Landing in Mumbai, India I took a seat on the shuttle bus that would take me from my plane to the terminal. That’s when I noticed three more passengers getting on after me –two Muslim women– dressed head-to-toe in burqas and head coverings. Across from them stood a group of Hindu women, who made no effort to conceal their obvious disdain.
Since India’s “emancipation” from Britain in 1948, Muslims and Hindus have engaged in ongoing acts of violence, assassination and terrorism. Each side has claimed many innocent victims. Yet the “wrongs” are often justified in the name of religion.
As I watched this silent interchange unfold before me, my thoughts went to how Jesus dealt with such bigotry. Repeatedly he placed Himself between those who hated one another. The Jews hated the Samaritans because they had created a corrupted form of Judaism. The Samaritans hated the Jews because one of Judea’s kings had ordered the deaths of thousands of Samaritans.
Rather than taking sides, Jesus taught that we should love our enemies. He illustrated it by calling a Samaritan “good;” something a Jew would never do (Luke 10). He told a Samaritan woman of ill repute that she too was welcome to worship God in Spirit and Truth (John 4). He touched “untouchable” lepers, forgave “unforgiveable” tax collectors, and pardoned an adulteress caught in the very act (John 8). He even healed the servant of a Roman military officer despite the Jews’ collective hatred of the occupying Romans (Matthew 8). In all of this He broke many religious rules and taboos leading the Pharisees to complain, “This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them” (Luke 15:2). In fact, Jesus spent so much time with unsavory people, that one could conclude that He enjoyed their company more than the ultra-religious.
That is rarely how it works today. As Dan Allender notes in The Healing Path, “The trend in many churches is to circle the wagons, remain inwardly focused, and serve primarily the needs of those who are already attending church.” Many Christians have concluded that the command to “Go” involves sending others (missionaries, pastors, evangelists and money) to the “ends of the earth.” It never occurs to them that it also includes going into my own neighborhood.
Yet when we follow Jesus through the Gospels, we find that He purposefully mingled with a sinful world, knowing it was the only way they would believe that God loved them too.
So why don’t we do the same? It requires a willingness to develop real relationships with unsaved people. It means replacing detachment with involvement; an investment of our time and energy. In short, developing real friendships.
Did you notice that I used the word “friendship?” That’s what Jesus did. He became “a friend of tax collectors and sinners;” which is also why they so readily listened to him.
Someone once quipped, “People won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
Pastor Ken Ortize
February 24, 2015