Tearfund Lent Devotional Day 35

Resistance is spiritual

'Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.' (Isaiah 1:17, NIV)

Christianity stops being the way of Christ when there is even the slightest abuse of power within it.

The deepest energies of the universe are on the side of the marginalised. That is the nature of the divine: to oppose those who oppress; to lift up those who have been knocked down.

The hoarding of power and wealth is an affront to God. With great power comes great inequality: you cannot build a pyramid without breaking someone else's back. So much of the modern world was created by exploiting people living in poverty – pushing them deeper into it.

When there is a growing gap between rich and poor, there is a growing gap between humanity and divine will. The way of Christ is to call this out. It is to redress the balance. It is to fight for justice. This is why Tearfund exists – why the church exists.

The way of Christ is the expansion of liberation. It is radical inclusion. It is the melting down of ego in order to build something better: a world of each-otherness in which justice flows like a river (Amos 5:24). Resistance is spiritual.

God, teach us how to do right. Help us to seek justice. Help us to defend the oppressed. We take up the cause of the fatherless; we plead the case of the widow. Amen.

Gideon Heugh

Gideon writes for Tearfund and is a poet and environmentalist