Woes, Wisdom, and the Unmasking of Empire
The Judgment of Nations and the Salvation of the Kin-dom
The Eight Woes and Systemic Failure
Jesus declares the eight woes against the religious system of the day:
First Woe: They prevent others from entering the kingdom of heaven and don’t enter themselves (Matthew 23:13).
Second Woe: They take advantage of widows while pretending to be righteous through long prayers (Matthew 23:14).
Third Woe: They zealously make converts, but those converts become “twice as much a child of hell” (Matthew 23:15).
Fourth Woe: They create misleading distinctions about oaths, valuing gold over the temple itself (Matthew 23:16–22).
Fifth Woe: They tithe small herbs but neglect justice, mercy, and faithfulness (Matthew 23:23–24).
Sixth Woe: They appear righteous outwardly but are full of greed and self-indulgence within (Matthew 23:25–26).
Seventh Woe: They look beautiful outwardly but are inwardly full of death and impurity (Matthew 23:27–28).
Eighth Woe: They honor past prophets but are complicit in the same violence against God’s messengers (Matthew 23:29–36).
This is a stark litany of systemic failure. These systems, like everything in this cosmos, should operate in nature to cooperate to bring about a better world, sustaining the life within it.
Structural neglect is a tool of such systems to keep people compliant and subservient to them. Such systems, under the control of the fearful, the greedy, and the power hungry, extract wealth and the illusion of power from those within them so the few at the top can live in luxury.
The Judgment of Nations
Jesus revealed what his entire ministry has been about and the salvation he offers:
Matthew 25:31–33, 35–36, 40
31. “But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.
32. Before him all the nations will be gathered, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
33. He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
for I was hungry, and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in.
I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me.’
“The King will answer them, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
In this vision of the Judgment in the last days, Jesus calls the nations, peoples, systems, cultures, and empires to him to be judged. Why are they called and not individuals?
Acts 10:34-35 (cf Deuteronomy 10:17; 2 Chronicles 19:7; Romans 2:11; Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 3:25; 1 Peter 1:17)
34. Peter opened his mouth and said, “Truly I perceive that God doesn’t show favoritism;
35. but in every nation he who fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him.
Righteousness is right relationship, and it cannot be judged in isolation. When Peter says, “in every nation he who fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him,” he is saying that those who take care of others are one of the sheep in a nation of goats. The judgement is on those who are not taking care of one another.
When we look at the deeds these nations are supposed to do, and see them lacking, or even their opposite, we have seen the face of Babylon. They are the enemy of life, and the bane of the earth. This is why they are cast out. Hell, as Jesus taught it, is the world created by these nations that punish and persecuted the people within them instead of taking care of them and liberating them.
The Least of These
When Jesus says, “least of these,” he is talking about not only the vulnerable, but the marginalized. We are to live in right relationship with those who have been pushed to the margins to where they are unseen by the majority. The sheep take care of everyone; the goats do not.
Jesus takes this one step further. When he says, “You did it to me,” this means these vulnerable and marginalized are Jesus. The Greek is clear, he says this is something real in itself, not just an idea, belief, or opinion about it. They are Jesus, and how we treat them is how we treat him.
For Jesus, his practice of right relationship, righteousness, is to identify with the vulnerable and the marginalized that there is no distinction between him and them. They are one and the same.
This is the nature of the world. The image of God is present in everyone, and the Cosmic Christ sustains and holds us all together, so our piety, true piety, is taking care of the poor, liberating the oppressed, healing the sick, and setting the captives free. To mistreat any of them is to mistreat Christ and God.
Instead the nations forge divisions so they can excuse harsh treatment and neglect of certain marginalized and vulnerable groups. If they can keep the eyes of the people focused on how much better they are treated compared to the ostracized, they can pretend to be benevolent. As a bonus they create a target for peoples anger and rage other than themselves.
Once we see through the benevolent mask of these systems, we escape the lies that sustain them. We can do the work of the kin-dom to bring them into the blessed life that should be available here and now.
The Salvation of the Kin-dom
Salvation is the liberating of people from hunger, thirst, illness, and oppression. It is not a personal salvation, because God does not show favoritism. It is our collective salvation from the systems that prevent the free flow of life in this world.
This is the interconnectedness we find through these actions, as well as our own healing through the mindfulness, compassion, and interbeing we cultivate within ourselves. We see Christ’s face in the faces of the vulnerable and the marginalized. The Oneness offered to us by Christ becomes real in our lives.
If we all did the work of the kin-dom, we would bring the glorious life of God here as it is in heaven.