Our Lot in Life

Gospel: John 15: 18-21

It is a common occurrence in the U.S. to see large megachurches filled with upper class people proclaiming that they are disciples of the Lord Jesus.  In such a culture the only qualifier to be such is to profess faith in the Lord Jesus and to be baptized.  But is this all there is to the matter?  Do people understand the consequences of such a commitment?  

Today's reading has Jesus spell out those consequences:  if you follow down this path, the world will hate you just as it did to Jesus.  Recall all the times in the Gospel when hatred and opposition came to Jesus' way:  when he healed an outcast or a foreigner; when he talked with a Samaritan woman or some other outsider; when he ate with sinners.  Whenever Jesus expanded the kingdom of God to include all people he encountered the hatred of the world, the hatred of those in power who need a world rapt in self-interest in order to sow division and maintain their exclusive power.  That can't happen if God is accessible to all people.

In choosing to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus it is our task to make the kingdom of God accessible to all people, to exclude no one and to welcome everyone.  We too will experience the hatred of the world and those in power, for it is our lot in life to suffer such if we truly wish to be a disciple of Jesus.  Yet with it we too receive the peace and joy of Jesus who bore suffering with silence and serenity.