Lesson Thirteen: Practice Corporeal Politics

Once there was a young man who was very wealthy. He went to Jesus and asked what he must do to inherit eternal life.

 “Obey the commandments,” Jesus said.

 “Great, I have done that!” Replied the man.

 “Fantastic!” Jesus said. “Then go and liquidate your assets, give the proceeds to the poor, and come, follow me!”

 The rich young man considered this but walked away from Jesus. He was wealthy and he liked his lifestyle.

 Now imagine that sometime later, the man was with his friends and the young man told his friends, “I asked Jesus what I must do to inherit eternal life and he said to obey the commandments, which I have done.”

 The friends said, “We also have not murdered anyone or cheated on our wives.” 

 So, this group of friends went out and told others of this path to heaven that Jesus had offered. The teaching spread far and wide, but the man never did tell anyone about the second part of what Jesus said.

 He never told the people to give away their wealth to the poor. He never told them that following Jesus required them to give up their comfortable lifestyles. 

 No. He told them about how Jesus spoke through the Scriptures and they must obey the Scriptures. He told them that even if they had broken some of the commandments, it was okay, because the whole reason for Jesus coming was so that he could die on their behalf.

 And so the people were happy because they could keep their wealth, too. They could have salvation and it would cost them nothing. 

 Others tried to tell them that Jesus had more to say, but they would not listen. They weren’t even especially wealthy. Some were the very poor to whom the rich man’s wealth would have been given. 

 And the rich young man amassed even more wealth and power.

 Lesson Thirteen is: Practice Corporeal Politics

 Corporeal means “having, consisting of, or relating to a physical material body” (Merriam-Webster)

 I struggled with this one as I kept coming back to the word “corporeal.” In the flesh.

 That’s Jesus. Jesus was God in the flesh and Christians are called to be the Body of Christ to the world.

We’re supposed to advocate for the poor and oppressed and that means that we do things like show up to protest, feed the hungry, heal the sick, and protect the vulnerable not only with our words, but in the flesh.

 Yet why do so many Christians ignore his teachings? Why do they demonize anyone who dares practice the kind of corporeal politics that Jesus did?

 The teachings of Jesus are a threat to anyone who seeks to accumulate wealth and power, so the wealthy and powerful created a Christianity that neutralized Jesus.

 They said that since the Bible is the Word of God and Jesus is the Word of God, then the whole Bible speaks with the voice of Jesus. 

 They rendered Jesus irrelevant, except as a “get out of hell free” card.

 I don’t know how to convince “Bible believing” Christians to follow Jesus, that there’s more to it than obeying the commandments, but I’m not going to give up. 

 This is part 14 of a series inspired by my reading of On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons Learned From the Twentieth Century, by Timothy Snyder as part of my effort to offer Christian insight to those wondering what to do in this moment.