|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
SBL Annual Meeting Papers November 2005 WORKING DRAFT: Please do not cite without permission of the author "Power to the People!": Poetics and Politics
VERY ROUGH DRAFT! Raise your right hands in a fist and say with me: "Power to the people!" Once more with feeling: Power to the people! And again: Power to the people! Right on! But what power? What people? In this hopefully powerful and people-centered paper I will first describe my "soul hermeneutic," then I will apply it to Matthew's version of the healing of the paralyzed man. "Soul Reading"In my 2001 book Word and Soul I said that a "soul hermeneutic" consists of three elements: First, reader-response criticism takes seriously the social—and psychological--location of the reader. Second, African-American cultural experience, which has often been identified with “soul,” focuses on soul as rhythm, emotional expressiveness, and sensuality. Third, analytical and archetypal psychology opens up the unconscious elements of a text. Carl Jung, in his discussion of the archetypes, said much about the “soul.” James Hillman gave attention to images and encouraged us to adopt a “poetic basis of mind.” In my 2004 book "My Name Is Legion,” I refined my soul hermeneutic. I discussed Jung but also three other theorists: First, Sigmund Freud, to whom Jung was much indebted, spoke of the primacy of desire (eros) in the functioning of the psyche. He also said that the conscious mind operates on the reality principle, while the unconscious operates according to the pleasure principle. Freud also pointed to the importance of language in expressing desire, a point further pursued by Jacques Lacan. I also presented Rene Girard, the French literary critic who speaks of the importance of mimesis (or imitation) in human behavior. He says that mimetic rivalry often leads to projecting one’s violence on a scapegoat. Finally, I set forth Frantz Fanon, the Afro-Caribbean psychoanalyst who, in his important work The Wretched of the Earth, wrote about the psychological affects of French colonialism and the war of independence in Algeria. And in recent years I have been influenced by comments on aggression by the object-relations theorists, Melanie Klein and D. W. Winnicott. Klein maintained that aggression is innate to humanity. In order to love fully, then, we must embrace the hate (i.e. anger, aggression) toward the very things and people that we love. Winnicott presented aggression as the life force and vitality. It is found in our bodies and is expressed fruitfully in fantasy and play. Soul Reading Applied We turn now to the healing of the paralyzed man in Matthew 9:2-8. I will be reading my own translation in a way that probably reflects how the Gospels were probably written to be read, that is, dramatically. (See Whit Shiner's book Proclaiming the Gospel.) And now they brought to him a paralyzed man lying on a
bed. A Playful, Poetic Reading of the Paralyzed Passage Introduction: They Bring the Paralytic to Jesus (9:2a). Jesus, who has already established himself as an authoritative, powerful
teacher through mounting his sermon, now goes to show his powerful authority
through deeds. He heals a leper, a centurion's distant servant, Peter's
mother-in-law fever and many others, and then he seastorm-stills and,
on the sea-otherside, exorcises a demonized duo. He then crosses the
still still sea and returns to his own city for another Capernaum caper. So they bring to Jesus this paralyzed man, this paralutikos. Man, that's lame! A man sick of the palsy, King Jim says. Paralyzed. What pair of lies has this man believed? Lies, lame lies, paralyzing lies. Lie #1: He is a sinner! Why? Because he's lame. He's living out the lies and the lives of his people. How can they live and move and have their being when the Roman pagans have their land? They love the land, they desire the land, the land is their body. It is mater, their mother and God is their father. He gave it to them. But they ain't got it. Why? Because they are sinners. God is punishing them like he's done so many times before. And it enrages Israel. It makes them so mad! They have eros toward the land, but the deal is not consummated because the Romans got their land, and they hold it violently. So, they live in thanatos, death. Israel is angry with the Romans for taking their land, but they cannot express their oppressors because that would be suicidal! Israel feels angry toward God, but expressing that would be suicidal as well. So they turn the anger upon themselves, blinding, muting, paralyzing and leprosizing them. They turn Roman violence upon themselves. Fanon talks about the psychiatric illnesses that result from colonialism and civil war, including psychosomatic diseases, such as a disturbance in a woman’s menstrual cycle, blindness and paralysis. Furthermore, in Giradian terms, this paralyzed man, as well as others who are ill in the Gospels, is a scapegoat, receiving the wrath of his people. In the face of the violence of Roman imperialism, they feel paralyzed, as well as blind, deaf, mute and possessed. God, then, has delivered them to Roman oppression because of their sin, and the paralyzed man lives that out. This is pair-a-lies man’s Lie #1, and his Lie #2 is this: As a sinner, the man deserves the paralyzing punishment for sinning. He is out of touch with his body, his flesh, his land, and his people. So they bring him to Jesus. Jesus Speaks to the Paralyzed Man (9:2b). Jesus sees the bringers’ faith. Bringing is believing. They have mustard-seed, moving-mountain faith. Unlike the disciples, they are not little-faith-ones. Like the centurion, the hemorrhaging woman, and the two blind people, their faith is effective, not for them but for the one they bring. They express aggressive faith, by aggressively moving toward the aggressive one, the powerful one, the one who commands the wind and waves. These bringers express their power in community. It is power with--with one another, with the paralyzed man and with Jesus. Jesus sees the bringers' faith and says to the paralyzed man, “Tharsei,” which he also says to the hemorrhaging woman and to disciples while he water-walks. Take heart, courage, cheer up. What you desire, whom you desire is here. Tharsei, teknon. Jesus does not call him Paralutikos like Matthew does, but Teknon, child, son. The powerless one, who is the greatest in the kingdom because he humbly welcomes Jesus. Jesus becomes father in a new birth. Tharsei, teknon, aphientai sou hai hamartiai. Attend to the alliteration: hai hamartiai. and to the repetition of the ending "ai.” aphientai hai hamartiai. Ai-yai-yai! His sins are forgiven. Divine passive: God forgives his sins. What are the man’s sins? As an Israelite, he is guilty of sin because the pagans have taken the land. Does Jesus buy this Deuteronomic deal? Whether or not he does, he says that the man's sins are forgiven, released. Jesus is here pouring out his life-blood for forgiveness, living out his name Jesus, saving sins. The warfare has ended. It's been accomplished. The Scribes Respond by Speaking to One Another (9:3). “And now there were some scribes there,” some grammateon, some lettermen. They're politically powerful people. Matthew first introduces them when they exegetically collude with Herod to try to kill the baby Jesus. And Matthew concludes as they collude with the elderly chief priests to kill Jesus through Roman crucifixion. Truly their letters kill (but Jesus' spirit gives life)! So, these scribes are the villains in the story. Boo hiss! Bad scribes! Jesus woes them down, calling them and their cohorts the Pharisees evil hypocrites, whose righteousness must be surpassed. So these folk say to themselves that Jesus is committing blasphemy. So hey let's stone him! But hey, lettermen (who have a top ten list of issues with Jesus), he didn't say, I forgive your sins. He said, Your sins are forgiven. Do the words "divine passive" mean anything to you, oh scripture experts? It's God who's forgiving not Jesus. Jesus responds by speaking to the scribes (9:4-6a) Prophetically omniscient Jesus knows what they're thinking and he asks them why their hearts are evil-thinking. (The answer is that the scribes are evil, and out of their evil-filled hearts their mouths speak evil, defiling thoughts.) Like a good rabbi, Jesus poses a question: What's easier, say, Sins forgiven, or rise/bed-up/home? While scribes still stuttering, Jesus says, "So you can know ho huios tou anthropou, the son of man, the son of humanity, the Human One, the Human Being, who's got no head-laying place, who is an eating-drinking, in-his-kingdom-glory coming, sabbath-lord, suffering one. Phrase appears lots in Matthew: present and future, present work, future suffering and glory. Phrase is awkward in Greek. Why I've used the awkward "son of humanity." Usually linked with Daniel 7:14, but Walter Winks at the phrase and points to Ezekiel. He translates it "the Human Being," taking over a collective interpretation from T. W. Manson, who said that Jesus and his disciples together were the Son of Man. Unlike Manson, though, Wink points to Matthew's conclusion here, in which he notes that God has given such authority to human beings. Ho huios tou anthropou (which has a musical quality about it) has authority, has power, non-scribal, deeding, mountainous resurrecting power. This power, this exousia, which comes out of his being, this power is on earth but not just on earth but heaven and earth. Ho huios tou anthropou has earthly power to forgive sins, and so you'll know that he has earthly forgiving-sin power, Jesus then turns to Teknon. People can forgive themselves. "Any person who knows that God forgives sins has the authority to declare another person's sins forgiven" (78). Jesus Again Speaks to the Man (9:6b). He says to Teknon, Egertheis aron sou ten klinen kai hupage eis ton oikon sou. Like the angel said to dreamy Joseph. Egertheis. Get up, stand, rise! You've been down for too long! Grab your mat. The mat doesn't matter anymore. aron sou ten klinen, and GO HOME!! Hupage eis ton oikon sou. Jesus wants him to be a homeboy. Shoo! Express your eros among your own kin. That's yur land. Name it and claim it. Overcome your alienation, your thanatos, your death. Create re-create community. Make ho huios tou anthropou there. Jesus doesn't tell him to go to the priest or not to tell anybody. Forget the priest, and tell whomever you damn well please. You, your bringers, Jesus, your homeboys&girls, and maybe even the scribes, together, are ho huios tou anthropou, are the son of humanity, are the human being. The Man Responds (9:7) Does exactly what Jesus tells him to do, like Joseph, fishermen, Matthew. Matthew doesn't say that he picked up his bed. Maybe he just left it there. But he probably didn't cause he needs somewhere to sleep when he goes home. He walks - fulfillment of Isaiah - lame walk. Sign of messianic age. When redeemed return to Zion after being Babylon captive, Then the eyes of the blind will be opened Jesus tells John when the latter asks if he is the one to come that the lame walk (11:5). Goes home - Does exactly what Jesus has told him, like Joseph (2:14, 21), fishermen (4:19-22), and Matthew, who also got up (9:9). Ho oikos in Matthew is a place of healing. perhaps it can be the house of God, a place of prayer for all peoples, a strong man's house, not Satan but the son of humanity. The Crowds Respond (9:8) Crowds are afraid (full of awe? Herod and Jerusalem frightened, 2:3) disciples are afraid (8:26) - similar to women at tomb (28:?) - and glorify God. Yippee, way to go! Such power to people, not to scribes, not to religious leadership but to people, to community. Eros. Crowds - 7:28 after Sermon, astounded at non-scribally authoritative teaching. Crowds amazed at Jesus casting out mute demon (9:33). Jesus has compassion on crowds (9:36). Jesus speaks to the crowds about John (11:7). Crowds followed Jesus and he cured them (12:15; 14:13-14). Speaking to them while family outside (12:46). Great crowds gather so Jesus has toget in the boat (13:2). Jesus leaves them to go into a house (13:36). //And the crowds--hoi ochloi, who always seem to be around in Matthew, were afraid, ephobethesan. The NRSV says that they were filled with awe. In other words, they were awe-ful! Whether awful or fearful, they glorified God, their heavenly father, the Israelites' God. They edoxason (sang the doxology: Glory be to our heavenly father!"). Why? Because he's given this sin-forgiving, paralytic-raising power to people, tois anthropois. To humanity and the son of humanity, which are the same. Wink uses this argument to say that ho huios tou anthrpou is collective. Do not pass GO do not collect $200 until you understand this. Power is given to the people. Wink quotation? That's what God has done--on earth as it is in heaven. Eros is directed now to community. to ho hios etc. child of humanity. sons and daughters of humanity. Power to the people! Conclusion Summary The powerless paralyzed man, carrying the rage of his people against the Romans, is brought to powerful Jesus, who pronounces and forgiveness to this man and to all people, bypassing the power of the religious leadership. The healed man goes to home, perhaps to heal and forgive others. Reflections The first-century Jesus-believers who first heard this story read were suffering under Roman rule in the wake of defeat in the revolt. The power appeared to be with Rome. But the true power was found in the community that embodied Jesus' teaching. Contemporary Christians can also be empowered by this passage knowing that the power lies, not in the religious hierarchy, but in their own hands as they are healed and forgiven, and as they go out to heal and forgive others. We are the scribes, interpreting scripture for the king. Do we do so for liberation or oppression, for peace or violence? Let us rise, take up our biblical bed and go home to heal ourselves and others. Power to the people! |
|
|
|
|
