Jesus, the Authority on Love and Hate

In John 15, just before He was crucified, Jesus spoke to the disciples about hatred.  Does this surprise us?  Perhaps we imagine Jesus as being naive about hate?  In fact, He was the ultimate expert on it:

John 15:18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. 19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. 21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.

22 If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin. 23 He that hateth me hateth my Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.

25 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.

An illustration from tournament chess might offer a different way to look at the puzzle ...

There are great attacking chessplayers in the world, and they're not great because they're spontaneous or creative.  They are great because they have systematically learned all of the patterns for attacking the King.  

A chess grandmaster knows 16 different ways to attack the King's Rook Pawn when it is on the 7th rank.  And they know 18 ways to attack the King's Rook Pawn when it is on the 6th rank.  And they have 13 ways to attack the King's Knight Pawn when it is on the 7th rank... they have eight ways to checkmate with Rook and Knight, and eleven ways to checkmate with Bishop and Queen, and...

Can you guess why such a player is also a great defender?  :- )

You got it.  He can see the attack patterns coming at a glance.  And take steps against them.

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=== The Root of Evil ===

Jesus, the ultimate Authority on love, is also the ultimate authority on the absence of love.  It turns out that hatred is not rooted in sadism; it is rooted in frustration.  It is rooted in the prevention of one's own desires by another sentient being, or if not the prevention of one's own desires, at least the discouragement of such.

The frustrated desires push out feelings of goodwill and replace them with aggression.

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=== How Do You Defeat Hate? ===

But the news is not all bad.  As formidable as your opponents will be in the Book of Acts, Jesus tells them, you will prevail.  And why is that?

John 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: 27 And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

Luke 21:15 For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.

So you're teaching your 4th-grader a little history.  You tell her that in 1943, France was under Nazi control.  The Germans had (say) 20 times as many tanks at that point, you note.  They had 15 times as many planes.  They had rocket technology that was a full generation ahead of France's.

Well, how did France ever win?, Susie asks you...

It had a little something to do with the friends that France had, you explain.  We've talked about France's enemy.  We haven't yet talked about France's allies...

By the way, feast your eyes on this ingenious use of light by Rembrandt.  In which direction is the light traveling?

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Jesus tells the apostles that when they go out to change the world, they are going to face some truly vicious opposition.  That would be daunting, but in the next breath He tells them that they're going to have the Wind of Heaven at their backs.  In this battle of ideas, you cannot lose, He tells them:  yours are the ideas that are consistent with reality.

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=== Now THAT's Drama ===

There have been some truly dramatic (and unfortunate) physical wars fought in human history.  But none as dramatic as the battle of thoughts and ideas down through the centuries.

'Christianity will go,' he said. 'It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that. I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first---rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.'  -- John Lennon

Jesus never offered a physical war for control of human beings.  He prepared His disciples for that which was truly violent:  the defense of Love on purely mental terms.

Kind regards,

Jeff