Perspective: Hated for the Right Reasons

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Hated for the Right Reasons

Stay alert.  This is hazardous work I'm assigning you.  You're going to be like sheep running through a wolf pack, so don't call attention to yourselves.  Be as shrewd as a snake, inoffensive as a dove.

Matthew 10:16 (The Message)

Why me?
Why am I not welcome in your company?
Why do you treat me like an enemy?
If you believe the way you say you do
Oh, then why am I unlovable to you?
Oh, why am I unlovable to you?

From "Unlovable" by Plumb

In the Gospel of John, we read that, during the evening before Jesus is arrested, He warns the Disciples that they will face hostility for following Him.  He says, "If the world hates you, know that it hated me first."¹  He goes on to say, "Remember what I told you, 'Servants aren't greater than their master.'  If the world harassed me, it will harass you too."²

It seems to me that nowadays a lot of Christians misinterpret Jesus' words, thinking that, if they experience pushback or criticism of any kind, then people must hate them for following Jesus.  They seemingly experience the resistance they face as a kind of affirmation that they are doing what is right, failing to even consider that the pushback or criticism might actually be legitimate.

People who think in this way are guilty of committing a logical fallacy known as affirming the consequent.³  If a particular action results in a certain consequence, we cannot automatically assume the converse, that every instance of a certain consequence is the result of the particular action.  For example, there are many people who have been arrested for taking a stand against injustice, but we cannot assume that every person who has ever been arrested was arrested for taking a stand against injustice.

Christians cannot interpret the disdain of others as a sign that they are following Christ faithfully.  In fact, it might actually be a sign that they are following Christ rather poorly.  For example, members of the Westboro Baptist Church, who are notorious for picketing funerals, are probably some of the most hated "Christians" in America.  Members of this so-called "church" are hated not because they are following Jesus but because they have the utter depravity to make a mockery of a funeral, where people are grieving the loss of a loved one.  Christ announces blessing and comfort for "those who mourn,"⁴ and followers of Christ are instructed to "weep with those who weep."⁵

Jesus says to the Disciples, "If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own.  However, I have chosen you out of the world.  This is why the world hates you."  In the New Testament, the word world is used in at least two different ways.  First, there is the world that God loved so much that God sent Jesus to save it.⁶  Second, there is the world that followers of Jesus are instructed not to love.⁷  The former is the world God created and fully intends to save, and the latter is the world in it's current state, a world in desperate need of saving.⁸  Jesus has called the Disciples out of the world as it is and has brought them into His work in saving the world.

When Jesus suggests that the world hates Him, He does not mean that everyone in the world hates Him.  When we read the Gospels, we can see that Jesus is actually loved by many people in his own time.  What Jesus means is that He has come into a world where He will be executed, even though He has done nothing to warrant execution.  The people who hated Jesus were the people who had the influence and authority to have Him put to death.  They hated Him because He rocked the proverbial boat.  People who have privilege and power hate people who rock the boat, because they are afraid of losing their privilege and power.

When followers of Jesus challenge the principalities and powers at work in this world, as Jesus did, then they can expect to be mistreated, as Jesus was.

In another Gospel, when Jesus sends out the Disciples, He says, "I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves."⁹  They will face hostility, but they must not give people any reason to be rightfully hostile toward them.  People who follow Jesus will be hated if they rock the boat like He did, but being hated is not a sign that one is truly following Jesus.  One might be hated simply for being a contemptible person.  If we must be hated in this world, then we need to be sure that we are hated for the right reasons.


Notes:

1. John 15:18 (CEB)
2. John 15:20 (CEB)
3. Wikipedia: "Affirming the Consequent"
4. Matthew 5:4 (NRSV)
5. Romans 12:15 (NRSV)
6. John 3:16-17
7. 1 John 2:15
8. Brian Zahnd.  "The Things Above."  Word of Life Church, 05/16/2021.
9. Matthew 10:16 (NRSV)

The photograph of the thorns was taken by Alex Grichenko, and it has been released to the public domain.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.

Introspection: Normal?

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Normal?

So, I'm all for just going ahead and having a good time - the best possible.  The only earthly good men and women can look forward to is to eat and drink well and have a good time - compensation for the struggle for survival these few years God gives us on earth.

Ecclesiastes 8:15 (The Message)

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone
They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot

From "Big Yellow Taxi" by Joni Mitchell

You may or may not have noticed lately that I have not been publishing posts on this blog quite as frequently as I did in the past.  The simple reason is that I have struggled to find inspiration or motivation.  Sometimes I wonder if maybe the proverbial well has dried up and I've run out of things to write.  You might have also noticed that, though I had been posting an introspection every month for the last couple of years, until now introspective posts have been totally nonexistent this year.  The reason is that lately there hasn't been much about my life I've wanted to share with the world.

I had a couple of stressful months this year.  For a few days in early February, I had some strange symptoms which resulted in my getting tested for COVID-19.  To my relief, the test came back negative.  I did not believe that I had actually contracted the virus, as I did not have any typical symptoms except for a slightly elevated body temperature, but the experience was still rather frightening.  Then, in early March, the governor of my state issued an executive order stating that all state employees were to return to their workplaces, meaning that I was no longer allowed to work from home.  Though I'm actually happier to be working at the office, the prospect of having to return to a full office before I had the opportunity to be fully vaccinated made me a bit anxious.  Amid all these things, I'm still processing the loss of my father.

As I noted on New Year's Eve, my only goal for this year was to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as I was able to do so and then to wait for life to return to whatever semblance of normal is possible.  I'm happy to report that, by the end of April, I was considered fully vaccinated.¹  Just four months into the year, I had completed my singular New Year's resolution.  All that was left for me to do was to wait.

It turned out that my waiting would not be long.  Just ten days ago, on May 13, Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control, announced, "If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic."  She also announced that, in most situations, vaccinated people no longer need to wear masks indoors or practice social distancing.²  The announcement seemed too good to be true.  Not having to wear a mask didn't really matter too much to me, but I had been waiting for over a year for some "green light" to start doing the things I did before the pandemic.

During the weekend after the announcement, I started easing back into my life as it was before the pandemic.  On Friday evening, I hung out in a cafe for the first time in over a year.  My mother gave me a new tablet for Christmas, and I was finally able to use it outside of my home.  Before the pandemic, I did almost all of my writing in coffeeshops.  On Saturday evening, I ate inside a restaurant I once frequented.  On Sunday, I enjoyed lunch with a good friend of mine at a cafe near our church.  Lunch at this cafe was like a weekly after-church ritual for us in our pre-pandemic lives.

Last week, the campus of my alma mater was finally opened to the public, so, one day after work, I drove over there to take took a long walk, as I did in the past.  On another day after work, I took a walk at a park not far from my workplace.  Later this month, I will meet some of my friends for a Memorial Day get-together.

Lately, I've been re-reading The Alchemist, which I originally read back in 2019.  One passage, which incidentally I read at a restaurant after the announcement from the CDC, really struck me:
The silence of the desert was a distant dream; the travelers in the caravan were talking incessantly, laughing and shouting, as if they had emerged from the spiritual world and found themselves once again in the world of people.  They were relieved and happy.³

I know that not everybody is on the same page regarding the CDC's announcement.  Personally, I have decided to trust my vaccination to do what it was designed to do and to reclaim some of the things that were taken from me by the pandemic.  For various reasons, I still wear a mask inside stores, and sometimes, by either choice or necessity, I sit outside at coffeeshops and restaurants, so I cannot yet say that my life has fully returned to normal.  That said, I'm just grateful that I'm once again doing things I enjoyed doing before the pandemic.

People have been saying that life should not return to how it was before the pandemic or that life cannot return to normal.  Quite frankly, I don't want to hear it.  My life changed a lot in March of last year, when the shutdown was initially announced, but I have flat-out refused to dignify pandemic life with a phrase like new normal.  I've preferred to think of it as temporary crappiness we all needed to endure in order to keep ourselves and each other safe.  I understand that a lot of people needed to slow down and simplify their lives and that the pandemic forced us all to do so.  My "old normal" consisted of things like hanging out in coffeeshops with my tablet and writing, sharing long conversations with friends over coffee, taking long walks at beautiful places around town, and dancing on the weekends.  There was nothing problematic about any of these things, and there is no reason I should not want them back.

I am not suggesting that, if we gained anything good during the pandemic, we should abandon it in favor of what we had beforehand.  Because of the pandemic, I started taking walks around my neighborhood, which I never did previously, and I've had the opportunity to meet some of my neighbors.  Now that I've returned to the places where I walked before the pandemic, I will probably keep taking walks around my neighborhood from time to time.  What I am saying is that, while we hold on to any good things we gained during the pandemic, at some point we also need to reclaim the good things we lost because of the pandemic.

If you had asked me back in 2019 what I thought of my life, I would have told you that I was dissatisfied.  Since then, I have found myself looking back on that year with fondness.  It only took a global pandemic to make me realize how good my life was.  If I have learned anything during this pandemic, it is that I should never take the things I enjoy in life for granted, no matter how simple they are.  May I never forget this lesson.


Notes:

1. One is considered "fully vaccinated" two weeks after one's last required dose of the vaccine.
2. https://youtu.be/S-2nE6AK1OU
3. Paulo Coelho.  The Alchemist (25th Anniversary Edition).  2014, Harper One.  pp. 90-91

The photographs featured in this introspection were taken by me in two of my "happy places."

Eastertide Perspective: Pax Christi

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Pax Christi

Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you.  As the Father sent me, so I am sending you."

John 20:21 (CEB)

Oh, Father won't You forgive them?
They don't know what they've been doin'
Oh, Father, give me grace to forgive them
'Cause I feel like the one losin'

From "Losing" by Tenth Avenue North

It is evening.  The Disciples are gathered in their meeting place, and the door is locked.  It has been two days since their Teacher, a man of peace, was sentenced to death and executed by crucifixion, like a violent terrorist.  Earlier that day, Mary Magdalene came to the Disciples and reported that Jesus' body was missing.  Two of them went to the tomb to check out the stuation for themselves.  Mary returned later in the day to announce that she had seen Jesus alive and well.  At least one of the Disciples believes her, but most of them just don't know what to think.¹

Suddenly, Jesus appears in their midst and says, "Peace be with you."²

When Jesus last spoke of peace to the Disciples, they were gathered in the same place three days earlier, shortly before Jesus was arrested.  Having told them that He would soon be leaving them, He said to them, "Peace I leave with you.  My peace I give you.  I give to you not as the world gives.  Don't be troubled or afraid."³  Later in the same conversation, He said, "I've said these things to you so that you will have peace in me.  In the world you have distress.  But be encouraged!  I have conquered the world."⁴

Jesus promised the Disciples peace before He was arrested and executed.  Now that He has been resurrected from the dead, He returns to them with an announcement of peace.

I do not know exactly what Jesus meant when He spoke about how the world gives peace, but I wonder if maybe He was speaking about the Pax Romana.  The term Pax Romana is used to describe a two-century long age of order within the Roman Empire that began with the ascension of Caesar Augustus in 27 BC.⁵  The peace of Rome was a twisted kind of peace that was maintained through fear and violence.

One of the means by which the Roman Empire maintained order was crucifixion, the method by which Jesus was executed.  Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan describe crucifixion as "a form of Roman imperial terrorism."⁶  In The Last Week, they write,
First and above all else, although the Romans did not invent [crucifixion], they reserved it for very special victims.  Next, it was not just capital punishment, but a very definite type of capital punishment for those such as runaway slaves or rebel insergents who subverted Roman law and order and thereby disturbed the Pax Romana (the "Roman peace").  Furthermore, as imperial terrorism, it was always as public as possible - it was a calculated sort of social deterrant and as such it had to be very, very public.  Its victims were hung up as a public warning.⁷

According to one early Christian theologian, the purpose of Jesus' coming to earth and suffering crucifixion was "to destroy the one who holds the power over death - the devil - by dying" and to "set free those who were held in slavery their entire lives by their fear of death."⁸  The Roman Empire employed the fear of death in order to keep people under control.  Jesus died and rose again in order to set people free from the fear of the death, thereby rendering the Roman Empire ultimately powerless over them.

The Roman Empire brought peace through means of violence.
Jesus brought peace by confronting Roman violence, absorbing it, and rising from it.

The Roman Empire brought peace by instilling fear into people.
Jesus brought peace by liberating people from fear.

Christ's way of doing things is not the world's way of doing things, and, if we are followers of Christ, then our way of doing things must look more like Christ's.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says to His followers, "You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.  But I say to you that you must not oppose those who want to hurt you.  If people slap you on your right cheek, you must turn the left cheek to them as well."⁹  He goes on to say, "You have heard that it was said, You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy.  But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who harass you..."¹⁰  As the Prince of Peace, Christ calls us to be agents of His peace by disengaging from the world's games of payback and escalation.

Christ does not want us to be afraid, and He does not want us to use fear against each other.  May Christ's peace be with us, and may we be agents of Christ's peace in the world.


Notes:

1. John 20:1-19
2. John 20:19
3. John 14:27 (CEB)
4. John 16:33 (CEB)
5. Wikipedia: "Pax Romana"
6. Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan.  The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus's Final Days in Jerusalem.  2006, HarperOne.  p. 146
7. ibid.
8. Hebrews 2:14-15 (CEB)
9. Matthew 5:38-39 (CEB)
10. Matthew 5:43-44 (CEB)

Jesus Appears to the Disciples was painted by William Hole in 1906.