Persecution

Jesus said to his disciples: “If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you,
‘No slave is greater than his master.’ 

If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. And they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me.” (John 15:18-21)

Persecution. Dogged persecution.  Some of us are persecuted for our beliefs or perhaps simply for who we are – how we look, for example. Racism is a form of persecution for no other reason than there is a need for someone to blame – to find a scapegoat.

Jesus was a scapegoat eventually hung on a tree. He was hated because he did not belong to his world. He fought against injustice and preached the Kingdom of God on earth as well as in heaven.

Father Richard Rohr in his 2008 book “Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality,” said: “…Hating, fearing, or diminishing someone else holds us together, for some reason. The creating of necessary victims is in our hard wiring. Rene Girard calls the ‘scapegoating mechanism’ the central pattern for the creation and maintenance of cultures worldwide since the beginning. The sequence, without being too clever goes something like this: we compare, we copy, we compete, we conflict, we conspire, we condemn, and we crucify…

Scapegoating, or sacralized violence is the best possible disguise for evil. Remember, the very word satan means ‘the accuser.’  Be careful when you see yourself as accusing or as Jesus says ‘throwing stones.’ It is the satanic disguise, a marvelous diversionary tactic…”

As we get deeper into spring and continue to suffer the pains of this pandemic, let’s employ the best tactic – the one Jesus commanded we use: love, not hate.

Deacon David Pierce