I am increasingly amazed at how much yard and house decorating goes into the preparation for Halloween.  I am constantly curious and somehow strangely encouraged by the energy and creativity that goes into this ‘holiday!’

 

“You are like unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk”

Merriam Webster defines “throwing shade” in the following way:

Shade is a subtle, sneering expression of contempt for or disgust with someone—sometimes verbal, and sometimes not. It appears in the phrase to throw shade, as in “The Sunday Stylers are the last people I’d expect to throw shade on President Bill’s hair pursuits” (New York Times, 4 July 1993).

The Urban dictionary specifies that when throwing shade it’s immediately obvious to on-lookers that the thrower, and not the throwee, is the uncool one.

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is delivering the ‘woes’ to the Pharisees and the scholars with regard to what appears to be hypocrisy.  Indeed, once the scholars hear Jesus deliver the above line about ‘unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk ‘ to the Pharisees,’ the scholars convict themselves:

Woe to you Pharisees!
You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb,
but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God.
These you should have done, without overlooking the others.
Woe to you Pharisees!
You love the seat of honor in synagogues
and greetings in marketplaces
Woe to you!
You are like unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk.”

Then one of the scholars of the law said to him in reply,
“Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too.”
And he said, “Woe also to you scholars of the law!
You impose on people burdens hard to carry,  
but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them.”  (Lk 11:42-46)

It is likely that the scholars thought that Jesus was ‘throwing shade’ here.  When we look at the life of Jesus and how he interacted with the people he encountered, we realize at once that his mission was always one of healing and compassion.  However, there is a perspective of healing and compassion that is sometimes confrontational and quite necessary it seems.  Rather than insulting the Pharisees and scholars, Jesus is clearly calling them out on their behavior, specifically in terms of how they isolate themselves and in the process exclude and oppress others.

In a sense, Jesus is glaringly ‘enlightening’ the Pharisees and the scholars in the ‘shadiness’ of their behavior and the debilitating effect it has on those around them.  At even a deeper level, Jesus’ concern, expressed here quite directly and dramatically, is as much for the Pharisees and the scholars as for those being ‘overlooked’ and having difficult ‘burdens’ placed on them.  It is important to note this in order to appreciate the wholeness of Jesus’ viewpoint. He is angered by the behavior of the Pharisees and the scholars because of its effects upon others AND also because of its effect upon the Pharisees and the scholars!

This is a stark picture of the real effects of structured social ‘sin.’  Here the ‘sin’ is the bolstered blindness that effectively ‘overlooks’ everyone.  That one line seems to capture it quite well…this sense of a communally based blindness that affects everyone:

‘You are like unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk.’

We perhaps can see more immediately how our personal behavior can affect those closest to us – friends, family, and co-workers.  Does it seem a stretch to think that the actions of those in power can have such overarching influence on an entire community (city, state, nation, world, church parish even)?  The blindness of preference by nature ‘overlooks others.’  When we prefer ‘seats of honor’ and ‘greetings in marketplaces’ something and someone is being ‘overlooked,’ not being given attention.  This neglect, as Jesus reminds us in the Gospel, becomes structured legalistically in our society so that overwhelming ‘burdens’ are created from the blindness and neglect.  These burdens begin to trap and even kill – everyone.

These ‘death traps’ do become like ‘unseen graves which people unknowingly walk.’  These unseen graves are the blind ignorance of self-involved projects that we impose upon one another.   From a social standpoint, the bandwagon effect kicks in and the graves’ shadow grows.  Not only is the blindness occurring on an interpersonal basis between individual persons, but we group together and point fingers at one another.  The graveyard grows.

The Gospel seems to leave us with a very bleak picture, albeit one that we can certainly ascertain is very current.  However, there is a hint as to what is missing, or what is causing both the blindness that causes the death-dealing behavior and even the blindness TO the death itself (unseen grave).  The blindness or ‘unseen death’ that is occurring is directly proportional to, as the Gospel tells us, the extent that we ‘pay no attention to judgment and to love for God’

It appears that Jesus is saying that our very inattention or ‘overlooking’ of the truth of our lives is a ‘judgment’ on how we are lacking in our love for God.  Once again, Jesus is running love of God and love of others parallel to each other.  There is really no one without the other.  Could this be the deepest blindness?  Unfortunately we have only to look at the history of Christianity, as well as the history of the other world religions to see how we have so often walked over this ‘unseen grave.’

If we attempt to cut away of the sentimentality associated with the word ‘love,’ we could perhaps begin to see a deeper and more engaged sense of love.  The love that Jesus may be talking about in the Gospel, from the perspective of the consequences of its lacking, is a matter of life and death.  As dramatic as this may seem, in a sense, if we do not love, then we die.  If God is Love, as the evangelist John tells us so often, then God as Love is the sustainer of life and thus our lives are dependent upon love – given by God to us and the reciprocation of this love given to God THROUGH each other.  There just does not seem to be any other way.

There is no throwing shade in Love.  Instead, there is the utmost accountability for the transmission of Love by and through all of us.  We have to hold each other accountable to love, but the catch is that the only way that we can hold each other accountable is to stand within that love ourselves.  Accountability is a communal affair, and at least from the standpoint of Christ, this accountability is a communal love affair.

We can transform each other only to the extent that we allow ourselves to be carried along in that transformation.  The creative interaction of the accountability of love is what will expose, name and ultimately allow us to rise from our ‘unseen graves’  and liberate the fruits of the Spirit that Paul tells us about in the letter to the Galatians (GAL 5: 18-25) – Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self Control.

We are already on the way, let’s keep walking with hearts wide open!

Peace,
Thomas