Jesus the Bum: An Ideological Reading of Homelessness in the Gospel of Matthew

Abstract

This thesis employs socio-rhetorical criticism to probe the nexus between Jesus and homelessness as it surfaces in the Gospel of Matthew. It draws on the critical theory of Slavoj Žižek to argue that the connection between Jesus and homelessness functions as a sublime object of ideology in biblical interpretation. Although a connection between Jesus and homelessness appears frequently in scholarship, most depictions “romanticize” homelessness in a way that divorces it from the marginalizing reality and reduced capacity for agency that typically accompanies the experience. This peculiarity is exploited to demonstrate how biblical interpretation is, often unknowingly, complicit in the ideological politics of homelessness in contemporary society. After developing an interpretive strategy with which to approach the construction of Jesus’ homelessness in the Gospel of Matthew, a selection of texts are re-read to amplify the destitution, desperation, offensiveness, and constraints on agency that are integral to a critical understanding of Jesus’ itinerancy and displacement. These texts include: the flight to Egypt (Mt 2:13-23); the beginnings of Jesus’ ministry and calling of the first disciples (4:12-25); Jesus’ lament of homelessness (8:18-22); the rejection of Jesus by his hometown (13:53-58); and finally, the arrest (26:47-56) and crucifixion of Jesus (27:38-50). What emerges is a refreshed perspective on the deviancy of Matthew’s Jesus, in which his status as a displaced outsider is identified as a significant contributing factor to the conflict of the narrative, and to his eventual execution.