Dominion (Heb. 2:5-12)

What does it mean when the scripture says that the Lord has given dominion to man over the creations (and nothing is excluded!). Isn’t it looks nonsense and unrealistic since we all know that despite the claim about our rational superiority, the human being is very weak and has many limitations?

Researchers have confirmed that over a long period of time—through a process of evolution—when human mere focus and spend most of their time and energy to leverage their intellectual capacity, it costs them other capacities, like speed, agility, muscle strength and also declines other physical abilities.[1]  The human being becoming more fragile to sicknesses and even death. And finally, nature not just offer them good things but also various dangerous challenges that threatening their life.

From history and our everyday live, we could also learn how weak the human emotion is and how at many times we could not control and use its energy properly. Many big fighting and even war usually begin with a small conflict. The Greek mythology teaches us how an emotional love problem between Paris of Troy, Helen and her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta, could lead Greek and Troy into a great battle. In the real world, it is true as well. The bloody war that had cost thousands of casualties between Muslim and Christian in Poso and Moluccas began with a fight of two street gangsters. It also happened with ethnic conflict in Kalimantan. More than one thousand was killed (not to mention the injured) and many others escaped and flee from their home just because of one thief that coincidentally was coming from a particular ethnic tribe. If we looked back to the history of World War I that had caused 15 to 20 million life lost—despite all the geopolitical tensions in the Europe at that time—it was actually sparked by one event, the murderer of the heir to the Austria-Hungary throne, Franz Ferdinand, and his wife. From our daily life, we still see and experience how families and relationships that have been built for a long period of time could break just because of a single improper emotional expression.

What about human intelligence? Are we really smarter than animals? Prof. Maciej Hennenberg, an expert in anthropological and comparative anatomy from the University of Adelaide said, “The fact that they [the animals] may not understand us, while we do not understand them, does not mean our 'intelligence' are at different levels, they are just of different kinds. When a foreigner tries to communicate with us using an imperfect, broken, version of our language, our impression is that they are not very intelligent. But the reality is quite different.” [2]   What this professor what to tell us was that we often fail to understand that intelligence is not just about the ability to reason (a type of intellectual ability that is well-governed by the human being). Rather, intelligence has many facets. From this perspective, it is quite right to say that animals could have another kind of intelligence that may surpass human capacity.

So, if these are the facts, what else will we human being boast about? I think it is quite understandable then, when the Psalmist—after surveying some great creatures—wrote Psalm 8.

Again, we are still pondering now, what exactly the scripture really meant by saying that the human has received the dominion?

Human civilizations often associate dominion with power to rule and gaining control over others. It always has the tendency on conquering, commanding and enslaving. This spirit later manifested in the rise of many empires, kingdoms, and even today’s governments. Their sole intention is to control others and spreading their influence over the world so that they can get more people in their control. But surprisingly, against the intention, many empires, and kingdoms that struggling and even fighting to preserve their control, don’t exist anymore. They simply perish and we could only find them today in the archaeological sites or in historical books. I think this is another example of human foolishness or irony, and again, it should remind us that we aren’t superior to other creatures.

Ellen Davis, an Old Testament Scholar from Duke, translated the Genesis 1:26, that has the word dominion, like this: “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness, so they may exercise skilled mastery among [or, with respect to] the fish of the sea and among the birds of the air.”[3] Later he explained it, “We fulfill our role in the created order only when we recognize our responsibility to help perpetuate other creatures’ fruitfulness.”[4] Actually, two thousand years ago Jesus had said and warned us about this reality. Jesus reminded his disciples about our savage and evil intention to control others that usually manifested in the form of governments, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.”[5] And then Jesus gave alternative definition about dominion, “Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave.”[6]

Greatness doesn’t come through control, rather it is showed up through humility and service. In the same way, we could also say that dominion is not the power to control but the power to love and to serve others with responsibility. Nothing of the creatures could do that. It is a super huge thing that only we, human being, can do.....


Notes:

[1] Dan Vergano, “Humans Evolved Weak Muscles to Feed Brain’s Growth, Study Suggests” [http://news. nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/05/140527-brain-muscle-metabolism-genes-apes-science/].
[2] “Humans not smarter than animals, just different,” [http://www.adelaide.edu.au/news/news67182. html].
[3] “The Meaning of Dominion” [https://www.bibleodyssey.org/en/passages/related-articles/meaning-of-dominion.aspx].
[4] ibid. 
[5] Matt. 20:25.
[6] Matt. 20:26-27.

The Messiah Way: Integrity and Humility (Is. 42:1-4)

This well-known passage surprisingly telling something that profoundly radical and very different from what we actually and already know about the messiah. The passage isn’t just telling us about something philosophical or theological, like the destiny of the messiah: that he will be unrecognized, suffer (and finally die), or about the nature of his work: that he will not crush the broken reed and snuff out the light of the wavering wick. Rather, it elaborates something more practical that usually neglected by people while reading this passage. It was about how the messiah will bring out his work and do his mission.

In verse 2, it is said that the messiah doesn’t shout or raise his voice and that his proclamations are not heard in the streets. I presume it explains about two things: first, rather than focus on the “talking ministries”, the messiah will more focus on the “acting ministries”. Of course, this is not meant to undermine the necessity and the important of speaking in ministry like teaching, counseling, and preaching. And as we already know, as the messiah, Jesus did a lot of talking ministry, like preaching at the synagogues, taught his disciple and talking to many people on many occasions. So, Jesus indeed was not a freak solitary person, rather he was a happy socializing rabbi. He could talk to various kind of persons; from a young child to a highly sophisticated law teacher. So, what does it mean? We must put this verse into the socio-historical context that embedded with this Isaiah’s messianic hope, if we want to grasp the meaning of this verse.

One of the most significant failures of the religious and political leaders at Isaiah’s time was that they were living in hypocrisy. Hypocrisy means a life that is not integrated. It means there is a huge gap between the talk and the walk, the words and the deeds, the saying and the doing. Or simply put it is a double standard life. And it was a common knowledge at that time that majority of the leaders had a public life that was very different with their private hidden life. In their public life, they were shining like a star but in their private life, they were as dark as the devil itself.  They used to quote good sentences from the scripture or chanting prayers loudly on the street but at their best, they were just empty sayings. In the reality, they were doing all kinds of evil and oppression for their own gains and interests. What was lack in the situation like that is the actions or the implementation of the sayings! And interestingly this was very similar to Jesus own situation. What was different with Jesus ministry is that he was not just “talk”, rather he walks the talk. When he taught his disciples to forgive and pray for the enemies, he did it on the cross while he asked the Father to forgive those that had crucified him. He was not just taught his disciples to pray, he himself was the man of prayer!  In short, Jesus life was a very integrated life.

Secondly, it was a very humble ministry. The street was the place for the people to gather for many reasons. At that time, the street was not just use for transportation or to connect places. It was also a place for socializing and even for economic life. That is why the street often been the strategic place for those who wanted to gain public attention from the crowds. Royal announcements or punishments usually declared and did at the street. On Jesus day, the Pharisees used to say or chant their prayers at the street to attract public recognition. So, the street actually symbolizes popularity, pride, and even power. Those who had the street had the people as well.

Logically, if the messiah wants to build his kingdom, he must not just begin it at the temple but also on the street. Because, while the temple symbolized the divine’s anointment, the street gave him the people’s approval. That is why, while Jesus heading up to the Temple in Jerusalem, the people screaming and shouting out (not Jesus), on the street “Hosanna—come and save us!” (In this scene, interestingly, it was not Jesus who looked after the crowd’s approval, it was the people that actually gave their total submission and even loyalty to Jesus!) Did Jesus ever use this kind of approach in his ministry? Never! Taking on another risky and not familiar way--the uneasy, lonely, hard and demanding way, the way of the cross--Jesus completely abandoned this method while serving others. On many occasions, when the people repeatedly wanted to crown Jesus to be their king, he refused and rather went into solitary place to pray.

In this very noisy age, where people shouting out loud through social media and even mocking one another to compete and fight in order to gain attention from the masses (even though they're using hoax and false information, God knows they never care!), it is good for us to ponder on the way Jesus doing his ministry. Let us be the people of integrity and let us doing our work faithfully not for the sake of popularity but for the sake of humanity itself.

Why Christians Must Do Social Work?

It has been recognized widely that the history of Social work is very religious. In the western world, the act of charity to the weak, oppressed and marginalized found its origin especially in the rise of Christianity. When Constantine made Christianity as the empire’s religion, church built houses for the poor, hospitals and orphanages.[1] Another information said that when there was a devastating  plague happened across the world in the third century, only Christians cared for the sick—while many pagans throwing their family members into the street in order not to be infected by them.[2]  Diana Garland—Dean of Baylor’s School of Social Work—said, “Religious institutions like the church have ‘continued to be a prominent context for social work Practice . . . .’”[3]

But one thing must be clear here. This radical attitude of Christians and churches throughout centuries to help people was not out of pity feeling or simply motivated by humanism principle. Rather, it is motivated by Jesus’ unique and radical message, called Kingdom of God. And this Kingdom of God is not about a happy message of going to heaven or set of rules from God that Christians must be a nice or a good person to others: helping orphanages, loving their neighbors, giving to the poor, etc. Moreover it is about a bigger picture of political-social transformation agendas of God, that in Jesus—through His life, deeds, death and resurrection—had becoming world’s true reality. It is about God that in Jesus had coming down and becoming world’s true King, and consequently the dethronement of other “worldly kings”. And this succession—logically understood by the ancient world—must be followed by the change of the governmental systems. If worldly kings and emperors believed that to ending the corrupt system and injustice we need more money, more power and military assistance it is different with King Jesus. For Jesus it is honesty, openness to fragility and poverty, humility, unconditional love and total service to others that were the anchors of the true transformation. What an upside-down principle! That is why Donald Kraybill’s term always interesting to ponder about this mysterious, radical, look-foolish yet true principle of transformation of Jesus, The Upside-Down Kingdom.[4]

Abraham Lincoln once said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.” At another time, Lord Acton said almost the same thing, “All power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” What actually are these great leaders want to tell us? For me they want to remind us about the dilemma of powers. It is true you can use power to change the world, if just the power doesn’t change you yet. From Adam age to our modernized-digital world today, human being is familiar with the promises given by power but also the temptation they brought into human life.  Isn’t it the ultimate temptation that also happened to Jesus himself? (see Matt. 4:8-9). So, James 4:1-3 is true when said:

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

So, this is the true nature of social work. It is not just about delivering stuff, giving food, making children going to school, helping a broken family, etc. From its Christian perspectives and origin we know that serving and helping others is a part of a bigger picture of God’s transformational agendas. So, helping and serving others is another and clearest way to announce and declare about this unique and compassionate God that had arrived and is now working in the midst of His world and the broken people.

Note:

[1]Nicholas Placido and David Cecil, “Social Work and Church Collaboration:Assisting a Church’s Development Via Needs Assessment Strategies [http://www.nacsw.org/Publications/Proceedings2012/PlacidoNSWandChurch.pdf].

[2]“History of the Early Church” [http://www.earlychurch.com/index.php].

[3]Nicholas Placido and David Cecil, “Social Work and Church Collaboration.”

[4]Donald Kraybill, The Upside-Down Kingdom  25th Anniversary Ed. (Scottdale: Herald, 2003).