Breaking The Yoke Of Babylon

In the biblical imagination, whenever we hear the word Babylon (and we hear it quite often in the Hebrew scriptures and especially in the Christian Book of Revelation) we are meant to conjure images of the empire that subjugated Israel. Babylon – which was a great center of learning, law, trade and economy – was also characterized by great luxury and was known to be a very materialistic and consumer-driven culture with significant extremes between the wealthy elite and the masses who lived in relative poverty. They were also known for being a culture of pleasure seekers – adopting an “eat, drink and be merry” attitude (and often taking it to extremes). And like many empires, the Babylonians used violence to expand their territory and subjugated those that they conquered. 

The Hebrew word for Babylon means “confusion” (same root as the word for Babel) and suggests that the Babylonian nation-state was lost in blasphemy and falsehood and could not discern what was right and what was wrong. Even in modern times, people like the popular reggae singer, Bob Marley, used the word Babylon to mean any system (police, judicial, military, church, etc.) that was an oppressive or corrupt/coercive force.

Just hold that thought for a moment as we read a line from our first reading today from Jeremiah 28 when God says (through the prophet), “I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.”

What does this mean to you in our context today?

In our gospel (Mt 14), Jesus has withdrawn to a deserted place following the death of John the Baptist (who was killed by the king for speaking truth to power). A lot of people follow Jesus to the wilderness, and we’re told that he is “moved with pity” for them and starts to heal the sick and all who were in need.

Side note: I did a little research on the word “pity” because the word always kind of bothered me (it can feel to me like it’s kind of looking down on someone). I found out that the Greek word used is splagchnizomai which is the strongest word in Greek for mercy and compassion – a compassion that so moves a person that they cannot help but attend to the plight of the person in front of them. Interestingly, pity comes from the same Latin root for “piety” – meaning that holiness and the strongest forms of compassion are intimately linked!

So Jesus is out tending to folks, and it gets late in the day. The disciples suggest that Jesus dismiss the people to go home so that they can get food for themselves (I mean they ARE in a deserted place and the disciples surely can’t feed all these folks, right?).

Jesus – always thinking differently about things – suggests that the disciples should give them some food instead. Astonished, they replied back, “Five loaves and two fish are all we have here.”

Basically the disciples barely had just enough for themselves.

Jesus goes on, “Bring them here to me.”

Some readers of this text say that the first miracle of this miracle story is that the disciples did as Jesus asked and did not withhold what little they had! be that as it may, Jesus then invites the people to sit on the grass and then prays over the five loaves and two fish. The disciples start to distribute the food and, lo and behold, there is more than enough. In fact there is even extra.

How might we tie the readings from Jeremiah and Matthew?

In my mind, today’s readings contrast the imagination and wisdom of “Babylon” versus the imagination and wisdom of Jesus.

A Babylon mindset (and I am speaking generally here) would operate from a scarcity mindset. It might suggest that we have to protect “me and my own.” It might encourage us to make sure we have what we need even if others do not because our comfort, our satisfaction, our needs and our desires are primary. It might even see those who are in need as a threat to security or the social order (and thus need to be eliminated or controlled). And it would likely suggest that those who are in need are that way because they did not try hard enough – for surely the gods would have blessed them if they had.

In Jesus’ imagination, however, there is ever an abundance when we are willing to share what we have and not take more than what we need. Compassion and mercy are extended – not hostility or blame – to those who have been marginalized or are in need. And those closest to Jesus were asked to give of their own personal “storehouse” – not expecting people to fend for themselves or be taken care of by social programs. Those in need are not threats to the systems so much as indicators that systems have left them behind and not included them.

“I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.” That is both today’s promise and warning. 

The prophetic theologian, William Stringfellow, in his prophetic book An Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens in a Strange Land cites the “specific relevance of Babylon for the contemporary American experience.” Stringfellow said, back in 1973, that America (collectively) was like Babylon because of our generalized moral apathy, hardness of heart, self-indulgence and mindless idolatry of money, things, etc. His words were harsh for sure, but Stringfellow looked around at US policy, rampant materialism in the face of growing poverty, our willingness to overthrow governments for political gain and realities like the prison-industrial complex and saw a place that was no different from the descriptions of Babylon. Furthermore, Stringfellow believed that it was only those who found themselves in conflict with the established order who were the ones who even had a shot at inner and outer freedom.

He went on to say that in order for the faithful to even start to get beyond this state of being in Babylon, they/we must be “willing to hear the word of God…and free to hear the Word of God.” This meant we had to ask God that we might hear the word in our lives and figure out the ways that we were already bound (and then work to undo our bondage).

Clearly this is a topic that one blog won’t resolve! But, perhaps for today, we can ask God to show us more clearly how Babylon might be operating in our own lives and in the life of the wider culture.

Where would you see Babylon operating?

What are its characteristics?

And we might also pray for God to speak to us so that we hear the Word more clearly and how we might be living in forms of bondage so that we might get closer to the word and message of Jesus?

But as the old saying goes, “Be careful what you pray for, because you might just get it!”