{"id":757,"date":"2019-07-31T09:00:31","date_gmt":"2019-07-31T13:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nancylucenay.com\/staging\/8869\/?p=757"},"modified":"2025-09-07T14:48:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T18:48:18","slug":"honor-games-how-to-play-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nancylucenay.com\/staging\/8869\/honor-games-how-to-play-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Honor Games: How to Play & Win"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Her brow furrowed and her eyes pleading, Michelle asked me to pray for her son. \u201cOf course. Is something wrong?\u201d I responded. \u201cHe has a school interview tomorrow,\u201d she explained. My jaw dropped; Michelle\u2019s son was not yet two years old. Competition to get into the \u201cright\u201d nursery or kindergarten is fierce in Hong Kong because it leads to getting into the right primary and secondary schools. Therefore, parents go to extraordinary lengths to ensure their children make it into the top programs. Why? They want their children to have the best start in life. They also desire the honor that comes to parents when their child is in a prestigious school.  Honor games begin early in Asian cultures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Honor Games in the First Century<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When acquiring honor<\/a> is your top goal, and you assume it’s a limited good<\/a>, you believe more honor for your neighbor means less for you. That can lead to envy and conflict. Nothing is more valuable than honor in an honor\/shame culture, so life is a series of contests. In the first century, people competed for honor via a push-and-shove game called “Challenge and Response.” The goal is to gain honor at someone else\u2019s expense. The winner receives honor, the loser shame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are four steps to challenge and response:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Claim<\/g> of honor\u2014it can be direct or indirect, spoken or assumed, positive or negative. An honor claim asserts the right of one person to enter the social space of another.<\/li>
  2. Challenge\u2014because honor claims threaten another person\u2019s status, they require a challenge.<\/li>
  3. Response\u2014either the person who made the honor claim defends it or he (most of the time it was a male) loses face. The game may include several repetitions of steps one through three.<\/li>
  4. Public verdict\u2014since honor is a public commodity, it is the onlookers who determine the winner and loser.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Honor Games in the Bible<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    In Honor and Shame in the Gospel of Matthew<\/em>, Jerome H. Neyrey says that every time Jesus appeared in public (outside his circle of family and friends), people engaged him in honor games. He faced both positive and negative challenges, with most of the interactions taking the form of challenge and response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Positive Challenges<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Positive challenges put Jesus’ reputation on the line and obligated him to reciprocate. In a world that assumed limited good, giving to one person meant there was less to give to another. Additionally, no man wanted to seem weak. In first-century<\/g> culture, Jesus upheld his honor when he rejected a positive challenge. Positive challenges could be:<\/p>\n\n\n\n