Exclusion & Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation

by Miroslav Volf

religious mechanisms which produced sinners where there were none. His rejection of the laws of purity (Mark 7:1–23), for instance, “cuts to the heart of the sectarian classification into the righteous and sinner” (Dunn 1992, 75). Symbolic boundaries drawn by false religious beliefs that ascribe sinfulness to what is innocent must come down, Jesus insisted. Moreover, he showed an extraordinary sensibility to the fact that people suffer not only because they commit sin but also because sin is committed against them. His programmatic sermon, for instance, mentions explicitly “captives” who need to be released (because they were wrongly incarcerated) and “oppressed” who need to be let go (because they were treated unjustly). He did not add to the sufferers’ misery by burdening them with blame for their own suffering. To take up Nietzsche’s terminology, Jesus was no cunning “ascetic priest” who exploited the misfortunes of others, but a prophet who denounced oppression and its ideological legitimations (cf. Matthew 23). In a limited but important sense, the gospel Jesus proclaimed was good news for “the sinned-against” (Fung 1980, 85ff.).