Kim Yong Bock is a Korean theologian and a longtime supporter of ecumenical youth and student movements in his own country. He is also a leading exponent of “minjung” theology.

I. The Messianic Privilege of the Poor

Now these are ordinances which you shall set before them. When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing. If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife will go out with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s and he shall go out alone. But if the slave plainly says, “I love my master, my wife and my children; I will not go free”, then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him for life.

When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall go out as male slaves do. If she does not please her master, who has designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed; he shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has dealt faithlessly with her. If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter. If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights. And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money. (Exodus 21:1-11)

And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets. (Luke 6:20-23)

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The first Biblical passage is the core of the “Covenant Code,” which is reported to be the most ancient written segment of the Old Testament.

The immediate social background of the passage is the early settled community of the Hebrew people in Palestine after the Exodus and the long journey through the Arabian desert.

The foundations of the Covenant Code is the historical experience of the Hebrew people’s Exodus from slavery in the ancient Egyptian empire. This Egyptian rule is regarded as a manifestation of “Oriental despotism,” which is characterized by the use of corvee (forced labor), the high developments of a construction technology, military force, and the symbiosis of political authority and religious deity..

The Hebrew, or apiru, were regarded as socio-economically disinherited and politically marginalized and they were victims of taxation, corvee and military conscription. In legal language the term apiru occurs only as the designation of a man who sells himself to pay his debts… it originally referred to the legal and social position in which a man normally placed himself by selling himself into slavery.

Yahweh of the Hebrews and the Exodus event made a covenant with his people that they should protect the rights of the slaves, the poor and the disinherited such as widows, orphans and strangers. This covenant has its basis in Yahweh’s demand to his people for exclusive loyalty, and for obedience to no other authority than Yahweh.

The institution of slavery was the order of the day. But what is important in the laws regarding slavery is that they deal with the freedom, liberation and the rights of slaves.

i. In the seventh year the slave must be set free

ii. A girl slave cannot be sold to foreigners. She should be treated like the master’s daughter, when married to his son. She is entitled to the same amount of food, clothing and the same rights when the master takes a second wife.

The Deuteronomic equivalent (15:12-18) says:

When a fellow Hebrew, man or woman, sells himself to you as slave, he shall serve you for six years and in the seventh year you shall set him free. But when you set him free, do not let him go empty-handed. Give him lavishly from your flock, from your threshing-floor and your wine-press. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you; that is why I am giving you this command today…

The culmination of the Book of Covenant is found in the laws

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on the Sabbath day and Sabbath Year.

i. For the protection of working slaves and foreigners a Sabbath day of rest should be instituted.

ii. For the protection of the poor the land should be rested so that the poor can share the produce.

This is also reflected in the Year of jubilee. (Lev. 25)

In this year you shall set the fiftieth year apart and proclaim freedom to all the inhabitants of the land. During this year all the property that has been sold shall be restored to the original owner or his descendants, and anyone who has been sold as a slave shall return to his family...

In this year the land and property are regarded as Yahweh's, and you are to protect his people, especially including the poor and propertyless .

This tradition is represented by the Prophets in the history of the people of Israel. The foundation of the Book of the Covenant is justice, which is the content of the covenant between Yahweh and his people (apiru). The content of justice is the protection and rights of the slave, the poor and the powerless.

The authority or basis of this justice is Yahweh, not the kings, nor emperors, and not gods, especially not the symbiosis of political power and religious authority such as Ramses II, Hammurabi, the Baalist Kings of Palestine. justice that protects and gives rights t, the slaves (apiru), the poor and the powerless is Yahweh's exclusive favour, which he promised in his covenant of Sinai.

The Lukan beatitudes were pronounced to the Christian communities in the context of the Roman Empire. The power of the Roman Empire was manifested as an oppressive authority, persecuting the Christian communities in particular.

The original setting of the Lukan passage was a rural plain iii Galilee, where the multitude of people had gathered to be near Jesus. Then Jesus preached to his disciples about the privileges due in the kingdom of God to those same poor, hungry, weeping and persecuted people.

This is consonant with Jesus' pronouncement of Good News, quoting from Isaiah:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and "coves of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

"The poor and persecuted are specially invited to the celebration and feast of the Kingdom of God." This is the central core of the Biblical Gospel.

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What is the implication of this Gospel for our own situation in Asia today?

II. Solidarity in Suffering

Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so he opened a way; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to bruise him; he has put him to grief; when he makes himse4f an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand; he see the fruit of the travail of his soul and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be recounted righteous; and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him to Portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:1-12)

And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; and they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will mock him, and spit upon him, and scourge him, and kill him, and motor three days he will rise. " (Mark 10:32 - 34)

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The story of the suffering servant emerges in the context of the captivity of the people of Israel in Babylon. The suffering of Jesus Christ unfolds in the context of the colonial domination of the Roman Empire.

The poetry of lamentations under the Babylonian captivity tells the story of the suffering people of Israel. The story of the massacre of innocent children around Bethlehem at the birth of Jesus tells of the cruelty of the Roman power which caused the suffering of the people of Israel.

Our Old Testament passage is set in the context of Deutero-Isaiah. As to the question of who is the Suffering Servant, there is no definite answer. The subject (who) is not confined to on(, individual person or the collectivity of Israel at one time, but its predicates are inclusive of the comprehensive biography of the Suffering Servant (both as an individual and as collectivity) throughout the history of Israel. The Suffering Servant is messianic, royal, prophetic and apocalyptic. One thing is clear: there is a unity in the predicates, that is, the suffering Servant.

The Suffering Servant as the predicate of the comprehensive Yahwehistic social biography of the people of Israel includes the context of prophetic suffering such as that of Jeremiah, and apocalyptic suffering under the Babylonian exile, although the Messianic and political nuances are stronger than the prophetic and socioeconomic ones.

1. The Servant of Yahweh was so disfigured that he hardly looked human. He had no dignity or beauty. There was nothing attractive about him. This is a description of his objective conditions.

2. He was despised, rejected and suffered pain. He was ignored as if he were nothing. We have played an active role in his biography. Here "we" refers to the writer; but "we" is also the reader.

3. But he endured the suffering and pain that should have been ours. He was wounded and beaten because of us. He received the blows; he was punished and treated harshly on behalf of us. He suffered vicariously on our behalf.

4. He was arrested, sentenced and led off to die. He was put to death. He was placed in a grave with evil men. He did this for the sins of our people.

5. This was done as a sacrifice to bring forgiveness. He willingly gave his life and shared the fate of many sinners for their forgiveness.

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One might say that this is the social biography of the Messianic Servant, who suffered for his people and their sins. We find the ultimate solidarity of the Servant of Yahweh in his suffering to share the fate of his people, their sins and their evil.

In place of the Servant, we can put the people (minjung – the exploited, oppressed and repressed) and read the Song of the Suffering Servant for the meaning. The innocent suffering of the minjung should have a redemptive significance in the drama of human history. This does not make the minjung free of sins and evils.

This is the reason why the Suffering Servant should be the Messianic Servant of Yahweh who shares the destiny of the people. He bears the Cross innocently as the fulfillment and culmination of his life as the Messiah, betrayed, despised and rejected by his people.

Philippians Chapter 2 also depicts Jesus as the slave who shares the human destiny. This is the messianic style of life and the social biography of the Messiah that shares the destiny of the people with their sins and evils.

This is the end of the social biography of the Servant of Yahweh, Jesus the Messiah, the people of Israel, and the minjung. But this cannot be the real end of the story of the people, Jesus the Messiah, the Servant of Yahweh and the people of Israel.

He will be honored. (Is.53:12)

I will give him a place of honor… (Is.53:12)

But three days later he will rise to life. (Mark 8:31)

For this reason God raised him to the highest place above and gave him the name that is greater than any other name. (Phil. 2:9)

These exclamations are not based upon the historical basis of experiences, or analysis or principles, but upon the conviction that those who have innocently suffered will be vindicated by God.

Therefore, our community of the Messianic Servant is capable of sharing the destiny of the suffering people on the basis of the reality of our faith in the justice of God who vindicates those who

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innocently suffer.

This is the true meaning of the Incarnation. God came and dwelt among the people in the form of a human body to share their destiny. This is God’s solidarity with his people.

What does it mean for us to be in solidarity with suffering people today?

III. Koinonia: The Messianic Feast

Now the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet; and distribution was made to each as any had any need. Thus Joseph who was surnamed by the apostles Barnabas (which means, son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field which belonged to him, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet. (Acts 4:32-37)

Now the whole earth had one language and few words. And as men migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.. And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.’ And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, ‘Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.’ So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth; and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the Language of all the Earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.” (Genesis 11:1-9)

The first passage is closely related to the outpouring of the Spirit; it is the story of the koinonia in the spirit, and it refers to the Lord’s Supper and Agape feast among the people of the Messiah.

The story of the wedding banquets, to which the poor in the

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street are invited (Luke 14:15-32) are all stories of messianic styles of life.

In Acts, we witness a profound ecumenical experience of the coming of the Holy Spirit. That is, all of us hear people speaking in our own languages about the great things that God has done. We encounter a linguistic miracle in the coming of the Holy This leads us to the story of the Tower of Babylon in Genesis 11:1-9. Here the linguistic confusion was the result of the Babylonian revolt to build the tower that would reach heaven. This that the language differences as such are not condemned, but "incommunicado" is the curse. In this context the Babylonian Tower symbolizes the oriental despotic power, under which real communication could not take place. Under the rebellious power structure of the Babylonian Tower, the communication of "what God has done" is not possible; this itself is the curse.

The linguistic event of Acts is the miraculous communication of what God has done among the people under oikoumene. The story that Peter sought to communicate was none other than the theologized version of the social biography of Jesus — with the people. What the believers shared among themselves at that time was nothing other than the experience of the Holy Spirit together with the linguistic miracle to share the story of what God has done — that is, the story of Jesus. This communication was the basis of their life together, namely, communication — koinonia.

Koinonia is the common sharing of the story of Jesus with the people, that is, what God has done, and its resultant experience, which is the sharing of all things. Koinonia is not primitive communism. Koinonia is sharing the cross with Jesus and sharing the suffering of the people. This is the meaning of the sharing of the story of Jesus and his people.

Ecumenical koinonia is the sharing of the story of Jesus among ourselves, who come from all over the world. This story of Jesus is the very story of our peoples who are the minjung or ochlos in our own nations.

When the linguistic miracle takes place through the Holy Spirit to communicate what God has done among our people, we have true koinonia, the true ecumenical koinonia, which is the sharing of everything — even the cross.

To do this is not easy. There is the curse of the Babylonian Tower that obstructs what God is doing today. What is the modern counterpart of the Babylonian Tower that brings the curse of

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linguistic non-communication among peoples?

1. Koinonia means sharing the experience of history with people. In the Exodus event, God said, "I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians."

2. Koinonia means sharing the people's dwelling-place. John 1:14 says, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth." Jesus dwelt with the people, sharing a total life with them.

3. Koinonia means sharing of life itself. In John 15:13 the climax of koinonia (love) is described: "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend." And Jesus fulfilled this reality by his life and death. The koinonia of the Last Supper is the central representation of this reality.

4. Koinonia means sharing of joy and glory. It is the love-feast and celebration of the Messianic kingdom. It is the "wedding feast".

What does this style of life tell us today, we who live as Christians in Asia?

IV. The New Heaven And New Earth: The Rule Of The Messiah

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth disappeared, and the sea vanished. And I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared and ready, like a bride dressed to meet her husband. I heard a loud voice speaking from the throne, "Now God's home is with the people. He will live with them, and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them, and he will be their God. He will wipe away all tears from their eyes. The old things have disappeared." (Rev.21:1 - 4)

There shall came forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,

the spirit of wisdom and understanding,

the spirit of counsel and might,

the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

He shall not judge by what his eyes see,

or decide by what his ears hear;

but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,

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and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;

and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth,

and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.

Righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist,

and faithfulness the girdle of his loins.

The wolf will dwell with the lamb,

and the leopard shall lie down with the kid,

and the calf and the lion and the fatling together,

and a little child shall lead them.

The cow and the bear shall feed;

their young shall lie down together;

and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

The sucking child shall play over the hole of the asp,

and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.

(Isaiah 11:1-8)

The messianic visions, depicted in these biblical passages, are the light in the darkness of political captivity under the Babylonian Empire and of political oppression under the Roman Empire, and the shining ray of hope in the midst of the suffering people's entrenched despair.

It is not a fantasy; it is not an empty daydream. It is the social imagination of the people, inspired by the Spirit, to overcome the darkness of death, despair and helplessness.

As depicted in the vision of Ezekiel(37), dry bones come alive with sinews, flesh and skin, then the breath of the Lord enters, and these form the people of Israel.

It is the vision of God's justice being realized; it is the overcoming of the death caused by the Babylonian power. It is the vision of God's justice, which is realized in the Resurrection of Jesus, who died on the cross by the power of the Roman Empire.

Therefore, the background of the messianic vision is the powers of death; and the basis of the vision is the justice of god, which is decisively realized in the event of Jesus' Resurrection. The vision is borne by the people, inspired by the spirit. And it is therefore a powerful vision which triggers wonderful and meaningful social imagination, as the people struggle to overcome the power of death and despair.

The vision of Revelation 21:

1. The city — a political entity — is the new city of shalom. The first earth disappears; the sea, the place of the dragon, the symbol of evil vanishes.

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2. The wedding @east and bride characterize the new city.

3. God's home is with the people(s). Here the plural form (peoples) is significant.

4. In the messianic kingdom there are no more tears, grief, crying, pain or death.

The vision of Isaiah 11:

1. The spirit fills the people.

2. Justice is the vindication of the poor and weak.

3. There is peace between humans and nature.

4. The restoration of the garden from the jungle reflects the creation story of' Eden.

5. The setting is the overcoming of the chaos of the Babylonian rule for the event of' God's creation.

Three elements justice (convenant), participation (koinonia) and peace (shalom) can be detected in these visions, Shalom means not merely the absence or abolition of conflict or contradictions; but the perfecting of defects, and the making of parts into the whole. Shalom necessarily contains Justice (convenant) and participation (koinonia) as its bases. Shalom completes and perfects both.

What could these visions mean among the struggling peoples in Asia today?

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