Lamentations

The detail differences in the four Gospels, according to my pastor, are because they were written for different audiences. Well and good, but it sometimes troubles me that certain events and utterances of the Redeemer can be found only in one or two of the four. Take this passage from the Gospel according to Luke:

     And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases;
     And they that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed.
     And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all.
     And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.
     Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.
     Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.
     Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.
     But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.
     Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger.
     Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep.
     Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.

     [Luke 6:17-26]

The Sermon on the Mount, which begins with the well-known Beatitudes, is also reported in the Gospel according to Matthew… but Matthew’s Gospel doesn’t mention the “Woe unto yous.” Why? At this time I have no answer. However, it’s of greater importance that those statements be properly understood, which requires knowledge of the context in which Jesus spoke.

In First-Century Judea, wealth was uncommon; subsistence-level poverty was the norm. Moreover, wealth had only two provenances:

Political connections;
The labor of slaves.

Judean society was rigidly stratified according to those things. The Judaic religion itself was a touchstone for the worshipper’s material condition: there was a price to be paid to enter the temple. Moreover, it had to be paid in a specific coinage, unique to the temple system. And of course, one could not enter the temple without an appropriate animal to offer in sacrifice, as well. In consequence, the social context was rife with the deadliest of the capital sins: envy.

If a wealthy man must leave Jerusalem for some reason, where nearly all wealthy Jews lived at that time, he would labor to take all his movable property with him. Were he to leave any of it behind, it would likely not be there when he returned, even if he left some of his household behind to guard it. If the ruler sought to mulct any of the rich of the city, he would order all of Jerusalem’s gates closed except for one called “the eye of the needle.” From that, we get a proper understanding of this verse from the Gospel according to Mark:

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. [Mark 10:25]

From these and other observations, we get a picture of Judean society in Jesus’s time that had drifted a long way from the days of Moses.

A man who is rich from political favor or coerced labor is plainly not in a state of grace. He may live well; he may be merry; he may be widely spoken of with approval. But his temporal wealth is not a sign of God’s favor. Indeed, it will count against him on the Day of his Judgment.

Our Lord was not opposed to living well. Remember that He often dined with rich men, including “publicans:” the notorious, universally hated tax collectors of the region. But He condemned graft, the use of political pull for material gain, and the reduction of free men responsible only for themselves to slaves whose labor must go to the enrichment of others.

May God bless and keep you all.