John 15

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

John 15

I love the story of the vine and the branches, and I love the fact that it takes place at the Last Supper.  This the teaching that Jesus felt the need to make sure His apostles understood right before the Crucifixion.

But I find my brain catching on another part of this chapter today, and, in the grand tradition of the blog, I am going to go with what catches my attention.

²⁰ Remember the words I said to you: A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you too; if they kept my word, they will keep yours as well.

I can't help thinking that this, right here, might explain the Fox News War on Christmas nonsense that pops up every now and again.

Is there a kind of vague unease about how Christianity is the most popular religion in the world?  To the idea of a billion Catholics out of six billion and many more Protestants?  Can you even persecute and oppress 1/6 of the population?  I suppose by the numbers game, yes, you could, but...

We aren't persecuted, whatever people occasionally start railing at Facebook, for our beliefs in America, at least.  We just aren't.  None of the noise you hear to the contrary is what Jesus is talking about here - we don't to get enforce our virtues and morals on others using the law, no, and we don't get to overtly put our stamp on political, secular events.

But then who is persecuted now?  Who is persecuted as Jesus was persecuted - who, as I thought about so much in the past two chapters - is so dangerous now that we think the world would be more stable and safe without them?  That makes those who benefit from the status quo shake in their boots?

Well, lots of people, but the ones that seem to have their hearts in the right place are the really radical do-gooders trying to rock the boat.

And I just...I wish Christians were leading this charge.  I wish the world didn't know what to do with us.  I wish the world wished that we would just shut up about how messed up it is (not about all the rest of the things we can't shut up about).  I wish the world thought we were radical and dangerous and trying to mess everything up.

Because the world is in a real mess.  And we should be like Jesus, trying to fix it.  We should be leading the charge to overthrow oppression and help our fellow man and being so dangerous to the entrenched ways of doing things that hurt people in ways we've all come to quietly, passive accept.

That's what we should be doing and - to get part of the vine story in here - perhaps that's why we need to be pruned and have branches cut away.  We need to have everything that keeps us from being those people cut away.  Maybe that's why we are told to give up everything we have and give it to the poor, because it's easier to be a radical when you have nothing.  People make that joke all the time to dismiss radicals as moochers or fringe-dwellers.  So of course they want to change the system.  But it's so HARD to be radical when you have house payments and student loan payments and you want to appear cheerful and productive to prospective employers who might be watching you on Facebook.

It's so hard to be radical and shake things up when you are clawing your way up the social ladder or - worse! - you benefit from the status quo's system of rewarding and oppressing.

Perhaps that's why his followers were told to have only sandals and a walking stick.  Because everything else is in a conspiracy to shut you down and make you so dependent on and blind to the terrible status quo that you don't make noise about how things should be different.  So you don't start getting persecuted in reality.

I imagine it's so much easier to weather persecution when you have nothing.