Glorify the Canaanites so That You May Live Long in the Land

After expending significant effort to construct a genealogy—almost from scratch, only now, as he approaches his knockout punch, "Son of Man (ben adam), Son of God,” Luke draws upon pre-existing material to finalize his inverted dynasty. Climbing past an excerpt borrowed from Matthew detailing Abraham’s line, we now stumble across another collection of names, this time from Genesis 11:10-26. The focus, of course, is shepherdism.Human beings want to distinguish themselves as individuals while simultaneously criticizing exceptionalism in others.  We revel in tearing down heroes and authority figures while singing songs about heroism, congratulating ourselves about ourselves. Our politics, literature, and media celebrate this freedom. Unfortunately, some people confuse this with what Scripture is doing.In making the line of Arpachshad under Shem functional in his genealogy, Luke proposes an alternative to sitcom ideology, which tries to be clever in its cultural critique but fails. You cannot ridicule sin unless you yourself preach as one condemned. Otherwise, you glorify sin. Approaching the end of chapter 3, Luke ridicules both the sin and the sinner, preaching the story of Genesis 11, in which all human beings are sheep under one Shepherd. Sheep do not speak. Sheep are in no way exceptional or in a position to criticize unless, like Luke, the Shepherd gives them something to say.   Richard and Fr. Marc discuss Luke 3:35-36 (Episode 487)

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