Jesus the Uniter

John 12

You’ve heard about Jesus the “divider.” I wrote to you about Him in my first letter.

But since then, things have changed, at least for me they have.

So, listen: Jesus never truly wanted to divide, only unite. But He knew how the world would receive him and that many would oppose His message of love, justice and mercy. He could see into the depths of our hearts, and He knew that some could not abide Him, as He so wanted. Actually, He desperately wanted to unite, not divide.

Here is what Jesus said about unity:

“Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” (John 12)

“I ask not only on behalf of these but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (John 17)

Agnolo Gaddi

14th Century

Do those words sound like the words of a divider? I don’t think so.

Let me try to explain. First, I should tell you how much time has passed since my first letter to you, and describe what has transpired in the meantime.

The big thing is that, not long after my parents became His followers, Jesus was arrested and crucified. He was, as he predicted, “lifted up.” But then, after three days in a tomb, Jesus was miraculously raised from the dead and restored to life!

How could that happen? How could an innocent man like Jesus suffer such injustice and brutality? The answer is our religious leaders saw to it. Their jealousy of Jesus led them to such a solution. In short, they had decided that Jesus must be eliminated.

And how could a crucified man, after three days in tomb, be raised from the dead? More about that later.

Then what about me? What has happened in my life since my letter to you about Jesus the divider?

Quite a bit, actually, so prepare yourself to read about events that I would never have predicted for me!

Yes, you remember that my parents chose to follow Jesus and that I resisted, questioning their sanity. And yes, they did suffer exclusion from our synagogue as a result. And as I feared, some of that rejection fell to me, my brothers and sisters. For a long time, I resented both my parents as well as the local leaders who pushed them out. I mean, even though I disapproved of my parents’ choices, I still loved them and saw them as basically good people. It was unfair to look down on them, as many in our community did.

For a time, all of this actually hardened me against them. I am sorry to say it but the words of Jesus about families dividing over Him did come true for us. And I blame myself for that. As the eldest son, I should have been an example of obedience. But I was far, far from that. Instead, I undermined my parents at every opportunity. I freely confess that and am ashamed of myself.

But it was easy to see how wrong it was to crucify Jesus. Our religious leaders even got the Romans to do their dirty work, manipulating Pilate into what they wanted, the death of Jesus. I mean, even though I questioned the authority of Jesus, and I was puzzled by his carelessness with some of our religious laws, I saw no reason to condemn Him as a common criminal. He truly did nothing to deserve the treatment that He received.

I finally concluded that there was a force of evil at work, a force so hateful that it would crucify an innocent man. That’s when I began to listen to my parents.

Jesus was all about returning our faith to its roots, they said; all about love and justice and mercy, seeing through the hypocrisy of our religious leaders. I began to see that Jesus was not so much a revolutionary, as some believed. No, instead, He was the consummate Jew, one who followed our YHWH God’s most important commands, to love God and love our neighbor. In effect, Jesus wanted to return us to the basics of our faith and strip away the greed and politics from it.

That’s why He couldn’t be tolerated by our corrupt leaders.

I was starting to see more clearly, and beginning to understand my parents. I confess that all along, I should have believed them.

And then, the miracle happened. Like everyone, I suppose, I just assumed that after He was crucified, Jesus was dead and gone: a martyr who, over time, would surely be forgotten.

Boy, was I wrong!

You know the rest, how Jesus was raised from the dead and how, after forty days, He ascended into heaven.

And me? By now, I had become a follower of Jesus, a member of a group who thought that we could see Jesus as the Son of God while still practicing our Jewish faith.

Wrong again! Even the resurrection of Jesus did not change many minds, minds that had been made up about Him from the beginning. And so now I, along with my parents, had become what we called “followers of the Way.” We had no idea how much more rejection lay in store for us.

I am writing this letter to you from Ephesus. Why am I here? There was a persecution, you see, after Jesus had left us. First, one of our leaders, a deacon named Stephen, was stoned to death. Then, James, one of the apostles closest to Jesus, was executed. Peter and John, two more of our leaders, were arrested, beaten and thrown into jail. All just for being open about following Jesus.

We could see that a widespread persecution was upon us. Life wasn’t just becoming uncomfortable for followers of Jesus, it was becoming dangerous! We had a choice: to either renounce our newfound faith or leave our homeland.

So, we left. In Ephesus, we found Jews who like us, believe in Jesus as God’s Son, and who believe that though He was dead, He still lives. And we also found Gentiles, Greeks who had heard from a man named Paul, and who had chosen to leave their pagan ways to follow Jesus. Together, we formed a church, and together, we share life with one another.

In our former life, we would never associate with Gentiles. To us, they were worse than outcasts, pagans who lived far outside our Torah law. But all of that has changed and now, we are brothers and sisters with them. As Jesus told us He would, He has given us a new family.

So, was Jesus a divider or a uniter? You decide. All that I can say is that in His death and resurrection, He united a family that had become divided. Then, He united us with other followers of the Way, Jews who still worshipped our YHWH God, and who believe Jesus is the Christ. And finally, He even united us with Greek pagans who had been drawn to Him, just as He said, when He was “lifted up.”

Is Jesus calling you too, to unite you with others who believe in Him?

Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the good news who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. (Mark 10)