Read this today. It’s spot on.
“Above all, perhaps, there are the people, the infamous bureaucrats. They are the supposedly human face of the state—cold, distant, unconcerned. Of all the ills of bureaucracy, [bureaucrats] might be the worst. They look without seeing, they listen without hearing, and they proclaim decisions that can change people’s lives with the indifference of a butcher slicing a piece of steak.” - Bernardo Zacka (The Atlantic)
This is never more true than in our times—but it was evident in the New Testament era, too. Long ago, Jesus suffered at the hands of religious bureaucrats (the Pharisees), academic bureaucrats (the Sadducees), and government bureaucrats (the Sanhedrin and the Romans).
Then, as now, it was the bureaucrat’s job to keep the system functioning—at all costs—through rationalization, compartmentalization, and institutional coldness. Even more than that, they protected the system by dehumanizing and vilifying those who challenged the workings of the toxic machine. They didn’t care about the little person or real justice; they only cared about the “big picture” and getting the machine moving again. Instead of rescuing him, they drowned the little lamb in crisis with procedures, priorities, and pretense, which is why the bureaucrats in Jesus’s time hated Him so much and zealously strived to destroy Him.
You see, the Good News of Jesus Christ was the end of the bureaucracy. He came to set people free; the bureaucracy worked tirelessly to keep people enslaved. He selflessly gave up His life to protect the little lambs; the bureaucrats sacrificed the wearied masses to grease the bureaucratic machine for their own continued comforts and job security. Jesus lightened the burdens of His people; the bureaucrats only added to their miseries. The juxtaposition went on and on, and the gulf between Him who came to save and those who entrenched to oppress grew wider and wider.
It’s impossible to not hear Christ’s echoes of the Good News throughout the ages, even into postmodernity. In fact, the Good News calls out now more than ever with the ubiquity of bureaucratic machinations in every corner of human society. Bureaucracies seem inescapable, but they’re not. Despite the great darkness that surrounds and engulfs humanity right now, God’s Light in Jesus shines more brightly than ever, shattering the shackles of bureaucracy with the love of God and His Good News for humanity.
What was Jesus’s solution to bureaucratic tyranny? “Jesus answered and said to them,
“Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.” ~ Matthew 11:2-6
Christ’s Good News focuses on tending to the immediate and tangible needs of His flock—a far cry from the bureaucrat’s mindless directive to “Take a ticket (you number!) and get in line—Next!” The solution to the oppression—the disease—of bureaucracy has been, still is, and will always be found in and through Jesus Christ, who actively cared/cares more for His Mission to help people than servicing the machine to manage them. Simply, Jesus is the model of Good News that we can and should follow in defanging the bureaucratic monster of postmodernity.