The key to resurrecting the Jesus of history from the tomb of Christianity is to recognize that Jesus had a special way of conveying his ideas. In an effort evade Roman authorities, Jesus spoke in a code understandable to his followers and to many Jews, but not to outsiders. Jesus often said that
DK834X_book.fm Page 82 Tuesday, September 20, 2005 8:11 AM
What Jesus Says to Public Administration 83
people missed his meaning because they lacked “ears to hear” (Matt.
11:15, 13:6, 9, 43; Mark 4:9, 23, 7:16, 8:18; Luke 8:8, 14:43). Today, this is undoubtedly the case with scholars of public administration. Most cannot hear what Jesus has to say, because even the phrase, “ears to hear,” a phrase taken by Jesus from the Bible, eludes their understanding. Jesus frequently employed biblical quotes like this one, which were known to the Jews but not to the Romans, to convey subtle messages in his public statements.20,21 He knew that only his most righteous followers would search the Bible for such quotes and would read the surrounding passages to learn what he had meant.
Jesus knew well the risks of speaking too freely in his captive kingdom.
He had been a disciple of John the Baptist, whom Her od beheaded.
Moreover, the Gospels contain numerous stories about plots against Jesus.
Because of his popularity as a healer, the Pharisees “held a council against him, how they might destroy him” (Matt. 12:14–15). The priests, scribes, and elders plotted to kill him (Matt. 26:3–4). The Pharisees sought out the Herodians, the Jewish supporters of Herod and Rome, and tried to find “how they might destroy him” (Mark 3:6, 11:8). The chief priests and the scribes “sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death” (Mark 14:1; Luke 6:7, 19:47, 22:2; John 5:18, 7:1). Clearly, Jesus was a marked man, and he knew it.
Additionally, he was not indifferent to the danger. When he learned that the Pharisees were plotting against him, “he withdrew himself from thence” (Matt. 12:15). When he was urged by his disciples to go to the feast of the tabernacle in Judea, he initially declined, saying that he would be persecuted, but later he did attend, “not openly, but as it were in secret”
(John 7:2–10). On the day that he sent his two disciples to prepare the room for what would prove to be his last supper, he had made prior arrangements to have them be met discreetly, like secret agents, by “a man bearing a pitcher of water” (Mark 14:13). On the night when he was arrested, he had withdrawn into a garden and had posted Peter, James, and John to watch over him (Mark 14:33), and Peter, if not the others, was armed (John 18:11). Obviously, Jesus wanted to avoid being apprehended.
So Jesus offered two teachings. To his students he taught methods for confronting and subverting power and glory, but to the “multitudes,” as he called them (Matt. 15:32; Mark 8:2), he told parables seemingly about a heavenly kingdom that would eventually descend to earth, righting all wrongs and rewarding the meek, the loving, and the faithful. This explains why he was such a popular speaker. In the heart of occupied Jerusalem, at the center of the temple, watched carefully by the Roman troops, spied on by Herod’s agents, surrounded by the insular priesthood, he could tell the crowds his stories, and many could understand his hidden meanings, but the authorities could never convict him of sedition.22
DK834X_book.fm Page 83 Tuesday, September 20, 2005 8:11 AM
84 Handbook of Organization Theory and Management
The Gospels are replete with numerous anecdotes about the disciples needing to have Jesus’ analogies and stories explained to them. The disciples asked about the parables of the tares in the field (Matt. 13:35), the “leaven” of the Pharisees (Matt. 16:6–12; Mark 8:15–17), the seeds that fell in different soils (Matt. 13:18; Mark 4:10; Luke 8:9), the words that defile (Matt. 15:11; Mark 4:36), and the blind leading the blind (Matt.
15:15). The Gospels also say that Jesus took care never to speak straight- forwardly to the multitudes. “But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples”
(Mark 4:34; Matt. 13:34). That Jesus spoke so often in parables is an indication in itself of the fact he was delivering an encoded message.
The phrase about having “ears to hear” had been used by David, on whom Jesus modeled himself,23 in a stinging psalm comparing idolaters to their own idols: “Eyes have they, but they see not: they have ears, but they hear not.… They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them” (Ps. 115). By saying that those to whom he spoke lacked “ears to hear,” Jesus was implying that they failed to understand him because they worshiped idols. He did not want to say this bluntly, because he did not want to offend, but this was what he intended to convey to biblically knowledgeable listeners.
Of course, to modern minds, this sounds like a shrill and judgmental statement, regardless of how it is said. Except in rare circumstances, we simply do not accuse our interlocutors of being idolaters deafened by false religions. Although we acknowledge that material interests and other factors limit perceptions — our concept of “ideology” sums up this recognition — we see these cognition-shaping influences as something to which everyone is subject, ourselves included. We would also reject Jesus’ suggestion that ideological limits on reason are as difficult to overcome as idolatry, which we think of as the type of religion practiced by primitive peoples. We believe that self-serving prejudices can be dissolved through disciplined debate, which forces disputants to look at the world from many points of view.
This confidence in the power of discourse stands at the heart of public- administration scholarship and practice. It is our basis for claiming that our theories are not themselves merely ideologies justifying our power and status as social scientists and professionals. Our claim to special insight, which we posit as “objectivity,” rests on our faith in reason’s strength and ideology’s weakness. We think that the discipline of public administration, along with other sciences of society, arrive at truth by being open to many partial perspectives.
But Jesus calls on us to reconsider these premises — premises so important to our identity and values that we might even call them “idols.”
His reference to idolatry was part of his overall account of power,
DK834X_book.fm Page 84 Tuesday, September 20, 2005 8:11 AM
What Jesus Says to Public Administration 85
knowledge, and spirituality. He believed that our tendency to rationalize our privileges is a much more resilient spirit than we generally realize.
He taught that it responds like the power structure itself, growing stronger, not weaker, when it is challenged. This is one reason why Jesus spoke obliquely, using such subtle references as the phrase about having “ears to hear.” He hoped to smuggle his ideas past our defenses, past the idols of our hearts that block our perceptions.
This chapter is written with a similar intent. I want to discuss the implications of Jesus’ teachings for modern public administration. If we had “ears to hear,” we could easily discern what Jesus has to say to us.
We would merely examine the posture Jesus took toward government and then consider what this stance entails for the teaching, study, and practice of public administration. But the values of public administration cause us to misconstrue Jesus’ ideas.