Blind spots

SOMETIMES from the middle of the trees we cannot see the outline of the forest, or what might lie beyond.

We are located in our own time and culture and it is hard to look outside that horizon. As a result, we accept and take for granted things that future generations will consider unthinkable.

The role of women in the church and in society over centuries was one such issue. We may look back and wonder how for so long we accepted the unacceptable. Yet underusing the talents of half the population was so ingrained in society, that for too long almost no-one challenged the received wisdom. The unequal treatment of women was always there as a wrong to be righted, yet so much part of daily life that most people could not imagine a different world.

Paul’s letter to Philemon raises big questions about how far we are expected to see beyond the horizon. The facts are these. Philemon is a highly respected Christian and a slave-owner (a contradiction which goes unnoticed). One of his slaves, Onesimus, has run away. Paul has met Onesimus and nurtured him in the faith. He sends the slave back to the slave-owner, requesting Philemon to welcome him back and treat him as a brother. Paul even offers to repay Philemon if he is out of pocket. Just stating the facts makes the issue obvious. Far from challenging slavery, Paul accepts it as part of society, and tries to resolve a problem between slave and master. He seeks the best outcome for a bad situation without addressing the underlying ideas and assumptions that caused the problem in the first place. He does not campaign to end slavery, and doing so would not have helped Onesimus.

It is no wonder, then, that most contemporary Christians find this letter deeply uncomfortable. Instinctively, we want Paul to say to Onesimus, “Run! Keep on running as far and as fast as you can and never go back! Go and live as a free man!”

Of course, Paul lives surrounded by the trees of first century society, and we stand outside the forest with a different perspective. Paul aims to reconcile two Christian brothers and restore normal relationships. Our question is how Paul could accept slavery by returning a runaway slave to a master, however forgiving and kind that master might be.

Importing our twenty-first century perspective into a first-century story doesn’t work. The existence of slavery wasn’t a live question for that society. It was there, and they had to make the best choices in a world with that reality. Slavery was still wrong – it just wasn’t in vision.

Rather than asking why Paul accepted the unacceptable, we might want to question ourselves. What aspects of our society and culture do we just accept which future generations will find impossible to understand?

“How did they fail to see the damage they were inlficting on our planet, and demand change?” might be one question. “Why did they accept a world where people were homeless or living in poverty in one of the world’s richest countries?” is another.

The story of Philemon and Onesimus challenges us to ask God to open our eyes to see beyond the immediate. Jesus said we should take the plank from our own eye before trying to remove the speck from the eye of another. Let’s pray for the wisdom to identify our own blind spots. 

The Rev Richard Baxter is minister at Fort William: Duncansburgh MacIntosh linked with Kilmonivaig.