The cruel psychological torture
Jesus must have endured in being rejected by “his own.” Those who should have naturally welcomed him,
the righteous, the spiritual, the “do-gooders,” the wise, those who absolutely
and sincerely believed they were on the side of decency and justice; they were
the very ones who pushed him away. And further,
he had to endure seeing many good people, people who should have been his most
faithful companions, go over to the side of those who rejected him without even
realizing what they were really doing.
So he befriended those who didn’t count: the losers, the marginal, those
who were seen as not amounting to anything.
In the end, they, too, abandoned him, at least temporarily, choosing to
stand with the in-group rather than the outsider; Peter, his trusted friend, telling
the “popular kids,” the bullies, “I don’t know him.” Jesus shows supreme love when he dies for all
of them, for the very humanity that has discarded him--that has shown itself
unworthy of his love.
It is that love which we must have for all
our brothers and sisters, even in the face of rejection and marginalization, of
being cast out and being seen as unworthy, even though we be as lonely and
mocked as Jesus by the very people who see themselves as blameless, for it is that
love which saves not only us but them as well.
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