Messiah in Weakness

"I am very pleased to dedicate this book to the memories of my mother In-Soon Kim with love. She may have been weak as a woman, but very strong as a mother. I grew up seeing how much she gave up for her children and how strong she was through her life of weakness. She taught me what it means to live in weakness—not by word, but through tears and sweat. So I dedicate this book to honor my mother’s life."

Messiah in Weakness: 

A Portrait of Jesus from the Perspective of the Dispossessed

[published in 2016]

Learning

[photo courtesy of Dr. Jungsik Cha] 

The best part of learning is to read and read and read. Then think and reflect and talk with others. Your learning does not depend on someone's famous lecture. You can learn or unlearn something, all through your struggle and your decision. There is no shortcut to great learning. Test everything!

Matthean Jesus and Lukan Jesus

In Matthew, Jesus appears to be a very Jewish Messiah who came to fulfill the prophets or the laws. He sends out his disciples only to the Jews, saying: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matt 10:5-6). Again in Matt 15:21-28, he says that he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, refusing to hear the Canaanite woman's request. He even says it is not fair to throw children's food to the dogs, calling her dog. Even his disciples intervened in this and asked him to send her away. This view of Jesus represents Jewish exclusivism. But by her persistent, challenging faith, Jesus changed his mind accepted her request, and healed her daughter. He was transformed. Finally, he commissions his disciples to all nations after the resurrection (28:16-20). This is how the Gospel of Matthew ends. We see the very different Jesus here, different from his earlier view about the mission.

In Luke, Jesus appears to be the Messiah for the world, especially for the Gentiles. In his early ministry at Luke 4:16-30, he proclaimed the good news to the Gentiles, saying that Elijah and Elisha were sent only to the Gentiles (a widow at Zarephath and Namaan of Syria) even though there were many widows and lepers in Israel. Obviously, Jesus's hometown people at Nazareth were very furious about Jesus's sermon. He got almost killed but escaped that scene. Here we see the opposite character of the Matthean Jesus. The Lukan Jesus has a preferential option for the Gentiles. This is because Luke tries to reach the Gentile audience.

Naive religion

Jesus did not come simply to die for sinners but to testify to the truth of God (John 18:37). His death is the result of what he said and did, proclaiming God's rule, not Caesar's or any human master's. In other words, his "dangerous" teaching and act cost him a life.

In 2 Cor 13:4, Paul also admits the fact that Jesus was crucified "by or from weakness" (eks astheneias). That is, he insinuates that Jesus could not overcome Roman violence because he had to continue preaching God's kingdom against Rome. But the crucifixion is not the end of the story about Jesus. Paul says without a stop in the same verse: "But [Jesus] lives by the power of God."

Given the above view of Jesus, Paul's central message is that Christians have to imitate Christ in his faith and spirit. They must be led by the Spirit, submitting to the law of God. They must die with Christ and live to God. Christians (followers of Messiah Jesus) are not mere believers of Jesus or beneficiaries of him but followers of his life and faith. This implies that they are not welcomed by the enemies of God's justice, running the risk of losing their lives because of their testimony to God. But they should not give up on the work of God because God is their true hope.

TRUTH

As for me, truth is deeply experiential, confessional, and contextual. It should be engaged in a community that he or she lives, embodied in a world beyond his or her immediate community, and testified at all costs because of the love of God for all people. According to John's Gospel, Jesus was born to testify to the truth (John 18:37).

Reimagining the body of Christ

This book questions all familiar readings of “the body of Christ” in Paul’s letters and helps readers rethink the context and the purpose of this phrase. Against the view that Paul’s body of Christ metaphor mainly has to do with a metaphorical organism that emphasizes unity, Kim argues that the body of Christ metaphor has more to do with the embodiment of God’s gospel through Christ. While Deutero-Pauline Letters and Pastoral Letters use this body metaphor mainly as an organism, Paul’s undisputed letters, in particular, 1 Corinthians and Romans, treat it differently with a focus on Christic embodiment. Reexamining the diverse use of “the body of Christ” in Paul’s undisputed letters, this book argues that Paul’s body of Christ metaphor has to do with the proclamation of God’s gospel.

“Concisely describing how ‘the body of Christ’ must be reimagined as ‘the Christic body,’ Kim’s argumentation has wide-reaching implications for those of us who fight for liberation and justice within church and society. Providing a launching point that will allow scholars and pastors to teach and model ‘soft-union’ in Christ while uplifting particularity in communion, Kim’s interpretation of Pauline theology and ethics will enliven conversations in the classroom and the church for years to come.
—Angela Parker, Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies, The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology

“Yung Suk Kim offers fresh insight into the heart of Paul’s theology: the body of Christ. Interestingly, Kim challenges the reader by reconstructing Christ’s body as a union in solidarity with those on the margins, especially in the hierarchical systems prevalent in the Roman imperial society and culture. No doubt, his theological reimagination can empower today’s Christians to resist unity without diversity in the so-called post-truth era of Trump. This little but powerful book thus holds onto hope for embodying Paul’s teaching in a more responsible manner.”
—Sung Uk Lim, Assistant Professor of New Testament, College of Theology & United Graduate School of Theology, Yonsei University

"With illuminating analysis of key texts, Kim offers a concise and timely understanding of the body of Christ in Paul's letters that challenges hegemonic models and reminds us that care for the poor and pursuing justice for the weak of society are at the heart of the gospel and Christian living."

—Timothy Milinovich, Associate Professor & Chair of Theology, Director of Catholic Studies, Dominican University

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The Intersection of Religion and Politics

In ancient times or today, explicitly or implicitly, religion and politics are inseparable since humans are religious and political in certain ways. But the question is how to understand religion and politics and how to live humanely in the world of religion and politics. Our vision must be the one that makes a vibrant, just community or society through critical, self-critical scholarship about political theology. There must be diverse participants among scholars, activists, and religious leaders. They may hear each other and learn from others. I wonder if we may seek actively non-Christian scholars or activists such as Buddhist monks or Confucian scholars. In this way, interdisciplinary rigor and conversation will be deepened as we include those who have different views of religion or politics.

We also need to explore more about human transformation as it relates to religion and politics. Oftentimes transformation is understood narrowly as a change of system or society only. But it also has to do with human transformation, which is broadly defined as follows, as I wrote elsewhere. It includes “all aspects of change in relation to self or human life, including a change in self-knowledge; a change or renewal of self-critical examination; a change of personal attitude toward others, community, or society; or different ways of experiencing the self, especially in difficult times.”

No love is possible without justice. But it is not easy to answer what true justice is. For example, Jesus deals with many different aspects of justice in his parables, including attributive justice, distributive justice, retributive justice, restorative justice, and social justice. Since society is so complex, people can benefit from the diversity of justice, depending on their life situation.

In retrospect, I see myself as more than a biblical or New Testament scholar. I am a scholar of humanities who seeks to explore the issues addressed in the humanities. Though my primary text is the New Testament, I include other texts such as our living texts of politics and other classical literary texts. In all of these, I try to find the intersection of religion and politics. This intersection again leads to the transformation of individuals in particular and society in general.

Diversity must be a key to understanding the world where all kinds of people and cultures coexist. This means no one race, one culture, one tradition, or one religion dominates all others. The truth may be revealed in varying spheres of human life and in variegated ways that cannot even be named. Otherwise, mere differences with other cultures do not automatically or necessarily constitute diversity.

We need to engage in how to think together, how to respect one another, and what to do to create a just society and a better world. Differences with cultures or religions are not the sources of danger or taboo but should become occasions for mutual engagement and shared learning experiences. Otherwise, cultural or religious arrogance will dominate our religious space and political world. In the end, we need critically engaged diversity, which can foster global solidarity. We are different and yet share a common humanity, which is our honor and duty to live and bequeath to posterity.

Pistis christou: whose faith?

In the following examples, while "faith in Jesus" is not implausible, a better translation is the "faithfulness of Jesus." In other words, Paul underscores the significance of Jesus's faithfulness and his grace in which God calls people. 

• διὰ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ (Rom 3:22): through Jesus Christ's faith
• ἐκ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ (Rom 3:26): from Jesus's faith
• διὰ πίστεως Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ (Gal 2:16): through Christ Jesus's faith
• ἐν πίστει ζῶ τῇ τοῦ Υἱοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ (Gal 2:20): I will live by (in) the faith of the Son of God
• ἐκ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ (Gal 3:22): from Jesus Christ's faithfulness

*ἐκ πίστεως Ἀβραάμ (Rom 4:16): from Abraham's faith
*If Paul meant "faith in Jesus," he would have used the prepositional phrase: pistis en christo, which is found in the Deutero-Pauline and Pastoral letters: Col 1:4; 1 Tim 1:4; 3:13; 2 Tim 1:13; 3:15. 

Rom 3:22 (snapshot of the gospel)

"God's righteousness through Jesus Christ's faithfulness for all who believe" (Rom 3:22).

My interpretation:
You are under God’s righteousness. That is, you are in the domain of God’s love and care. God is like the sun. Come out to God through Jesus’s faithfulness and his grace. This means you share in his faithfulness, dying to sin, living to God.

The birth metaphor in John 3:1-21

As is often the case, people have a hard time understanding the birth metaphor in John 3:1-21 (Nicodemus episode). You may want to read my article concerning this issue: "The Johannine Realism about the Kingdom of God: "Born from Above, Born of Water and Spirit" (John 3:1-21)."  You will grapple to understand the meaning of "born again or born from above." Which one is correct? Or, how do you understand the meaning of birth here? Here is the abstract of my article:

John emphasizes the realism of the kingdom of God in the present. Given the Johannine community’s expulsion from the synagogue due to its faith that Jesus is the Messiah, the members of this nascent community need assurance about their new place in Christ. They are comforted and encouraged to live as children of God. They are born from above and experience a new life through the Spirit. To maintain their discipleship with Jesus, they must keep his word and stay in the light. The Advocate will come to them after Jesus is gone, and God’s reign continues to be seen, touched, and experienced in the present. As Jesus sends his disciples into the world, the Johannine community receives a new mission to love the world, testifying to the truth of God, following Jesus’ word.