Association

If there is one thing we can learn from Jesus, it might be that we are all God's children.

For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The scripture says, No one who believes in him will be put to shame. - Romans 10:10-11

Growing up in a fairly strict household, I was often warned not to hang out with the wrong people.

Knowing who those wrong people were was sometimes a little tricky, but in general I knew the ones who looked like they were out to do harm or take advantage of others were probably the ones my parents wanted me to avoid.

But those weren't the people Jesus avoided.  He invited them to join him and they became his disciples.

He set out to challenge the belief that there were some people who were acceptable and others who were not, and that bothered a lot of people, people who needed to see themselves as better than others, perhaps better than all others.

In the beginning of Jesus' ministry, the Pharisees and Scribes would warn him about being seen with tax collectors and other thieves.

By the end of his life, it was the tax collectors and thieves who had chosen to follow him that were in danger for having associated with Jesus.

That's an odd turn of events, isn't it?

When we read the Gospel and get to the part where the disciples abandoned Jesus in his final hours of life, we can't help but judge them, and yet, look at what they had experienced with him.

Before he came along, some of them were despised and he took them in.  When they came for him, it was clear the old days would return, and they would be despised again, but this time it would be worse for having associated with the one who called them friends.

If we all avoid contact with each other for fear of guilt by association, what kind of world will this become.

Maybe we will find out sooner than we think.

More to come...