luke 7:20-23

"When the men had come to him, they said, "John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, 'Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?'" Jesus had just then cured many people of diseases, plagues, and evil spirits, and had given sight to many who were blind. And he answered them, "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me."  -NOAB

i've been thinking about this passage for a couple of weeks now. not in a helpful, personal-studies sort of way, but in an intellectual sort of way. and you could make a lot out of it. john, mr. intensity, displays an interesting mix of skepticism and willingness to believe - after all, you're asking someone who could easily lie to you to vouch for himself. it's also an interesting last line - not the follow me, obey me and you'll be blessed sort of message (which, to be fair, we tend to get from god, not jesus, and i will likely never break my JW habit of seeing them as different entities) but more like a don't fight against my purpose, don't get in my way and you'll be blessed message.

but what's *really* interesting to me is really the part that is 22. this is slavoj zizek, in what might be his own words or a paraphrase of frederick jameson: "Think about the strangeness of today's situation. Thirty, forty years ago, we were still debating about what the future will be: communist, fascist, capitalist, whatever. Today, nobody even debates these issues. We all silently accept global capitalism is here to stay. On the other hand, we are obsessed with cosmic catastrophes: the whole life on earth disintegrating, because of some virus, because of an asteroid hitting the earth, and so on. So the paradox is, that it's much easier to imagine the end of all life on earth than a much more modest radical change in capitalism." that has stayed with me for years - we can imagine the end of the world easier than we can imagine an end to capitalism. and obviously the bible wasn't written in the heyday of capitalism. but there's something similar at work here, no doubt. i mean, really think about that verse. the blind see, the deaf hear, the afflicted are cured, the lame walk, the very *dead* are raised, but the poor only have good news.

i'm not trying to belittle that good news here. and yes, i get that this was new. nobody was bothering with the poor, and so this was truly remarkable, and i appreciate that. but what this also indicates to me is that even at that time, before capitalism, and even within the confines of christian ideology, we can more easily imagine a triumph over death than we can imagine the end of poverty. the poor are not given food and jobs that allow them to live with dignity. they're given the message, instead of being ignored. this is as good as it gets for the poor - they get to be part of the audience. and again, not trying to belittle. but, really, the dead can live again and the poor will still be there. they are so eternal we can't even imagine an end to them. i feel like maybe this says everything you need to know about the human race.