Not A Nice Guy!
Pentecost 13 c, August 18, 2013, Luke 12:49-56
Jesus is nice. Do you believe that?
Jesus is your friend. Do you believe that?
Think about these statements. Wrestle with them. "Nice". Does nice cut it in the world we live in? I remember as a child on more than one occasion having the next door neighbor lady come over to our house in the middle of the night with cuts and bruises on her face and arms, her nightie torn. She would then ask my parents to phone the police because her husband was in a rage and had physically beaten her, yet again. I remember the police arriving, hauling the guy away. Yet the very next day he would return because she wouldn't press charges – either out of fear, or some sense of marital loyalty – or perhaps even feeling that she should be nice to her husband.
This morning I find myself thinking even further about marriage as our oldest daughter is taking that step in her life next Saturday. How I hope and pray this man she is choosing will be kind and loyal to her – and that she will reciprocate and maintain her unique loyalty and kindness towards him. At the same time I know the failure rate of such covenants of marriage including the rate of domestic violence. How hard must it be when the one you love threatens to or actually beats on you?
This morning I also find myself thinking about the people of Egypt where a desperate battle for power rages. The Eyptian police have been authorized to use, get this, "live" bullets. Hundreds of people have been killed. Thousands of others are wounded. The scars on the surviving children and adults will run deep with incalculable ongoing ramifications. Nor is Egypt the only place where violence flames on either large or smaller scales. Syria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Israel have the violent fires of hatred raging. Too often our own street resemble battle zones.
Nor is it only in such seemingly "dark" places that violence, mayhem and the dehumanization of people occur. Our own streets, our own malls, our own minds and homes are sometimes the locales of horrid thoughts towards others, despicable images regarding others, perhaps even our own fits of rage, inwardly or externally.
So let me ask again: is Jesus nice?
If Jesus is to be the Saviour of the world, not just in the sense of another world, after this One – but if Jesus is also to effect change within us, among us and through us – so that the hungry will be fed, the lonely included and welcomed, the desperate experience hope here and now, the hated and hateful be loved and so empowered to change, and the addicted be liberated from all that enslaves them – well, can Jesus then be "nice"?
Or, must Jesus be radical: radical in His love so that He speaks the truth to us and through us? Radical in the light of His life and death so that we see the naked truth firstly about ourselves and then about our participant systems? Must Jesus, as the Saviour, be radical in the giving of Himself – so that the delusion of our systems which want, nay demand our total and absolute allegiance be exposed for the false gods they are?
Yes, yes and yes to Jesus' radicality!
If Jesus were only and always nice, He would never have been crucified. If Jesus were only nice He wouldn't have called Peter and Andrew to leave their families and follow Him, challenging the structures of His time and place while necessitating that others step and care for their family. If Jesus were merely nice He wouldn't have inaugurated a prayer in which we are all called to pray for his kingdom, his new radical way of life to come.
If Jesus were only nice He wouldn't had to call his disciples including ourselves to take up our crosses and follow him. He could have instead joined the voice of Bob Marley and said, "don't worry be happy." Instead Jesus calls his followers to love their enemies, even to pray for those who persecute them.
The truth is that Jesus isn't nice. And that's good news! Jesus loves us too much to leave us the way we are. Very often love can't just be "nice". Instead love needs to be truthful, caring, often self sacrificing. Such love firstly works change within ourselves. How we need to be changed: to have our minds opened beyond self absorption – to actually care for and about others. Such caring pries open our pocket books and our hearts to actively risk ourselves. We may then be hurt because we have become vulnerable. Yet at the same time we are also blessed: to experience life with courage that actively faces fear, to live while letting go of the arrogance that claims to know it all, an arrogance which will be replaced again and again by a genuine humility. We can be blessed to know that our lives rest not on human power but in God.
So Jesus dares to go to Jerusalem. This is the baptism he is stressed to be baptized with. In Jerusalem, He suffers, He dies. He is also raised. In all of this he reaches out to the entire world including us. We are so privileged to hear him personally address us: "This is my body given for you. This is my blood shed for you". For you! For me! For the entire world, that we might die to our old ways of hatred, fear, destruction, blaming, back biting, grasping, trying to earn our security, being overcome by fear. But then through such "dying" we are being raised each day by God to experience new life: forgiveness, courage, hope that though often challenged refuses to be quenched.
How privileged we are to receive His body and flood "For you, for me, for the world" – that we might "see" Him and know His love. This world is loved. We are called regardless of the cost to care for and also love this world.
Make no mistake - the cost of such love is high. Work for peace, genuine honest peace, where the majority's oppression ends, where there is honesty and accountability for each person and each group and you will experience conflict, perhaps even hatred. Work to advocate for the poor or the oppressed and some will not like you – perhaps even seek to hurt your family. Work to share God's love by telling the truth with compassion and you will experience ridicule, perhaps even exclusion.
But the result of such living is amazing. We will grow in faith, hope and love. In the midst of the struggle there is a courage and a resiliency that comes from beyond ourselves. At times we will meet the most amazing people, people who in experiencing the touch of God respond to the best of their abilities.
Finally we will realize in ways that are impossible to explain but nevertheless very real, that we are not alone. God is with us - behind, before, leading the way. Following God is life!
So, thanks be to God that Jesus is not nice. Instead He dares to confront all the powers that be with truth and love in order to be the Saviour of the world. Our world although often amazing and full of incredible possibilities is frequently anything but good to so many. So, like us, this world needs a Saviour, Jesus Christ the Lord. May we trust Him and by His grace follow Him, whatever the cost. Amen.