{"id":26036,"date":"2025-10-28T10:35:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T14:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=26036"},"modified":"2025-10-28T11:12:52","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T15:12:52","slug":"26036","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=26036","title":{"rendered":"Jesus\u2019 Ancestors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him.\u202fThey appeared in glory and were speaking about his exodus<\/span>, which he was about to fulfill in Jerusalem<\/strong>.\u202f 
\u2014Luke 9:30\u201331 <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In a small Christian community in Nicaragua, everyday people reflect on the meaning of Jesus\u2019 transfiguration, especially his conversation with Moses and Elijah. Writing from within the liberation movement, priest and poet Ernesto Cardenal shares their insights:<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

TOM\u00c1S: \u201cAnd those two dead men that appear beside him and that are very happy, it\u2019s to make us see that they hadn\u2019t died, and they were not only alive, they had a better life.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

FELIPE, Tom\u00e1s\u2019s son: \u201cThat was also to give them courage, because Jesus was going to be like the two of them\u2026.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They asked me [the priest] why Moses and Elijah appeared, and I said that Moses was the great liberator of the people, that he brought them out of Egyptian slavery, and Elijah was a great prophet, a defender of the poor and the oppressed, when Israel again fell into slavery, with social classes. Both of them were closely identified with the Messiah, for it had been said that the Messiah would be a second Moses and that Elijah would come back to earth to denounce injustices as a precursor of the Messiah (and Jesus said that Elijah had already arrived in the person of John the Baptist).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The people gathered continue reflecting together on the story of Jesus\u2019 transfiguration, and what it means to suffer, hope, and rise with Christ together.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

WILLIAM: \u201cThey\u2019re talking about his death, and they\u2019re in glory too, sharing that glory of his. It seems to me it\u2019s because all people who share the sufferings of Christ and struggle for his cause (for freedom) will share in that same glory of his, like those two prophets. And I believe that when they were talking about his death they weren\u2019t talking just about him but also about all people who together with him were going to enjoy that same happy ending.<\/strong>\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

OLIVIA: \u201cAs I see it, the resurrection is something you can already begin to have in this life<\/strong>. Christ was still made of mortal flesh, and they already see him with that brightness, that light so beautiful, the way he\u2019d be after his death, resurrected.\u2026 They\u2019ve seen Jesus this way, already transfigured in life because of the death he was going to have. And what they saw there you can apply to the people, the people still suffering. They\u2019re transfigured like Christ even though we can\u2019t see it, because the people are Christ himself.\u201d\u2026 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WILLIAM: \u201cIt seems to me the victory over death is when somebody, because of the good he\u2019s done<\/span> for others, becomes part of future humanity, which will be resurrected. Even though your death is obscure and nobody remembers it, you stay alive in the consciousness of humanity. And what the disciples saw in that little moment is the glory of that future humanity.\u201d<\/strong>  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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SNAP Cuts and Selective Literalism<\/a><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

How ignoring context turns Scripture into a weapon against the poor.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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If you haven\u2019t heard yet, millions of low-income Americans will lose access to food aid on Nov. 1, when half of states plan to cut off benefits due to the government shutdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twenty-five states have said they are issuing notices informing participants of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the nation\u2019s largest anti-hunger initiative, that they won\u2019t receive checks next month. Those states include California, Arkansas, Hawaii, Indiana, Mississippi and New Jersey.\u00b9<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christians should be the loudest voices against this, but too many are busy justifying it with a single verse of Scripture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Verse They Love to Quote<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I am no stranger to this rhetoric. I grew up hearing 2 Thessalonians 3:10 weaponized. \u201cIf anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.\u201d Case closed. Scripture said it. The lazy can starve. It wasn\u2019t until years later, when I actually began reading the letter to the Thessalonians in context, that I realized how catastrophically we\u2019d missed the point. Paul wasn\u2019t writing public policy recommendations for a 21st-century democracy. He was addressing a very specific problem in a very specific church where some believers had stopped working because they thought Jesus was coming back at any moment. They\u2019d quit their jobs and were mooching off the generosity of other church members while they waited for the Second Coming. Paul\u2019s response wasn\u2019t \u201ccut off all social safety nets and let the poor starve.\u201d It was \u201chey, get back to work and stop being a burden on your church family while you wait.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The context matters. Paul had just spent the previous chapter talking about how believers should encourage each other and support the weak. He\u2019d been clear throughout his letters about the church\u2019s responsibility to care for those genuinely in need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Verses They Conveniently Forget<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what kills me about watching politicians, pundits, and Christians pull out this one verse to justify gutting SNAP benefits: they act like it\u2019s the only thing Scripture has to say about hunger and poverty. They quote Paul\u2019s one corrective to a specific situation and ignore the thundering chorus of over 2,000 verses commanding God\u2019s people to care for the poor, feed the hungry, and defend the vulnerable. It\u2019s not even close. The Bible is practically obsessed with how we treat those who have nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leviticus 19:10 commands farmers to leave the edges of their fields unharvested so the poor can eat. Deuteronomy 15:11 says \u201cthere will always be poor people in the land, therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy.\u201d Proverbs 19:17 goes so far as to say that whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord himself. Isaiah 58 tells us that the kind of fasting God desires isn\u2019t religious performance but sharing our food with the hungry and bringing the poor into our homes. Jesus launches his ministry in Luke 4 by announcing good news to the poor and kicks off the Sermon on the Mount by blessing them. He feeds thousands with loaves and fish, and he promises in Matthew 25 that how we treat the hungry, the stranger, the naked, and the imprisoned is how we treat him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biblical witness isn\u2019t ambiguous here. God is unequivocally, passionately, relentlessly on the side of the poor. Every major prophet rails against societies that neglect the vulnerable. The psalms repeatedly celebrate God as the defender of the fatherless and the widow. The early church in Acts shares everything in common so that no one goes without. James says that religion that doesn\u2019t care for orphans and widows is worthless. This isn\u2019t a side issue in Scripture. This is the issue. You cannot read the Bible honestly and come away thinking God is fine with people going hungry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Selective Literalism and the Politics of Scarcity<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

What we\u2019re watching is selective literalism in service of a political agenda. The same voices that want to apply 2 Thessalonians 3:10 with rigid literalism to justify cutting food assistance have no interest in applying that same literalism to Jesus\u2019s command to sell all you have and give to the poor, or his warning that it\u2019s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. They don\u2019t want to talk about Amos pronouncing judgment on those who \u201ctrample on the needy and bring ruin to the poor of the land.\u201d They\u2019re not quoting Ezekiel 16:49, where the sin of Sodom is described as having \u201cexcess of food\u201d while not helping \u201cthe poor and needy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we take one verse and use it to build walls, justify scarcity, or to punish people, we\u2019re not reading Scripture faithfully. We\u2019re conscripting it into our culture wars. We\u2019re making Paul say things he never meant to advance policies that directly contradict the heart of the God he served.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cChurch\u2019s Job\u201d Dodge<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The other line I hear constantly is this: \u201cIt\u2019s the church\u2019s job to feed the poor, not the government\u2019s.\u201d It sounds spiritual. It sounds like we\u2019re defending the proper role of the church. But it\u2019s mostly just a way to absolve ourselves of responsibility while feeling righteous about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Let\u2019s be honest about what this argument actually means in practice. The church in America, for all our buildings and budgets and good intentions, is not currently feeding the hungry at anywhere near the scale needed. We\u2019re not even close. According to Feeding America, over 47 million Americans face food insecurity.\u00b2 The church runs food pantries and soup kitchens, and that work is beautiful and necessary, but it\u2019s a drop in the bucket compared to the need. SNAP serves roughly 42 million people.\u00b3 There is no universe in which the American church could suddenly absorb that responsibility if the government cuts the program. We don\u2019t have the infrastructure, the volunteers, or the funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But here\u2019s the deeper problem with the \u201cchurch\u2019s job\u201d argument: it creates a false dichotomy. Who says it has to be either-or? The biblical command to care for the poor doesn\u2019t come with a footnote that says \u201conly through religious institutions.\u201d When Scripture tells us to feed the hungry, it\u2019s speaking to all of us, in all the ways we organize our common life together. Government is simply one of the ways we do things collectively. We pool resources through taxes to build roads, fund schools, provide fire departments, and yes, help people eat. That\u2019s not opposed to biblical values. That\u2019s biblical values being lived out through civic structures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prophets didn\u2019t just call individuals to personal charity. They called nations and kings to establish justice. They demanded that societies create systems where the vulnerable are protected. Jeremiah 22 says that King Josiah was righteous because \u201che defended the cause of the poor and needy.\u201d Isaiah 10 pronounces woe on \u201cthose who make unjust laws, to deprive the poor of their rights.\u201d This is about more than individual acts of kindness. This is about how we structure our communities and our countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides, let\u2019s name the game being played here. The people who say \u201cit\u2019s the church\u2019s job\u201d are often the same people who don\u2019t want to fund the church\u2019s work either. They\u2019re not writing bigger checks to their local food bank. They\u2019re not volunteering at soup kitchens. They just don\u2019t want anyone to be fed if it costs them anything, and they\u2019ve found a religious-sounding way to justify it. It\u2019s spiritualized selfishness, and we should call it what it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Reality They Don\u2019t Want to See<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Let me tell you about the first few years of my ministry. I was working part-time at a church in Iowa and full-time in the local school district. Two jobs. Nobody could accuse me of being lazy or unwilling to work. I was doing everything right according to the bootstrap gospel that gets preached from too many pulpits. But here\u2019s what that verse about \u201cif you don\u2019t work, you don\u2019t eat\u201d doesn\u2019t account for: the cost of healthcare and daycare alone wiped us out. Completely. If it weren\u2019t for WIC, my family wouldn\u2019t have eaten. That\u2019s not hyperbole, that was the simple math.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the reality for millions of Americans that the \u201cyou don\u2019t work, you don\u2019t eat\u201d crowd conveniently ignores. Most people receiving SNAP benefits are working. They\u2019re working full-time jobs that don\u2019t pay enough to cover rent and groceries and medical bills and childcare. They\u2019re working multiple part-time jobs because their employers won\u2019t give them full-time hours specifically to avoid providing benefits. They\u2019re disabled or elderly or caring for family members who are. The lazy freeloader narrative is a myth we tell ourselves to justify our lack of compassion. It\u2019s a story we invented to make ourselves feel better about letting people go hungry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The people who quote 2 Thessalonians 3:10 like it\u2019s an economic policy have never had to choose between paying for insulin and buying groceries. They\u2019ve never stood in line at the WIC office feeling the weight of judgment from people who assume you\u2019re gaming the system instead of just trying to feed your kids. They\u2019ve never done the mental math at the grocery store, putting items back because you\u2019re five dollars over what your EBT card will cover. And because they\u2019ve never lived that reality, they can reduce poverty to a simple moral failing. Work harder. Make better choices. Pull yourself up. As if the problem is effort and not a system designed to keep people on the edge of survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Paul Actually Cared About<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I digress, but if we\u2019re going to quote Paul, let\u2019s at least be honest about what he actually cared about. In Romans 12:13, he tells believers to \u201cshare with the Lord\u2019s people who are in need\u201d and \u201cpractice hospitality.\u201d In Galatians 2:10, he says the apostles\u2019 only request was that he \u201cremember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.\u201d In 2 Corinthians 9, he spends an entire chapter encouraging generous giving to help those in need. Paul organized a massive collection effort across multiple churches to support the poor believers in Jerusalem. The man was laser-focused on making sure nobody in the church family went hungry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So when Paul writes to the Thessalonians about people who won\u2019t work, he\u2019s not advocating for dismantling social safety nets in a modern nation-state. He\u2019s addressing church discipline for members who are exploiting community generosity. That\u2019s pastoral counsel for a specific congregation, not a universal economic policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Heart We\u2019re Missing<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the deeper issue: when we use Scripture to justify letting people go hungry, we reveal that we\u2019ve fundamentally misunderstood the character of God. The God of the Bible is one who feeds the birds of the air and clothes the lilies of the field. The God who invites us to a banquet and tells us to go out into the streets and compel the poor and crippled and blind to come in. The God who cares so much about hungry people that he promises blessing to those who feed them and judgment to those who don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus never asks \u201care you deserving?\u201d before he feeds the five thousand. He doesn\u2019t run background checks or require proof of job applications. He sees people who are hungry, has compassion on them, and provides. That\u2019s the heart of God. That\u2019s what it looks like when divine love encounters human need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Invitation<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

So here\u2019s what I\u2019m asking: before we quote one verse from Paul to justify our attitude, maybe we should sit with the 2,000 verses that command generosity. Maybe we should ask ourselves whether our theology is being shaped by Scripture or by our politics. Maybe we should consider that when we use the Bible to build walls around the table instead of expanding it, we\u2019re missing the entire point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The God who became flesh and dwelt among us, who had nowhere to lay his head, who fed the hungry and welcomed the outcast, is still inviting us to participate in the abundant life of the kingdom. That kingdom doesn\u2019t operate on scarcity and suspicion. It operates on grace and generosity. And it has always, always made room for the hungry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question isn\u2019t whether we can afford to feed people. The question is whether we can afford to call ourselves followers of Jesus while we let them starve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re wondering what to do next:<\/p>\n\n\n\n