From Individual Salvation to Collective Shalom (Part 3)
Exploring the Bible's comprehensive vision for salvation as the arrival of God's reign "on earth as it is in heaven" in the ministry of Jesus & the life of the church.
In an earlier post I introduced the concept of shalom, or “well-being” as the lens through which we should view the idea of salvation. Far from the individualistic notion of personal escape from a world heading towards destruction, the biblical concept of shalom embraces the restoration of human dignity, the redemption of the earth, and the establishing of justice as part of God’s reign arriving on earth as it is in heaven. This was followed by a post about how the theme of shalom played out in the ministry of Jesus. In this last post I will discuss additional themes in the ministry of Jesus as well as how this work is to be continued in Christian communities today.
Satan and Systemic Evil
An important part of theological background for Jesus’s ministry is the view that his work involved the overthrow of Satan, who had infected the kingdoms of the world.1 Satan himself claims to have authority over the kingdoms of the world when tempting Jesus in the wilderness:
The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.”
Luke 4:5-7 (NIV)
One way of thinking about this dynamic is that evil has affected the world at both individual and systemic levels. Their authority and splendor, meant to promote human dignity and human flourishing, instead serve as means to dominate and oppress human beings created in God’s image. These systems, much like individuals themselves, are therefore in need of repentance and renewal. And such work is carried out through confrontation by the kingdom of God.2 We see this dynamic in play with Jesus’s own ministry. At numerous points the claim is made that his work was to confront the kingdom of darkness and bring the kingdom of God in its place. When accused while driving out demons, he declared that this work was the plundering of Satan’s storerooms (Luke 11:20-21). In response to similar work by his disciples, Jesus proclaimed the overthrow of Satan (Luke 10:17-20). His death on the cross was also described as a decisive judgment over Satan (John 12:31-32).
Physical Healings & Social Restoration
The types of people described in the Isaian “mission statements” by Jesus are important. In the ancient world, the blind, the lame, the deaf, those with leprosy, and the poor were considered more than just disadvantaged, but in some senses deficient as human beings. Think for example of the story in John 9, where the disciples assumed that a man was blind because either he or his parents had sinned. Various diseases and ailments, including skin diseases, blindness, and deafness were seen as punishments from God in response to violations of the covenant (Numbers 12; Deuteronomy 28). Skin diseases (Leviticus 13-14) and bodily discharges (Leviticus 15) also put people into a state of ritual impurity and therefore limited their access to the Temple and to other people, lest their impurity spread. Throughout history a recurring lie about the poor has suggested that poverty is the result of laziness or poor choices, as opposed to circumstances outside of an individual’s control.
All of this is to suggest that Jesus’s work included miraculous healing of physical and spiritual ailments alongside miraculous restoration of people to society. A man healed of a skin disease was to present himself in the temple, a place of God’s presence from which he was excluded (Luke 5:12-16). Recall also the story of the Gerasene demoniac in Mark 5. This was a man who lived among the tombs and who had often been restrained with chains. Jesus delivered this man from the legion of evil spirits, a genuine miracle. Yet afterwards he tells the man, “Go home to your own people” (Mark 5:19). The work of this miracle was incomplete until the man returned home restored and testifying to the year of the Lord’s favor as found in Jesus. Similar wording can be found in the story of the woman caught in adultery. The story concludes with Jesus telling the woman “go and sin no more” (John 8:11), wording that might prompt us to place an emphasis on the “sin no more” part of the equation. But equal emphasis should be placed on the word “go.” Jesus challenged her accusers, publicly affirmed her dignity as a human being, and releases her to return to her home. What we see emerge in these words and actions is a ministry to the disadvantaged of his day that involved the restoration of human dignity.
The Church as Jesus’s Priestly People
After his ascension, Jesus entrusts his continuing ministry to his followers, empowered by the same Spirit to continue proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor.3 One of the most common Scriptural images of this work is best summarized by Peter:
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
1 Peter 2:9 (NIV)
The language of “royal priesthood” and “holy nation” goes very far back in the Scriptures. This was the identity given to the people of Israel after God delivered them from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 19:4-6). It was found in the prophecy of Isaiah 61 that Jesus quoted at the start of his public ministry (Luke 4). This identity is reaffirmed for the people of God (Jew and Gentile) who choose to follow Jesus. Through his death and resurrection, we have become a part of God’s special possession – “a people for his name … that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who bear my name” (Acts 15:14–17). Jesus is praised by the heavenly choirs because with his blood he “purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation [and] made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:9-10).
Such priestly imagery stresses two factors of the work of the church: they serve God and declare to others. They are an “in between” people whose service to God is carried out in service and witness to others. They promote shalom well-being where it is lacking, foster communities centered around Jesus and his ministry of restoration, and walk in partnership with the oppressed and downtrodden in the pursuit of peace.
Additional Resources on this topic:
Shalom! A Journal for the Practice of Reconciliation (selected issues)
The Least of These. vol. 44.1 (Winter 2024): https://bicus.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/shalom-winter2024.pdf
Do Justice, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly. vol. 44.3 (Summer 2023): https://bicus.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/shalom-summer2023.pdf
Pursuing Peace in a World of Conflict. vol. 42.2 (Spring 2022): https://bicus.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/shalom-spring2022-2.pdf
The Economics of Justice. vol. 41.3 (Summer 2021): https://bicus.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/shalom-summer2021.pdf
The archive of recent issues of Shalom: A Journal for the Practice of Reconciliation is available on the BIC U.S. website at: https://bicus.org/resources/publications/shalom/shalom-archive/
BIC U.S. Articles & Blog Posts:
Kerry Hoke, “Reflections on Micah 6:8” BIC U.S. Blog (October 12, 2023): https://bicus.org/2023/10/reflections-on-micah-68/
Jennifer Lancaster, “How is Our Plumb Line?” BIC U.S. Blog (November 12, 2021): https://bicus.org/2021/11/how-is-our-plumb-line/
Zach Spidel, “Downward Mobility” BIC U.S. Blog (July 20, 2017): https://bicus.org/2017/07/downward-mobility/
Ryan Stockton, “What is Our Role?” BIC U.S. Blog (May 29, 2024): https://bicus.org/2024/05/what-is-our-role/
Books:
The Prophetic Imagination (Walter Brueggemann)
The Moral Vision of the New Testament (Richard Hays)
Generous Justice: How God’s Grace Makes Us Just (Timothy Keller)
Letter from a Birmingham Jail (Martin Luther King Jr.)
What Does Justice Look Like and Why Does God Care About It? (Judith McCartney & Colin McCartney)
Churches That Make a Difference: Reaching Your Community with Good News and Good Works (Ronald J. Sider, et al.)
Soaring Hope: Imagining Life as it Ought to Be (Lynn Thrush)
Jesus and the Nonviolent Revolution (André Trocmé)
Justice: Rights and Wrongs (Nicholas Wolterstorff)
For similar concepts, see 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2; Colossians 1:13; 1 John 5:19; etc.
Such confrontation ought to be carried out in keeping with the values of the kingdom. Satan’s declaration that the “authority and splendor” of the world’s kingdoms belonged to him should serve as a warning to God’s people that tools of oppression cannot be used to counteract the kingdom of darkness. Instead, this work must be done following the example of Jesus, who brought restoration and reconciliation through prophetic critique and healing.
For the image of the church as Jesus’s “body” see: Ephesians 1:22-23; Colossians 1:17-18; etc. On the idea that the church will engage in the works that characterized Jesus’s earthly ministry, see: John 14:11-14; etc.