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Us vs. Them: Who does God love more?
Posted by Rastis in Bible & Theology, Church & Missions
Humans are experts at division. Virtually every culture in every time has figured out who is the “us” and who is “them.” While many of these categorizations are centuries old some simply serve the purpose of establishing a sufficient reason to explain why one people group does things a certain way. These classifications encompass gender, race, economics, politics, and religion. One thing that is surprising about Jesus is that in spite of the ubiquity of the us/them distinctions in all cultures–not to mention 1st cent Jewish culture–he was always associating with “them.” He continually contradicted the stereotypes of religion, race, the haves and have-nots, women and men, and the religious and the pagan. Jesus challenged, by modeling love, the presuppositions that the “us” held about “them.” More than simply challenging the existing paradigm, he demonstrated to his disciples (by extension-Us) just how it is that the gospel overcomes these barriers–via relationship and follow-ship.
I don’t really know. I’m not sure how the religion I grew up in would or should deal with terrorism. But I do have some thoughts on how Jesus might deal with terrorists because he had two with him in his inner circle of friends. A Zealot and a tax collector. A political insurgent and an economic terrorizor of the common folk. What he did with these two was bring them in as confidants. As students. Disciples. And Made them apostles of the early faith. It actually seems to me that the worse someone was, the more Jesus liked them. He didn’t just have ‘mercy’ in the way we think of it, as a sweet, sappy, lovey-dovey sort of thing. It was mercy with a bite. Mercy that led the people out of where they were into a new place. This is what Jesus did with the worst of His day.
In these stories, Jesus loves both the oppressed and the oppressor. Jesus takes pity on the blind man who demonstrates impositional faith by calling out like a crazed man. This we have come to expect from Jesus, and thus often overlook it. However, in this time, people with gross birth defects were viewed as a being in a low status since they have some defect which is “result of sin.” Jesus is not a Marxist. The problem is not the system, “The Man,” the rich, or the middle class. The first story took place on the way to Jericho; the second takes place coming into the city. Zaccheus was trying to steal a peek at Jesus and see what he was about. Jesus engaged him not by verbal denouncements, but a request to receive his hospitality. In western cultures which do not focus as much on status it might not be clear that people of good reputation do not receive hospitality from “those kind of people”. As a result of Jesus’ costly love (costly to his image, a sacrifice not lost in Zaccheus’ mind), Zaccheus demonstrates true repentance. This change of heart was not a result of community outcry or hatred, it was a result of Jesus calling him to a relationship.
Terrorists, the rich, the poor, and the politically compromised can all be reached through the way of love, the way of Jesus.
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Isn’t it interesting that we don’t have any record of those two ever going at it?
The practice of Jesus’ evangelism was mixed with His divine attribute of Wisdom. He crafted and timed each event to be the most effective. Many times he was able to address a primary target and the by-standers were taken by surprise and ministered to as well. Each received the message as if it was personally delivered. Love is the true wisdom of God.
I note that Jesus at times seems to set out to contradict the us vs. them mentality. ‘You cannot serve both God and Mammon’ – a comment which for many sermonizers leads to a diatribe against the rich. Jesus, instead, leads to a problem more likely to happen to the poor – ‘therefore, don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or drink or about your body, what you will wear’. These are mostly worries of the poor, and to my ear, this therefore seems to imply that worrying about these things constitutes serving mammon, which will keep you from serving God. Serving mammon is obviously a vice of the rich, but Jesus makes the point that it is also a vice of the poor. It’s not us vs them, it’s both us and them caught up in the same problem.