Pentecost 27
John 15:18 – 16:4
When I was 10 years old, at the start of Year five, a new boy moved to our
school and was put in my class. I knew his name but had not met him or talked to him. The second week of school he confronted me on the playground. ‘I hate you,’ he said. ‘You are my enemy and you’d better watch your back.’
Well, to say the least I was taken aback and a little upset. And the strangest thing was that I’d never met him before or spoken with him. He knew nothing about me.
I went home and told my mum what had happened. She was certain that I must have insulted him somehow … said or did something. But there was nothing. ‘You have to ask him,’ she said. ‘Then you can apologise for whatever he thinks you did.’
‘So I asked him the next day if I had said or done something to make him upset.’
‘I just hate you,’ he said, ‘and I’m gonna get you.’ Then he walked off.
Apparently he was of the belief that he needed an enemy. Someone he could hate and blame all his problems on. And I was the one. There was no reason to it. And no way to convince him that I was not his enemy.
It was my first glimpse into real hatred. It is not rational and cannot be reasoned with.
Sadly, we have experienced all too many examples of hatred in recent months that many of us have found hard to fathom. In the recent US election campaign we found extreme elements on both sides convinced that the other was evil. My own family in the US is considering whether they should cancel Thanksgiving meal because of the animosity on both sides. And then there is the centuries old hatred spewing out of the Middle East in which both sides are convinced that there is one version of events, one version of history, and one side that is justified in hating the other. Many of those who have sought to mediate an end to hostilities have given up in frustration as neither side is willing to negotiate.
John in his Gospel, is much more interested in love than hatred. He talks of the love of the Father for the son, of the Son for the Father, and of the Father and the Son for those who believe in the Son. John speaks of the love that those who follow Jesus have for one another. And in the text immediately preceding today’s text we hear of the greatest love that anyone can have, for Jesus to lay down his life for others. And he tells his disciples that he has given them a new commandment, that they should love one another.
Jesus says all these things as part of his farewell speech to his disciples at the Last Supper. He said these things to prepare them and to comfort them.
But then the tone shifts dramatically. In today’s text we find a departure from this recurring theme of love in John’s Gospel. In today’s text we find Jesus warning his disciples that they will be hated, just as Jesus himself is hated. Jesus warns his disciples that a time is coming when people will hate them and seek to kill them. And they will do this simply because they bear the name of Jesus. ‘People hate me,’ Jesus said, ‘because they do not know the Father. And thus they also hate the Father, and will hate you.’
But why would Jesus be hated? After all, he proclaimed the love of God and the forgiveness of sins. He healed the sick. He stood up for the poor and oppressed. Why would anyone hate Jesus?
Jesus says that it was to fulfil the words of scripture, ‘They hated me without cause.’ He is referring to Psalm 69:4.
‘More in number than the hairs of my head
Are those who hate me without cause;
Many are those who would destroy me,
My enemies who accuse me falsely.
What I did not steal, must I now restore?’
And here we find a great truth about hatred. It is like the hatred I experienced from the boy in Year Five, or the hatred we often see behind those from different political camps or ethnic groups. In its truest and purest form, hate has no rational cause. We might seek some reason for it. We might be convinced that if only we could find the reason for the hatred we could bring it to an end. But true hate is beyond reason. That is the point of this Psalm of David that Jesus refers to. Hatred has no cause. It adheres to no reason.
We often use the word ‘hate’ loosely. We hate a certain movie or song. We hate days that are too cold or too hot. ‘I hate the weather,’ or ‘I hate it when the garbage collection is late’ we say casually. But when we encounter genuine hatred we find that it is something very different to dislike.
Those consumed by hatred have been so blinded by hate that they are willing to believe anything bad they hear about ‘the other’ and reject anything they hear that might seem positive.
That is the sad nature of hatred.
And no one experienced it more fully or unjustly than Jesus.
And on the eve of his arrest he reminds the disciples that as his followers they can expect the same hatred.
But it is not them. It is nothing personal. And it defies all reason. It is simply because they bear the name of Jesus, who also was hated without reason.
But why does Jesus tell his disciples this?
Again, just as was the case in his preceding words, when he talked about the coming of the Holy Spirit and about love, Jesus tells his disciples these things to bring them comfort.
Not exactly the words of comfort anyone would like to hear. People will hate you for no good reason and will seek to kill you. How does that bring comfort, we might wonder?
Jesus tells his disciples, and all of us who bear his name, that there will be those who will hate us simply for being followers of Jesus. But when this happens we are to remember that Jesus was hated too. We are to remember that that following Jesus will cost something.
And most importantly, we are to remember that we are not alone. Jesus has sent his Spirit to be with us. When we feel completely alone, hated for no reason, The Spirit is with us and will give us the strength and words to speak.
Jesus calls all who follow him to love each other, just as he has loved us. But he does not promise that everyone will love us. He goes out of his way, in fact, to warn us that we will at times experience quite the opposite, just for because we follow him.
But Jesus wants us to know that when this happens, it is a reminder that we are his. If we were not his and he did not love us, then we would not be hated for following him. And he wants us also to know that we are not alone. That he has sent his Spirit to stand with us and guide us and comfort us in such times.
But still, we ask, there must be some reason for such hatred. There must be some cause that can be addressed.
In fact, even though Jesus tells us that he (and by extension we) are hated without cause, he does provide an explanation. ‘They hate me,’ he says, ‘and they hate you because they do not know the Father. They do not know the one who sent me’ (verses 15:21 and 16:3).
And here is not only a clue as to the nature and cause of this hatred, but also an indication of how we might address it.
Hatred originates not in any reason or logic, but our of lack of knowledge. The first persecutors of the early followers of Jesus were the Jewish authorities. They thought they were doing a righteous service to God (16:20). But in fact, they do not know God.
One of these, you may recall, was a young hothead named Saul, from Tarsus. He stopped persecuting the followers of Jesus only when he himself met Jesus – when he learned to know who God truly was. In fact, he not only stopped persecuting Christians, but he changed his name to Paul and became one of the greatest advocates for the cause of Jesus.
So we will indeed encounter people who hate Jesus and hate those of us who follow him for no clear reason. They might see us as their enemy, even. But that does not make them our enemy. It does not mean that we, in turn, should hate them.
Because knowledge can bring an end to hatred. And a knowledge of Jesus, that is, knowing not just who Jesus is, but knowing Jesus a friend, dissolves all hatred.
So it when confronted by senseless hatred. Especially when it is directed at us simply for following Jesus, pray for that person or those people. Speak the words that the Spirit gives us to tell them who Jesus is. That is what Jesus asks us to do in this text.
They may not listen. But then again, neither did Saul of Tarsus, and neither did most of us – until we did. Until we ourselves came to know Jesus and his love, we too were caught up in a world of unreasoned hate.
But in Jesus, we have become bound up in his world of transforming love that overcomes all hatreds.
Amen.
Pastor Mark Worthing.
Port Macquarie.