God’s Role-Reversing Justice
Role reversal is a common theme throughout not only scripture but also Christian history. God saves the humble but brings the haughty down (Psalm 18:27). Mary sings of God bringing down the powerful while lifting up the lowly, along with feeding the hungry while sending the rich away empty (Luke 1:51-53). Jesus pronounces blessings upon those who are marginalized and cast down (Matthew 5:3-12). While he also tells the rich and powerful that they are in for future trouble (Luke 6:24-26). In Ezekiel 17:24, God speaks of reversing the fortunes of trees, obviously a metaphor for what God is going to do with the people of Judah. Beyond Scripture, we see theologians throughout history acknowledging the role reversing nature of God. Martin Luther saw God first appearing angry to people with the full force of the law to drive them to repent and humbly seek mercy, only then does God show God’s true nature of love and mercy, making whole what had been broken by images of God’s wrath. God’s Law brings down the arrogant. God’s Gospel comforts the humbled and raises them to a new sense of hope and trust in God. Even the folks at the Bible Project, an online Bible education organization, frequently speak about God’s “upside down kingdom,” in which roles and expectations are reversed.
Of course, this isn’t unique to Christianity. It isn't even unique to religion in general. A lot of people love the idea of role reversal because they see themselves as powerless compared to the ones who run society. When everything is going well, we’re happy to go along with whatever the people on top are saying, but when we face hardship, we want things to be different. We want to see ourselves on top instead of the people who have been making life hard for us. Maybe the reason we like underdog stories so often is that we all imagine ourselves to be underdogs.
This manifests differently for different people, often depending on the prevailing ideologies through which they view the world. Small government conservatives will identify the problem as the average person lacking political freedom and say that the powerful are corrupt career politicians. Socialists will say that the problem is the average person lacking capital power and a say in how businesses are run. The powerful in this case are the ultra-wealthy business owning class that get to make all the meaningful decisions about how the economy operates. Conspiracy theorists will argue that there is actually a secret organization that runs the world and the average person must reject their propaganda to break free and take power from them. Whatever the case, we imagine power being away from ourselves.
This is part of what lies behind the discomfort around privilege discourse. When people tell us that we have “white privilege” or “male privilege” or some other kind of privilege, we may react negatively because we don’t feel like we actually have power. How can someone say I have this privilege when I’m struggling to pay my bills? How can someone say I have privilege when I am uncertain about what will happen if I have a medical emergency? How can someone say that I have privilege when I feel so powerless to influence politics or change the world?
In reality, it is far too complicated to suggest that we fall into easily identifiable groups. Not all white people are powerful. Not all men are powerful, but broadly speaking, white men do hold the most power in our world. But we have another problem. How can Christianity have the same underpinning idea as small government conservatism, socialism, and conspiratorial thinking? If God turning things upside down and reversing roles is really just the underlying fantasy of every disempowered person throughout history, is there really anything distinctive about Christianity? Everyone wants to stop being helpless and see the powerful oppressors get what’s coming to them.
If we are going to find a distinctive way to talk about role reversal, we will need to do it theologically. When small government folks talk about the need to take power away from corrupt politicians, they are usually arguing from a sense of pragmatism. Things aren’t working well now, but they will work much better if we simplify things and reorganize to allow individuals to have more freedom and the government to have less overreaching power. When socialists talk about role reversal, giving the reins of power to the workers rather than the wealthy elite, they are usually speaking about justice. It is the right thing to do, it is fair for workers to receive the full value of their labor, anything less would be robbery. Therefore, workers should have a say in the company because it has been built upon their backs.
I think Christians are doing something different when we are talking about God turning things over. While it is true that God reversing things and setting them in a new order would be pragmatically useful and certainly just, there is an additional reason we look forward to God bringing down the haughty and building up the lowly. This is a demonstration of God’s power. The rich being sent away empty is as unimaginable as a dry tree suddenly flourishing. Rich people have power and connections. No one would dare turn them away. This is an impossible thing, but God does it to remind us that God deals comfortably with human impossibilities. God is not limited to our imagination.
While this is a comforting thought to the powerless, there is also a prevailing sense of uncertainty here. God can raise us up and bring us down, and certainly God does both even to the same person. People climb to the top with the help of God’s guidance and grace, and then they make mistakes that remind them that it wasn’t really their own hard work that got them there. But God doesn’t just make and break people, God can make and break the rules that society constructs and make us feel safe and comfortable. God can teach us what to expect and then shatter those expectations. Seeing God at work in the world is a process that is full of surprises, a constantly evolving dance that adds new steps while the song is still playing. However, this itself is a good thing. The most important and often the most exciting actions in history probably have God’s hand in them either pulling them forward or pushing them back. As we look for God’s action in our world our eyes are inevitably drawn to God’s glory. And perhaps more important than pragmatism or idealism is that we are all drawn to worship God whose glorious works continue to astound us.
