(Unsplash/Chris Briggs)
by John Dear
On this week's episode of "The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast," I speak with Ched Myers, one of the world's greatest Scripture scholars, about his new book on the Gospel of Luke, called Healing Affluenza and Resisting Plutocracy: Luke's Jesus and Sabbath Economics.
I consider Myers' commentary on Mark, Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark's Story of Jesus (Orbis Books, 1988), one of the greatest books on Scripture ever written. An activist and a theologian, Myers and his partner, Elaine Enns, are ecumenical Mennonites based in Southern California where they lead Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries.
He begins our conversation by sharing his journey to radical Christianity through the Catholic Worker movement and our mentor Jesuit Fr. Daniel Berrigan, and then we turn to Luke.
In his new book, Myers explores Luke from the perspective of "Sabbath economics," the biblical practice of resisting economic disparity and the idolatry of wealth, greed and war. We discuss Jesus' first sermon in the Nazareth synagogue where he proclaims the Jubilee Year (Luke 4), the parable of Lazarus the rich man and the poor beggar who dies and goes to heaven (Luke 16), and Luke's Resurrection story on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24).
"The biggest single, core, root issue of violence is economic disparity — the cruel gulf between the have-too-muches and the have-not-enoughs," Myers said. "Concentrated wealth underlies every form of violence and is ruining our planet. If we Christians are going to follow the way, we need to dive into the Scripture about Sabbath economics."
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