Jesus Occupying Wall Street? Not Likely

The question on everybody’s lips is…? Well, perhaps not on everybody’s lips, but certainly rattling in a few minds in West Michigan. “Would Jesus join the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ crowd?” I’m not sure, but I’m thinking that he probably wouldn’t.  My assumption is that, if Jesus were walking amongst us in the flesh, he would not be anywhere in the United States, save perhaps Detroit or Flint. More likely, the Messiah would be in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Gaza and the West Bank. But, just for the moment, let’s consider what the Bible has to say about Jesus, the early church, and Rome – and – even Wall Street.

I’m not sure that Jesus or the Apostles would be camping for weeks in one place to protest unequal distribution of wealth. My understanding of Scripture is that the first-century “Jesus Movement” was too busy healing, feeding, and preaching repentance  in preparation for the oncoming Reign of God. There might be groups of folks in the Bronx that needed to be fed and healed of AIDS. There might be groups of revolutionary groups at Columbia that were preparing to make trouble on Wall Street. The Beloved Disciple would see students arranged in groups of action, and write that Jesus, above all, would preach about the oncoming realm of God, and then insist that he would not  be the kind of leader that would want him to be.

Perhaps Jesus might have gone to Bank of America for a moment. He might challenge the consumer choices that Americans (rich and poor) make, and the choices we often make when it comes to exhibiting faithfulness to the market economy instead of the economics of God. He might go into a Wall Street brokerage and overturn a table in condemnation of how people’s lives are manipulated by unethical market practices. He might

However, let’s again consider John’s Gospel and the feeding of the 5000.   Folks preparing for the trip to Jerusalem for Passover came to Tiberias to hear him preach. John said they these folks were prepared to  “make him king.” Now, a gathering of 5000, in the first-century, was equal to that of a Roman Legion. Jesus refused to lead such a group. Yet, because Jesus refused to lead Galilean peasants into Jerusalem like a Roman Legion, it does not mean he didn’t offer liberation from the reality of unjust economic systems.

John remembers that the disciples, when finding that this Passover “army” was in need of feeding, were looking to spend some of the money they had to feed them. They did not have enough to feed everyone, but that was their first thought. There they were, a people ready to be lead to salvation, they didn’t have enough to eat! Actually, in the first-century, hunger was a fairly common experience. Lot’s of Galilean food went to feed the Romans. Two hundred denarii would not feed a legion.

Jesus knew this, of course, but John says he was “testing the disciples.“ Instead of participating in the economy of Rome, Jesus used the meager resources of the community and miraculously fed the “legion” of Tiberias. There was no need to occupy Jerusalem during Passover making demands on the Temple elites. Perhaps Jesus knew that, what was needed was a community of disciples who took care of one another. Whether rich or poor, pure or impure, sane or crazy, Jesus invited all and sundry to repent and  receive salvation from an economy that lured people into financial realities that did not reflect God’s will. Like Wall Street, the economy of Jerusalem and Rome necessarily marginalized the importance of community. Jesus called all folks, not just rich folks to repent of the sin that prioritizes the struggle for financial and political power over faithfulness to God. Perhaps, those who occupy Wall Street are looking for a more just economic system. The question is, does the concept of human rights guarantee that all will be able to live an economically stable life, or that everyone should get a piece of the consumer pie. Another question is, whether the Bible, or Jesus, was concerned about human rights. I believe that Jesus was concerned with justice.

However justice, whether it be economic or social, often calls for those who are well within their rights to move on up the economic ladder to forego those rights. Often, justice calls for prioritizing community over individual rights, and I’m not sure the Wall Street protesters are any more willing to eschew individual privilege any more than Wall Street brokers are. Funny thing is, they all say that what they are doing is for the benefit of the human condition. The problem might be, however, that they are more invested in beating the other side than in forging new relationships. There seems to be a concept that someone must lose before justice is achieved. It is Jesus and the prioritizing of reconciliation that will liberate them from the need to dominate over one another. For Christians, the assumption of privilege comes with the duty to pay Caesar what belongs to him. Caesar gets his percentage of the cut. Disciples get the bread and fish dinner. At that point, it’s simply a question of where God wants the church to be.