Reflections on the Gospels from a Justice Perspective written for St. Andrew's Episcopal Church by members of the congregation

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

John 17:6-19


I have a hard time with the adversarial language in John’s Gospel. In the lesson for this Sunday, Jesus describes “the world” into which he sends his followers as enemy territory, a place where they do not and should not feel at home. He suggests that they must strongly resist its evil influence, lest they themselves be corrupted. Reading language like this, it is easy to imagine that Jesus wants his followers to maintain an attitude of self-protective superiority, looking down on the neighbors he is sending them– and us– out to serve. Surely there is a better way to understand passages like this!

For me, at least, it helps to remember the language we use in the baptismal covenant, when we “renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God” and also “renounce the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God.” Those spiritual forces and evil powers are not our human neighbors, whom we are commanded to love as we love ourselves, but demonic systems of privilege and injustice that harm our neighbors– systems like racism, religious extremism, militant nationalism, and “winner-take-all” economics.

Resisting and trying to dismantle the injustices that create poverty and violence is harder and more uncomfortable than just feeding the hungry or caring for the wounded, but it is part of our mission as followers of Jesus. After all, that’s what Jesus did himself. The “evil powers of this world” hated him for calling their authority into question, but by standing up against them he and his first disciples showed the way to eternal life.

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