The Value of a Life
Third Sunday of Lent. Fr Bruno Clifton warns us against presuming to judge the worth of any human person.
Among the greatest westerns, For a Few Dollars More from 1965 begins with a scene-setting title card. ‘Where life had no value, death sometimes had its price.’ Such irony makes this film about bounty hunters so interesting. War, poverty and crime has devalued human existence and yet at the same time imbued a utility, and a monetary value, to the taking of that life.
Jesus’s parable today also addresses the idea of value. The fig tree seems to make no contribution; therefore, it has no value. Yet the vinedresser does not give up on his tree. He provides the tree with the means of producing fruit and gives it the time to cooperate and profit from such a grace.
In treating the value of life, the western—and maybe Jesus’s parable—provoke wider questions. How does one weigh human life and who gets to make such a judgement?
In answer to the first question, some would appeal to utility, or to the common good as the benchmark. An individual’s value is relative to the good of the many. For others, a person’s worth is a matter of belonging. If you are one of us, your life has an inalienable value, if you are one of them… not so much. On these views, value cannot be intrinsic to a human life. It is a matter of perspective or circumstance.
But if so, then we are forced to address the second question. For if worth is a matter of perspective, then someone is making this assessment; if value is relative to the common good, then someone must judge the circumstances. Who is this and can their life also be the subject of judgement?
Normally it is the powerful who get to judge life’s worth, through military, political, and socioeconomic strength. But we should not underestimate the power that comes from simply living life already and being healthy and independent. Often this hold on life gives permission to judge the value of those for whom life is less under their control, dwindling, or just beginning.
We can also discern power games in the society of the New Testament. We find a belief that morality is a divinely endorsed standard for evaluating human life. In John’s Gospel, the man born blind is assumed to descend from a sinful family, hence his disability. And in today’s Gospel from Luke, Jesus refers to the opinion that Pilate’s persecution of the Galileans was a divine punishment.
There are at least two problems with these judgments. First, despite invoking divine sanction to hallow social (dis)approval it is still unclear who is qualified to make these evaluations. Secondly, it seems as if it is always to devalue someone that these judgements are made. Oscar Wilde’s barb comes to mind that ‘morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike’.
Jesus rejects public disapproval of the Galileans, yet he continues to link sinfulness to the punishment of oblivion. ‘Unless you repent you will all likewise perish’ (Luke 13:3, 5).
To bring all this together we must return to the parable. The fig tree is valued on its utility, empowered to produce its fruit, to make its contribution, to be judged as valuable by the vinedresser. Who is this? ‘I am the vine; my Father is the vinedresser’ (John 15:1)
Jesus identifies the only judge of human life: his heavenly Father; and life’s greatest validation is that God chooses to live a human life, the triumph over sin and death.
‘In spite of all this they still sinned’ (Ps 78:32). God is the legitimate judge of our life, yet our sin degrades our life towards perdition. ‘If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down’ (Luke 13:9).
The penance of Lent is self-evaluation; but the glory of Easter is God’s response. The definitive example of God evaluating our 0077orth against all we have done will be read this Palm Sunday from the Passion according to Luke. ‘And he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ And he said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise’’ (Luke 23:42–43).
Readings: Exodus 3:1-8,13-15 | 1 Corinthians 10:1-6,10-12 | Luke 13:1-9
Image: a fig tree by Prescott Pym, CC BY-NC 2.0
