The name is absent

4           Living in Revolution

Nextwemust revamp our simple notions of brotherhood to
fit the double nature of human relationships. The complex-
ity of our living together in this double relation can be dra-
matically shown in a classic story from the Old Testament.

The story centers around a regular battle-axe of a wom-
an named Jezebel. Her husband, King Ahab, wanted to
acquire some neighboring real estate to enlarge the palace
garden. But the land he wanted was the vineyard and
ancestral home of Naboth, who had brought up his family
there until the meaning of his life was wrapped up in that
property. The King offered first a high price, and, when that
was refused, some other land that was just as good. To
all of which Naboth said “No.” The King, like a spoiled
child, went complaining to his wife that Naboth would not
give him what he wished. Then the old battle-axe got in her
work. She trumped up a treason trial, hired some cheap
liars, convicted Naboth before the public, and confiscated
the property. A typical Nazi trick. The lie was exposed
when Elijah, one of the moral rebels in a rotten community,
assailed the King in rather primitive language, asserting
that there is a bad time coming for anyone who thinks
he can draw a circle around his little world, and leave other
human beings out as though they were nobody. Here stood
the eternal prophet of God, insisting that each man had a
right to a meaning within a larger meaning that is ever out-
side all the little circles we draw to leave each other out.

Jezebel treated Naboth as a utility—just a tool at hand
for her purpose. Elijah took Naboth as a person who had
a meaning and value of his own. What makes life tragic
is not that there are people with Jezebel’s attitude, but that
both these attitudes are permanently combined in each of us.
We deal with people both as utilities and as persons. With-
out any evil intentions we at times turn persons into objects
or things.

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