Jubilee Justice and 'Dikaiosune Theou'

"Seek first the kingdom of God and its justice." - Jesus (Matthew 6:33 NEB) "I have come to see in deeper ways the implications of my faith... I can no longer proclaim the Cross and the Resurrection without proclaiming the whole message of the Kingdom [of God] which is justice for all." - Billy Graham in Transformation Jan. - Feb.1989 The bifurcation of 'social gospel' from 'spiritual gospel' is at the root of our long-standing national crisis of claiming the 'righteousness' of Jesus while simultaneously enacting some of the most evil acts of oppression the modern world has seen (chattel slavery, mass genocide of native peoples, etc.) The biblical concept is that to enact Jubilee Justice is the righteousness of God. They aren't bifurcated. They aren't competing. There is no point at which struggling alongside of the oppressed becomes too political and messy and so we should give it up and focus on spiritual truths and salvation of souls. The Biblical thought is the Jubilee Justice is salvation. It is righteousness. It is the gospel. What's more, the Biblical concept is that when God's people try to separate justice and liberation from the oppressed as something other than God's righteousness, God sends prophets to declare God's hatred of their spirituality, private good works and morality, and their worship. (See for instance Isaiah 58) God's repeated refrain in the scripture is that any act of worship that occurs when justice is actively being denied is in fact an abomination. Much of the confusion we face today comes through some poor translation work where historically we've insisted on using the word 'righteousness' in place of 'justice'. This flaw shows up in the Christian translations of Old Testament from the Hebrew as well as in the New Testament from the Greek word dikaiosune. Here's a short video primer on the translation from the Greek in particular. I urge you to watch it as it is the essential point of this post. [Note: You'll have to click on this link to get to the video footage as I cannot find a way to embed from Vimeo.] By erasing the Biblical concept of Jubilee Justice from the heart of what modern evangelical Christians call 'the gospel' and putting in its place Righteousness modern evangelical Christianity has turned the gospel into a private spirituality the purpose of which is to obtain eternal life for one's self. However, if we go back to the Biblical concern for Jubilee Justice as taught by the Torah, the Prophets, Jesus and yes, even Paul, suddenly private salvation is no longer the central message of the gospel but is rather a byproduct or a footnote to the divine project of liberation from oppression. We are saved when and insofar as our love for our neighbor (as defined by the Parable of the Good Samaritan) has become inseparable and indistinguishable from our love of self. Suddenly, the gospel become less and less about private spirituality, morality, and salvation and more and more about the politics of liberation through solidarity with the oppressed, the outsider. Jesus never said, "As you were polite to the most wealthy and powerful of people on the planet, taking every measure to ensure they can eat at whatever posh restaurant they want to whenever they want to, so you've done it unto me. And in fact, this is the essence of salvation and your participation in it." But Jesus definitely said something very close to, "When you worked to release children who were stuck in concentration camps to return them to their families, and ensured that they received sanctuary either where you lived or some other place they could call home, so you did it to me. And in fact, as much as you did so you participated in salvation. And to the degree you didn't care about refugees, or actively participated in their oppression, or equivocated about their importance because private morality made you uncomfortable, you participated in your own damnation."
If you have ears to hear the time to start hearing is now.