a beautiful mess

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me…for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you…Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. – Yeshua via Matthew circa 80 A.D.

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i have been living most of my days vicariously through matthew the last couple of months. my fear is that i will only become familiar with the words while never drawing nearer the word.

but as yeshua has continued to gently remind us: everyone will know us by our love: just as a tree/vine is known by it’s fruit.

when we follow/akoloutheo yeshua, we attach ourselves to him; it shares it’s meaning with a most political concept: that of choosing a side, or a party. and in world where yeshua is the king of kings of kings, once we choose that side, we can be sure we will face either embrace or persecution.

when we love the way he loved, we will inevitable look undeniably foolish to some, and unbelievably free to others. when we serve GOD and not mammon/money/wealth, we will look financially ridiculous to some, and compassionately generous to others. when we align our life with the manifesto of the kingdom of heaven, we will surely be persecuted by some, and embraced by others.

this whole thing is a mirror! isn’t it interesting: when we love as yeshua loves, we will gain enemies who will persecute us, who we will pray for. it’s like a rare foolproof formula/cycle to never leave us without people to pray for, haha! it’s a mirror revealing our fruit revealing our enemies revealing our love revealing our fruit!

Q/ are we following/attaching-ourselves-to yeshua rather than drawing near to the words? and do we even have enemies to pray for?

a parable from peter rollins seems most fitting, it’s called, ‘no conviction’:
In a world where following Christ is decreed to be a subversive and illegal activity you have been accused of being a believer, arrested and dragged before a court.

You have been under clandestine surveillance for some time now and so the prosecution has been able to build up quite a case against you. They begin the trial by offering the judge dozens of photographs which show you attending church meetings, speaking at religious events, and participating in various prayer and worship services. After this they present a selection of items that have been confiscated from your home: religious books that you own, worship CDs and other Christian artefacts. Then they step up the pace by displaying many of the poems, pieces of prose, and journal entries that you had lovingly written concerning your faith. Finally, in closing, the prosecution offers your Bible to the judge. This is a well-worn book with scribbles, notes, drawings, and underlings throughout, evidence, if it were needed, that you had read and re-read this sacred text many times.

Throughout the case you have been sitting silently in fear and trembling. You know deep in your heart that with the large body of evidence that has been amassed by the prosecution you face the possibility of a long imprisonment or even execution. At various times throughout the proceedings you have lost all confidence and have been on the verge of standing up and denying Christ. But while this thought has plagued your mind throughout the trial, you resist the temptation and remain focused.

Once the prosecution has finished presenting their case the judge proceeds to ask if you have anything to add, but you remain silent and resolute, terrified that if you open your mouth, even for a moment, you might deny the charges made against you. Like Christ, you remain silent before your accusers. In response you are led outside to wait as the judge ponders your case.

The hours pass slowly as you sit under guard in the foyer waiting to be summoned back. Eventually a young man in uniform appears and leads you into the courtroom so that you may hear the verdict and receive word of your punishment. Once seated in the dock the judge, a harsh and unyielding man, enters the room, stands before you, looks deep into your eyes and begins to speak,

“Of the charges that have been brought forward I find the accused not guilty.”

“Not guilty?” your heart freezes. Then, in a split second, the fear and terror that had moments before threatened to strip your resolve are swallowed up by confusion and rage.

Despite the surroundings, you stand defiantly before the judge and demand that he give an account concerning why you are innocent of the charges in light of the evidence.

“What evidence?” he replies in shock.

“What about the poems and prose that I wrote?” you reply.

“They simply show that you think of yourself as a poet, nothing more.”

“But what about the services I spoke at, the times I wept in church and the long, sleepless nights of prayer?”

“Evidence that you are a good speaker and actor, nothing more.” replied the judge, “It is obvious that you deluded those around you, and perhaps at times you even deluded yourself, but this foolishness is not enough to convict you in a court of law.”

“But this is madness!” you shout. “It would seem that no evidence would convince you!”

“Not so,” replies the judge as if informing you of a great, long forgotten secret.

“The court is indifferent toward your Bible reading and church attendance; it has no concern for worship with words and a pen. Continue to develop your theology, and use it to paint pictures of love. We have no interest in such armchair artists who spend their time creating images of a better world. We exist only for those who would lay down that brush, and their life, in a Christ-like endeavor to create it. So, until you live as Christ and his followers, until you challenge this system and become a thorn in our side, until you die to yourself and offer your body to the flames, until then my friend, you are no enemy of ours.”

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