“When you harvest your fields, do not go back through your vineyard to gather the grapes that were missed or to pick up the grapes that have fallen; leave them for poor people and foreigners. I am the Lord your God.”
This is a fascinating passage from the book of Leviticus, yet it offers a profound lesson on how we can actively build a more just society. Telling farmers to leave the edges of their fields unharvested was not just a random act of kindness. It was a divine rule to protect people. God commanded ancient Israel to build a safety net directly into their economy.
“When you harvest your fields, do not go back through your vineyard to gather the grapes that were missed or to pick up the grapes that have fallen; leave them for poor people and foreigners. I am the Lord your God.”
Some scholars still wonder if people had followed this ancient law to help the poor. Nevertheless, this ancient ethos still lives on in modern social welfare systems in many countries, including Australia. This system generally helps people who have very few resources, which works like leaving the edges of the field unharvested.
Through tax obligations, many people in Australia feel like leaving 25% of their harvest for someone else. For some high-income earners, it even feels like sharing up to 50% of their incomes with those in need to run programs such as JobSeeker, age and disability pensions, Medicare, and various housing and emergency relief services.
Historical data and academic research assert that this kind of welfare system is particularly visible in countries with deep Christian roots. From this perspective, it is fair to say we continue to maintain the ancient Israel’s social safety net suggested in today’s reading, especially for those facing social and economic hardships.
It is critically important to know that the Leviticus’ reading was not a suggestion or a casual option for charity. It was a command from God who cared for His vulnerable children. Theologically, we might call that “God’s preferential option for the poor”— the divine heart for the needy that runs throughout the Bible. In doing so, they practiced God’s justice in their everyday routines, whether they were fully conscious of it.
Imagine a single mother in a busy Australian suburb who suddenly loses her job to corporate downsizing. Overnight, her household faces a severe financial squeeze. With minimal savings and soaring living costs, she confronts the terrifying prospect of not being able to feed her children properly.
Fortunately, Australia’s structural safety nets change her story by providing immediate financial relief to cover groceries and secure housing, while local community services offer emergency food aid and career retraining.
The government provides the breathing room and dignity needed to weather life’s storms, get back on her feet, and eventually give back to the community. In doing so, everyday people like us in Australia pay our taxes and unknowingly live out God’s justice in our daily lives.
In his famous book Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do, Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel looks at different ideas about fairness. In the end, he suggests we need a ‘politics of the common good.’
To Sandel, justice means actively working together to build a fair community. He believes a truly just society should require us to care for vulnerable people and look out for one another.
Therefore, it is not much of a stretch to say that practicing justice is rarely just an individual choice. Rather, it is a reflection of living in a just society where caring for the vulnerable is a binding legal responsibility.
Another reading from the book of James challenges us hard with a powerful definition: ‘Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.’
Ultimately, this New Testament passage redefines what true religion really means. It leaves us with a significant question: What does your faith look like in practice, and how are you living each day as a true worshipper in God’s eyes?
If we reflect on our lives through the lens of James’ teaching, genuine religious living often happens out in our society rather than just within church walls. It is simply because that is how God evaluates our faith.
Faith is not just about using the right words to talk about what you believe. Faith is not about merely offering clever scripture passages to make your beliefs sound biblical, either. True faith is what ultimately shapes your lives and makes them pleasing and presentable to God.
Furthermore, even caring for the mentally, socially, and economically vulnerable is not about adding a few moral qualities to your personal character. Rather, it is the profound and beautiful way you transform your ordinary, everyday routines into acceptable worship before God.
When we proactively reach out to those in need—going even beyond our tax obligations, wherever we are and in all that we do— it transforms our everyday lives into a true religion in God’s sight.
God is a God of justice, and God is the Father of all.
May our lives reflect His heart to everyone around us.
