Jesus’ image of the world is not a nice one

Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor.

A reflection on the daily readings, for Saturday of the Fifth Week of Easter, by Father Perry.

By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor

We are just past the halfway mark in the Acts of the Apostles.

The Holy Spirit is, indeed, very busy preventing the disciples from going here and pushing them to go there; not to mention, also, the many visions had by some.

This early church was alive! The word was alive! The interactions between God and men were, indeed, profound. The interactions between all these members of the church was also indeed profound.

Great joy! Great faith! Great love!

The psalm sings it perfectly well —

“Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.’

Is this not what that was all about?

And when the psalm instructs —

“Know that the Lord is God,
he made us, we belong to him,
we are his people, the flock he shepherds.”

It just kind of says it all.

Jesus also makes it quite clear: We belong to him. That is because of his love for us, and his desire to share his word with us. Our deep connection with him makes it clear that we, as disciples, would also share his rejections and sufferings and persecutions, and the hatred at the root of all of these things.

Jesus’ picture of “the world” is not a complimentary one; that is, because one has to finally choose what and who to believe in.

It is, actually, pretty awesome that we are still making that choice 2,000 years after Jesus walked and talked on this earth.

“Let all the earth cry out to God with joy!” indeed!