Hate Is A Virus

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)

John’s community of Christian Jews was experiencing rejection by non-Christian Jews (around year 90).  This was the “parting of the ways” between Judaism and early Christianity.  As a consequence, John has Jesus say that the [non-Christian Jewish] “world” hated him and Christian Jews.  It’s important for us to understand this conflict or “parting;” otherwise, we can misunderstand the reading.

Hate breeds contempt, armed conflict, and killing.  We see hate in the form of hate-speech defined as “abusive or threatening speech or writing that expresses prejudice against a particular group, especially on the basis of race, religion, or sexual orientation.”  

Hate is a virus that infects, but unlike COVID-19, there is no vaccination.  Then again, Jesus Christ can be the cure – the antidote – to hate provided we hold out our arms for that shot of vaccine we call love, compassion, and tolerance.

Deacon David Pierce