Just

For two years, I have been digesting Richard J. Evans’ three-volume history of Nazi Germany. As I do, I often find myself horrified by how the Nazi party rose to power, the way their philosophy swept the people, and the atrocities they were able to commit as a result. Indeed, it was objectively horrible how Nazis treated Jews, gypsies, the handicapped, and others they deemed undesirable.

In reading, the importance of that term – undesirable – has become clear. First, Hitler and the Nazis endeavored to portray segments of the population as making no positive contribution to society. Then, they suggested that the same group was actually detrimental to society. For example, Jews and gypsies were painted as corrupt and criminal, the poor and handicapped as drains on the economy. From there, it was easy to convince the nation that such people were undesirable. They were just Jews, just gypsies, just the poor, and just the handicapped. In short, they were just worthy of disdain, and this attitude enabled the Nazis to confiscate businesses and property, expel hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, and ultimately industrialize euthanasia. Society was doing these people a favor by putting them out of the misery that was being just…

Today, this is rightly horrifying. We rail against antisemitism. We wince at the notion of the government confiscating property. We recoil at images of Auschwitz, and we weep at the wanton brutality depicted in films such as Schindler’s List.

Yet, as I have read Evans’ account, I have been shocked to hear in Nazi rhetoric themes similar to much of our rhetoric today. The woman living in the tent by the river is just homeless. The waif with brown skin speaking a different language is just an illegal. The unborn fetus is just a clump of unwanted cells, and the fool who sees the world differently is just woke or just phobic. Just as the Nazis derided Jews, gypsies, the handicapped, etc., we deride our own undesirables.

This becomes more alarming when we realize that relegating someone to just status makes it easier for us to dismiss and even dispose of them. Indeed, a recent conversation ended abruptly when the other person decided I was just ignorant. Similarly, why fix our immigration system if the people at the borders are just drains on our economy. We have no problem name-calling or mocking those who are just a Democrat or just a Republican. There is no need to worry about what happens to someone who is just homeless, and why should we listen to or labor for, much less love, someone who is just…?

In Matthew 5:21-22, Jesus expanded upon the Old Testament prohibition of murder:

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell. (CSB)

We recognize that Jesus here expanded the prohibition of murder to include murderous anger. It is not enough merely to not kill; we must not want to kill.

Yet, how many times have I overlooked what comes next? Jesus observed that calling someone “raca” would result in prosecution under Jewish law, but saying, “You fool!” would land us in the fire of hell. Interestingly, raca was borrowed from the Aramaic language and means “fool.” The second term, the Greek word Μωρέ (more), is the root of the English term “moron,” and it was obvious to Jesus’ listeners that the distinction between calling someone a fool and a moron was splitting hairs. In fact, Roger Hahn observes in his Matthew Commentary that the two terms are synonymous, and Jesus’ ultimate point is that killing someone, wanting to kill someone, and even disdaining someone – that is, considering them just a fool – were functionally the same.

Why was this? When we reduce anyone to just anything, we deliberately ignore all the other things that person is. We overlook that the fool is someone’s father, mother, sister, brother, son, or daughter. We neglect that the fool is educated and/or experienced in something that we may need to know. Because they are just a fool, we can dismiss or even dispose of them as we please.

Worse, when we reduce someone to just anything, we ignore that they, too, are bearers of the image of God and so dearly loved that our Father sent his Son to die on a cross for their sin. These two truths instill every human being with an intrinsic value entirely independent of race, religion, political persuasion, education, physical or mental condition, age, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, and more. In God’s sight, there is no such thing as an undesirable person. Yes, sin still has consequences, but even the greatest sinner remains the object of God’s love.

If this is true, then it has significant implications for how we treat people with whom we disagree. If someone has value, we are careful not to wreck them with our words or actions. We listen to them, invest in them, and learn from them. In short, we never dismiss them out of hand, let alone toss them away. At the very least, we heed the words of Proverbs 11:12: “Whoever derides their neighbor has no sense, but the one who has understanding holds their tongue” (CSB). In other words, if we have nothing nice – or at least constructive – to say to or about someone, then we will say nothing at all.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us never reduce others to just anything because doing so denies the value which is intrinsic in every human being. Let us instead choose to listen to, invest in, and learn from even those with whom we vehemently disagree so that, even if we do not come to an agreement, we will at least come to a greater degree of understanding and appreciation. Indeed, as Ender Wiggin discovered in Orson Scott Card’s sci-fi epic Ender’s Game, this is at the heart of what it means to love our neighbor as ourselves. We cannot fully understand someone without coming to love them, and we cannot truly love them without seeking to fully understand. And since Jesus identified loving God and neighbor as the two greatest commands from which all others are derived (Matthew 22:34-40; Luke 10:25-37), we must never reduce anyone to just…