Saturday of the Fifth Week of Easter
In today’s Gospel from John, we hear:
Jesus said to his disciples:
“If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first.
If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own;
but because you do not belong to the world,
and I have chosen you out of the world,
the world hates you.”John 15:18
I can’t help but wonder: if these few verses were all we knew of Christianity, would we be Christians? A young guy who’s causing a ruckus, performing miracles and upending countless literal and figurative tables says: “People will hate you because you’re not like them. And that’s okay. Be like me. You’re part of something bigger than this world.”
Responding with raised eyebrows and large eyes to a claim like that seems reasonable.
And yet, that’s what we’re doing as Christians. Every day, we’re making choices and decisions that are countercultural. We’re showing up in modern America trying to live like a man who was purposefully, intentionally making very different choices from the people around him than what society expected.
At times, that’s scary. Exhausting. Crazy-making, even. Also, what a balm to the soul to remember: living like this is a way we’re like Jesus.
As we make the hard decisions grounded in faith, as we choose differently than a close friend or colleague, as we feel at odds with lots of things happening in the world, let’s remember why we feel that way. We’re doing our best to walk, talk and live like a man whom the world hated first. We don’t truly belong to this world, and we’re doing our best to model a different kind of living here.
It's not hard because you’re doing it wrong. It’s hard because you’re doing it right.
—Meghann Naveau