So we’re in this room again, with the disciples. Judas has been asked to leave to go and do his thing. Most of the guys didn’t think twice about Judas leaving, they thought he was running an errand. It didn’t occur to them that he was going to do something as dastardly as he ended up doing. It was inconceivable. Jesus had shown them something in the last three years that was amazing, something that was true. They still hadn’t got a handle on it, but they still knew at a deeper level that this was right. Jesus rang true with the inner being and they committed to it as best they could, which is all anyone can do.

And so did Judas. He had been with them for the best part of three years too. I imagine that he struggled and fought over his feelings with Jesus. But there was one thing that kept bugging him, and it’s the same thing that bugs everyone in this world. The insecure self. And Judas, couldn’t escape it. On one hand he liked Jesus, this story of love, this demonstration of upside-down thinking, this new way of looking at the commands of God, this approach to God, this relationship with the Father, this knowing God outside the words of a book, this was all stuff that he loved. But the cost? Yep, on the other hand was the cost.

The cost of this new way of life was too much. There was no room for selfish gain, no room for feeling superior, there was no room for finding comfort in the power that we can have over other people. And that just didn’t wash with him. It’s not that he wanted to be a horrible man, it wasn’t all or nothing for him, he just wanted to be able to sooth his wounded ego with the ointment of power : just sometimes.

This stuff that Jesus talked about was too hard. He could see that it was too hard for the people he was talking to. The general populous was becoming more and more weary of Jesus. He seemed full of contradictions at times. His defence of some and his condemnation of others. His defence of the sinners and weak, and his condemnation of the righteous and powerful : people weren’t getting this.

His constant riddles and talking around the issues with most people, yet cutting straight to the chase with the religious lawyers of the land. Jesus didn’t fit the mould of someone who was going to save the world : he honoured those who had no power.

We don’t really know why he was open to Satan entering him, we don’t know why Judas did what he did. We can only guess and I suspect that Judas wanted to keep the peace so that he could live a new life of freedom—it was short lived in the end. He liked some of what Jesus said, but wasn’t prepared to go all the way. So he sold Jesus to the religious leaders for thirty pieces of silver : enough to set up some kind of investment in a lifestyle block somewhere.

It’s easy to do isn’t it…Judas left and John sums it all up beautifully with his phrase : and it was night.

Look around the room of the last supper that night you are looking at 11 dead men. 1 would die naturally, though in exile on a remote island in the middle of the Mediterranean. One would rise from his death : that’s Jesus by the way, the rest of them were tortured to death and martyred for their lifestyle message. Look around the room and we see 11 ordinary guys, eating a meal, sombrely listening to their leader as he tells them, calls a spade a spade, no riddles now, just truth.

“I’m the true vine, live in me. Be part of me. Bear fruit with me…” Jesus said this.

“Love God, love people?”, love one another, by this everyone will know you’re my disciples…and many will hate you for it.”

What?

Um Jesus, have you got that right? Let’s get this argument down then. You say we become Christians, have relationship with you, as we get closer to you, we start living life to the full because a transformation is taking place inside us : the light exposes the darkness. We become better people, we start loving other people, the world is a better place surely…doesn’t everyone want to be loved? Doesn’t everyone want to be accepted? Surely if we love people with your love, then wonderful change takes place in society.

Ummm…what’s the deal about people hating us then?”

Groups:

The message of love will bring an onslaught of hatred. It’s dreadfully ironic don’t you think? And yet it makes sense.

Before we go further on this, here’s what I think that this is not saying.

This statement of Jesus’ does not mean that we are getting it right if people hate us. He is talking about the inevitability of it, not that this is something we set out to do. In fact, it’s no small secret that a common ploy to wield power over someone is to make them hate you. If you can’t make them like you, then control them by making them hate you. Some people do this. It’s safer that way. We are not setting out to make people hate us.

Another thing this statement doesn’t say that the whole world hates us and this is the way it is so live with it. It says if the world hates us. There’s a lot of difference there. Sometimes I feel as though some movements are out to prove the point, to set the world up in opposition to the Gospel. In a process of preaching against the morality of the nation they alienate and create the holier than thou attitude that society despises. And when the world hurls abuse back at them then they smugly hold on to this verse to almost justify their actions.

No, we aren’t supposed to set out in opposition to the world. We are there to present the good news. And that doesn’t start with picking on the morality of this nation by doing marches of solidarity. That’s not subversive.

We need to have people testify to what Jesus has done in our lives, and then watch the response. Sure some will hate us, but that’s because they hated Jesus first.

What this verse says is that some people don’t want this Jesus who demands their lives be changed.

Some people hate the weakness of this Jesus that they see in the paedophilic priests of the media, in the hypocrisy of the tele-evangelist, mob dynamics of happy clappy, in the hollow and shallow rituals of church, in the porcelain Christ with no blood stains in medieval art, in the impotent Jesus of the Exorcist and other horror movies. Yep, gentle Jesus meek and mild is just not that cool really, not tough, and we want tough because that’s power in society. We can respect people who are hard nosed and able to make the tough decisions. Jesus said, blessed are the poor in spirit, he said in our weakness his strength is revealed, he said for us to serve one another… how do we take that on? What does that actually look like?

Some people will hate Jesus because he demands that they give up all they have. We are in a society that is driven so much by having more and more stuff, being caught up in this rat race to make money to buy this, provide for the family, give the kids opportunities, have the great stuff…and the list goes on as people are able to access more and more luxuries in their houses. The haves and the have nots in our society are more like the have the bests and the have the $2 shop version. Our status is determined by the quality and quantity we perceive to be in the brand of the things we own. Jesus says that we forgo all that. Jesus says, it is harder for a rich person to enter into heaven than for a camel to squeeze through the little hole in the top of a sewing needle. Jesus said, that we shouldn’t store up for ourselves treasure on earth, but in heaven…how can that not be offensive to someone who needs to look good by the things they own?

Some people will hate Jesus because he touches the untouchable. Because he still holds out his arms of restoration to the paedophilic priests, the hypocritical tele-evangelist, to the youth pastor who is still angry with so many things, to the person who has no showers, roof over their heads or reason to live. To those, yes those, Jesus still holds out his arms of restoration, and people will hate him because it makes them look bad.

There are lots of reasons why Jesus is hated by the world. But the biggest reason is because Jesus demands that we deny ourselves the right to independence.

That is what love is. It is impossible to love when there is no-one else around. Love ties us in together. All together because in perfect love, the other comes first. In perfect love, another person rates higher than ourself.

No greater love does anyone have than to lay down their life for another. Love is costly. Love is a choice against individuality. It can mean denying your own potential for the sake of someone else’s.

Our society holds love secondary to our own self-fulfilment.

Why would people hate pure love? Because pure love disowns the importance of self. And the self is the most important thing most of us have going for us.

It’s even reflected in the way we do church now. Some of us come here so we as individuals can connect with God. We stay or leave depending on how we feel things went. We are the judge of the worthiness of things. If I didn’t get anything out of it, then it was a failure.

The songs we sing are often me me me, the way we adore God in our prayers are more to do with how God has treated us rather than who he is. We come to be ministered to, not to minister to others. Is this service about what you get out of it instead of what others get out of it?

And we wonder why the world wouldn’t hate us…we don’t want the world to hate us. We don’t want people to persecute us. We don’t want people to oppose us. And this is the tension we are living in.

How can we have an effective strategy for mission if all we do is get people hating us? Wouldn’t that hinder the love of God? And that’s right. But the problem is that we can miss the point of Jesus whole message here. Before his statement on hate, he makes a profound statement about love. 15:12

They will know we are Christians by our love : not our mission strategy, the quality of our music, how good the preacher is, the size of our building, the rigidity of our moral stance, our political alignments, our newsletter, foyer. They will know we are Christians because of our love.

And that’s the crunch. What we do as a church should be so striking that it will stir up intense emotions in people : not because of what we have said or stated, but by what we have demonstrated for each other. Not by what we have said or done against society, but by how we operate socially together.

If we are demonstrating the kind of love that Jesus is talking about here, where we would lay our lives down for each other as Christ demonstrated : not just for people who were nice and amicable, but for those who were actually not that nice. Yep, would we lay down our life for a friend? Probably, but for someone who is an acquaintance? Someone who we don’t like? Nah, that’s not real enough.

By our love for one another we should be stirring up strong reactions in other people. Isn’t this the deal?

So the disciples are sitting in this room. Jesus is reclining there, eating his bread and saying these things. They didn’t get it. Judas had gone, sold Jesus for his money.

The disciples didn’t want to be hated any more than you or I want to be hated. The disciples didn’t want persecution, Jesus told them that there was coming a time when they would be killed in the name of God. If that wouldn’t blow doubt up you I don’t know what would.

Jesus challenges us to be so radical that it stirs strong emotions in people : not radical against the world, that’s not the battle and it’s easy for people to hate us for that. But radical against fulfilling ourselves and our philosophy that seeks self-empowerment. Radical because we will put others in our church first. Love one another is directed at us in the church.

Are we demonstrating that level of commitment here at Mt Albert? Are we that radical? What would it look like? What shape would that take?

This side of the church get up and move to that side of the church. In small groups paint a picture of what this church would look like if it were radically loving each other.

Are we able to do this? Are we ready to do this? Let’s pray for each other.