5th Sunday of Easter, 2022 - I Have Chosen You Out of the World

It is something most church members do not understand. Most probably don’t even think about it because they assume a reality that is the opposite of what Jesus taught.

In his teachings about abiding in him, Jesus spoke of the world’s attitude toward his disciples, an attitude rooted in his followers relationship to the world (John 15:18-19).

Jesus used the word hate to describe the attitude of the world toward those who follow him. The world hated him. Consequently, the world — society, culture, the social world, even family — would hate them/us. “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18). The word hate carries the idea of opposing, resisting, challenging, rejecting. In Jesus’s experience, the hate translated into crucifying him on a cross.

The reason for the world’s attitude toward Jesus’s disciples is their relationship to the world. We who follow Jesus no longer belong to the world. Jesus chose us and called us out of the world. Jesus called us to be a part of the kingdom. “If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world — therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19).

Following Jesus means we learn and live the grace-based ways of God that Jesus called the kingdom of God. These ways are a threat to the ways of the world. The ways of the kingdom – the way we are to live as the followers of Jesus – undermines the ways of the world. Living out of grace and love (John 15:12, 17), we view and value, accept and embrace every person as a beloved child of God. The world functions out of us-them thinking. It views anyone who is different through the lens of anxiety, viewing them as “other.” Us-them thinking and functioning creates a hierarchy in relationships. Those like us who live up to our expectations and standards are better than those who fail to measure up. The other’s failure to measure up makes us better than them — superior, a step up. God’s ways of grace undermine this merit-based way of thinking and relating. It is a threat to the manufactured identity we created using what the world says is important. This constructed self is based upon what the world said we needed to believe and do if we wanted to be accepted and included. Grace and forgiveness undermine merit-based thinking and relating. Viewing and valuing, accepting and embracing every person as a beloved child of God undermines us-them thinking and relating. It destroys the foundation upon which merit-based hierarchy is built. 

Most church members in the US do not see this teaching of Jesus — “the world hates you.” Their religious faith has been deeply tied to their culture. Their culture has taught their religious faith. Unfortunately, the culture has taught its way of thinking and relating, not the ways of God that Jesus taught. Thus, most church members do not recognize that they are enmeshed in the world even though Jesus called them out of the world. They assume what they believe and what their culture taught them are God’s ways. They cannot distinguish culture from God, a culture-shaped religion from the kingdom.

“If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world — therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19).

It seems to me this truth calls for some self-reflection and self-examination. It makes me ask, “What if the world doesn't hate us?”