“Overcoming the world’s hatred”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Friday, October 28, 2022
John 15:17-27 (Forward, p. 91) CEV p. 1122
We like to think of ourselves here in Canada as living in a peaceful, harmonious, incredibly tolerant country, and so it can come as an immense surprise that there are people out there who actually, and actively, as well, do hate us—hate us for who we are and whose we are. Hate, and hatred, are words and concepts that I really have trouble getting my mind around, and yet, such things do exist in our world.
And yes, there are people, even in this country, who hate us because we are Christians and because we follow Christ and stand up for His teachings and principles and try to obey them. The recent events, especially stemming from COVID and its restrictions, the increased influx of refugee claimants from war-torn countries overseas and the rising sentiments of our First Nations and other marginalized peoples has given rise to what may seem, to us at least, to an unprecedented level of hatred.
And yet, Jesus predicted this. He said that just as people hated Him without cause so too they will hate us. In some ways, this hatred is rather incredible, rather unfathomable, because, as Jesus points out, He had come and done things, things like His miracles, that no one had ever done before, and yet still they did not believe, still they hated.
And yet, perhaps even in this, there is something of a ‘cause’ for their ill-feeling, their negative ‘take’ on the things that Jesus did. For one thing, according to one of my favourite authors, Jesus was able to fulfill completely in His lifetime and ministry the seven irrefutable signs of being the Messiah. That was sort of like drawing a line in the sand. They had to choose—to believe or not believe. And, of course, should they have chosen to believe, it would have set in motion a number of cataclysmic, life-altering changes to their lives.
But that is not all: the mere existence of Jesus and His lifestyle and teachings came as an affront, and as a kind of rebuke. As Jesus says, ‘I am not of this world’, meaning that He hadn’t ‘bought into’ the predominant virtues and standards of how society normally operates. We see this in how He treated women, foreigners and those suffering from disease or rejection. And we see this in His somewhat lax, dismissive, indifferent attitude to the almost endless regulations and inhibitions designed by
rabbinic scholars and teachers of the Law. And, of course, these breaks with ‘custom’, with how ‘things are normally done’ were immediately apparent, immediately noticeable. Again, they brought people up front. And, as it was with Jesus, so too it will be with us. Our distinct and cultural life-style should be apparent to all, and, as a consequence, some people may not like it. That is only part and parcel of what it means to follow Jesus.
But then, what should our response be? To reply in kind, to hate or at least reject or avoid such people? In verse 17, Jesus commands us to love one another, but surely, this is applying only to our fellow Christians (who, by the way may actually hate us). But not so fast: Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:43-47) tells us to love even our enemies.
Philip Yancey, in one of his books, illustrates this principle in real life. There was a particular Jewish man in the American South who had been continually harassed and singled out for abuse and persecution by a certain died-in-the-wool anti-Jewish bigot. This particular bigot fell upon hard times and was gravely ill, and so the Jewish man helped him and cared for him. What I would call true love in action. And, what happened? The bigot, experiencing true love from his supposed enemy, was changed in his attitude and actions and became like a true brother to him. So, what then, if the world hates us—just as it did with Jesus? It means that there is just all the more scope for our love. However, if you’re like me, that means that I really need a lot of help if I am do this, the help that comes only from God. Amen.
Forward notes: “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you” (verse 18).
“I imagine that people held in slavery against their will, those who have been driven from their homes or lands for no reason other than greed, those who have been the victims of others’ wars or crimes, and those who were and are constantly denied access to their needs to survive, must have felt or feel hated. Ancestors of mine surely must have wondered what they had done to deserve being enslaved or made to feel like second-class citizens after American slavery ended. Those whose countries of origin marked them as less valuable must have wondered where that hatred originated, where concepts of ethnic and racialized hatred sprang from and took root.
“After Jesus says, ‘I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another,’ he says, ‘If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you.’ This is our rallying cry to put the love our faith is built on—our love of Jesus—into practice next door, across the border, and into the world.”
Moving Forward: “What concrete steps can you take to drive out hate and injustice?”