Gospel: Luke 12: 49-53
What is it about Jesus and his message that brings such hatred and opposition from people both within religion and the wider world? Jesus is the prince of peace, after all, the one who instructs us to extend peace as we go about serving others in the mission of mercy that is Christian discipleship. Jesus also categorically rejects any appeals to violence when it is suggested - spurning the appeal to the sword and to the request for fire to come down upon a village.
Consider the times Jesus faced opposition from religious leaders and from his own disciples. Jesus will openly violate a precept of the law in order to help and heal another person. Jesus will openly encounter and help those who are sinners, those who are unclean, those who are outcasts, and those considered enemies. Whenever these things happen, he faces opposition and questioning both from the religious leaders of his day and from his own disciples.
That God should be accessible to all, that God loves all, has created all, and cares for all is the central message of Jesus' teaching and his ministry. It is this idea that somehow brings conflict and opposition. But when religions and states are about power, influence, wealth, and status such an idea is threatening. For they need categories of exclusion, notions of the other in order to maintain power and wealth. To which city do we belong - the kingdom of mammon, or the reign of God?
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