If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also.
Jesus continues his farewell speech today, with more talk about love. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. It’s impossible to read this and not hear Jesus imploring his disciples to continue and grow in love, which is mentioned five times in these 15 verses.
I get that, and I strive to do that. And what I’m thinking about this morning is the warning Jesus offers in the midst of all of this love talk. He’s asking the disciples to follow in his way, to love God and love one another. And he continues by saying that if they do that, they’ll be persecuted and hated by those who persecuted and hated Jesus.
I genuinely struggle with this. I inherently believe all people are trying to do their best, or what they believe to do their best. I don’t understand how persecution or hatred fit in this world at all. How could Christians be hated? How can there be attacks on Christian places of worship? I had a disagreement with an early boyfriend of my oldest daughter about Christianity. He was pretty squarely atheist. I told him that other than the basic tenant of whether there’s a God or not, there’s nothing with which he could take issue from Jesus’ teaching. Love God and Love your Neighbor? How could anyone argue with that. We ultimately agreed that Christ wasn’t the problem, but what people do, albeit misguidedly, in Christ’s name that is the problem.
But here comes the hypocrisy. Christians judge and behave badly towards others. Think about this country’s response after 9/11, condemning and persecuting people of other faiths as if they’d personally been flying those jets. Or more close to home for me, those Christians who hate other Christians because they don’t follow their particular line of Christian thinking. I’m thinking of US politics.
Yes, we’ll be persecuted because we follow this counter-cultural framework that puts love above all else. And my hope is that if more people actually followed Jesus’ teachings about love, we’d have less persecution, because love would win. As it is, we’re stuck in this mire of people genuinely doing their best to follow what they believe God desires, but letting other values take over, things like fear, power, isolation, judgment, protectionism, patriotism. Instead, we should stop where Jesus started. Love one another, as I have loved you.
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