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Jesus or Paul? (Part 3: The Breaking of Shalom)


Jesus or Paul?
Making People’s Lives Right or Making People’s Beliefs Right?
Part 3


The Breaking of Shalom

Making the “right to live” a reality requires “loyalty to the community” by God and people. Leaders and members of the community are responsible for creating and maintaining that environment. We see this in the second definition above. The entire community is charged with the responsibility of “the elimination of anything breaking the shalom.” This is the cornerstone of human justice.

The primary mission of every follower of Jesus is
the elimination of anything breaking the shalom!

In the teachings of Jesus, tzedaqah is linked to shalom. Isaiah 32:17 helps us see that link through the eyes of members of the Jewish culture:

The deed of tzedaqah shall be shalom
and the labor of tzedaqah shall be tranquility and safety forever.

“Shalom results from the deed of tzedaqah.” Now we must clearly understand what “shalom” meant to Jesus. In Hebrew: The Eternal Language by William Chomsky (p. 4) we learn that the word shalom, usually rendered by “peace,” has in effect little in common with its English equivalent. Shalom does not have the passive, even negative, connotation of the word “peace.” Shalom does not mean merely the absence of strife.

Shalom is pregnant with positive, active and energetic meaning and association. It connotes totality, health, wholesomeness, harmony, success, the completeness and richness of living in an integrated social milieu. When people meet or part they wish each other shalom, or they inquire about each other’s shalom.

The “breaking of shalom” describes “the breaking down of totality, health, wholesomeness, harmony, success, the completeness and richness of living in an integrated social milieu in the community.” How people respond to the “breaking of shalom” is the unspoken theme of one of the most famous and important messages Jesus delivered. It was about a subject that was very much on the minds of his audience members -- the imminent coming of the end of days and the Great Day of Judgment (Matthew 25:31-46).

The scene opens with all nations standing in judgment before God’s designated judge, the Son of Man, King of the Kingdom of God. The nations are divided into two groups – the righteous on his right and the cursed on his left.

● When the “breaking of shalom” occurred in their nations, the righteous did acts of tzedaqah to restore shalom in lives.

● When the “breaking of shalom” occurred in their nations, the cursed did not do acts of tzedaqah to restore shalom in lives.

Now let’s see the examples Jesus used to describe “the breaking of shalom.”

● Hunger reveals the “breaking of shalom in the community.” The act of tzedaqah to restore shalom was for a community member breaking bread with the hungry person – taking the hungry to his or her home, eating with the guest, blessed God together for providing the food, and visit together.

● Thirst reveals the “breaking of shalom in the community.” The act of tzedaqah to restore shalom was for a community member to give the thirsty person something to drink and visit together. 

● The lack of clothing reveals the “breaking of shalom in the community.” The act of tzedaqah to restore shalom was for a community member to give the person clothes and visit together.

● Homelessness reveals the “breaking of shalom in the community.” The act of tzedaqah to restore shalom was for a community member to take the homeless person into his or her home and visit together.

● Sickness reveals the “breaking of shalom in the community.” The act of tzedaqah to restore shalom was for a community member to visit with them.

● Imprisonment reveals the “breaking of shalom in the community.” The act of tzedaqah to restore shalom was for a community member to visit with those in prison.

When most readers of English translations of Matthew 25:31-26 read the words of their Bible that see a hungry person being fed, a thirsty person being given a drink, a naked person being given clothes, a homeless person being given shelter, a sick person being visited and a person in prison being visited.

When the Jewish audience heard Jesus’s description of what people did in each situation above, they knew he was talking about times when “the shalom of the community was broken” -- and  community members “restored the shalom” by doing acts of tzedaqah. God saw “people created in His image” revealing His image upon the Earth” by restoring lives to the conditions He had created them to experience.  
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