Oppression ALWAYS has a beneficiary.
There is no such thing as accidental oppression. It doesn’t just materialize out of thin air. Oppression is zero-sum. Some are made to lose so others are able to gain.
This is part of why oppression is so offensive to God. God is infinite and so is His justice. Justice is not zero sum. There is enough for all.
Oppression is about subjugating, exploiting or robbing His most precious creation: His children. Made in his image.
Attempting to raise yourself up by putting others down is a fundamental violation of God’s character and our Imago Dei.
It’s easy to miss that at the end of every unjust system is someone directly profiting. That’s the point of the system: to obscure injustice.
And perhaps the most insidious part of the whole thing: the system obscures the reality for the oppressed AND the oppressor.
Most people in the role of oppressor, equally as valuable to God, have no idea what their “blessings” cost to others. They can’t see the price their benefits require of others.
And this creates a poverty of the soul, that is invisible.
Oppression is a double violation of the Imago Dei: both the oppressor and the oppressed are made to be “less than”.
“Blessed are the poor” isn’t a celebration of poverty, but a recognition that their suffering is not in vain. And a not so subtle revelation that cursed are the oppressors. Because all they will be given is what they have taken. And that’s ultimately of no value in His Kingdom
And let me keep it 💯... as an American in 2020, I’m more oppressor than oppressed.
My path to success is not acquisition of more but giving what I have. Generosity.
And dismantling systems that benefit you is generous. It’s sacrificial because you are losing something.
That’s Kingdom work in the wealthy West. Overcoming the poverty of the soul that comes with sitting atop a system that oppresses and has oppressed much of the world. It heavy.
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