There were many divides in society during the time that Jesus walked the Earth. Jews held a disdain for gentiles, thought of them as dogs, unworthy of God's kingdom. Israelites despised Samaritans, and Samaritans were opposed to Israel. Samaria had sided against Israel, their own people in warfare. Gentiles had trampled the temple. Gentile Romans had conquered and now occupied Israel itself. They enforced heavy taxes. The people of Israel were controlled and influenced by the Pharisees, a religious sect of the time. The Pharisees fought with another group the Sadducees. The zealots fought the Romans. The Romans attempted to keep order.
Yet Jesus seemed to walk across these lines effortlessly. He ministered to the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:1-26). He ministered to the Roman centurion whose child was sick (John 4:49). The Samaritan woman was oppressed and excluded by society. The Roman centurion was an oppressor of the Jewish people. It didn't matter to Jesus, both were welcomed into the kingdom of God. A rich young ruler was ministered to. A prostitute was ministered to. An affluent Pharisee was taught about being born again. A poor woman with a bleeding issue was healed.
I think when considering how to have a heart of compassion toward those we've placed outside our "we" circle, we have to look to the example of Jesus. Jesus kept breaking social norms and cutting across lines that others didn't want to cross. He didn't do this to show how tolerant he was, or to embrace diverse lifestyles, or to party with sinners, Jesus did this to bring the whosoever to a place of repentance and faith. And this was accomplished through love, kindness, miracles, acts of service, and relationship. The outcast and the affluent both found an open door with Jesus. The conditions were always the same: repent and believe the good news (Mark 1:15).
It definitely takes seeing beyond our own socio-economic grouping. I remember experiencing this. I had been raised lower-middle class, Wisconsin style. Cheeseheads, beer, Packer parties, roller rinks, snowmobiling, fishing, going up north, and everything else included in that. But my dad worked at The Salvation Army in town. He was a GED teacher for those who had dropped out of high school before getting their degree. And I was always surprised when I went there, because I just didn't know such a group of people existed. I saw the people eating the free meals. I saw the people who came over from the homeless shelter. And it was such a different group than I was used to. But I will always remember how my dad treated them. They didn't wear the same clothes we did, they didn't talk like dad did, but dad always treated them as equals. And I realized that's because they are equals.
I tried to always embrace that attitude of dad, to treat everyone I meet as my equal. Now my dad wasn't perfect, I recall a time he talked down to one of my uncles because he wasn't college educated. But he treated his students well.
And at my current appointment in Michigan, my ministry is to a similar group of people. But they are my friends. They are my "we." Now sometimes, I have a harder time remembering that when I see someone who is wealthy and affluent, they also needed the gospel I carry! That's the challenge, to continue to see all humanity as my "we."
I think the best way to do that is to go do it. I'll give an example. There was a young man who comes to our daily meals at the corps, we'll call him Bob. I nearly had to ban Bob for a while, because he puts his hands around the neck of my one of my volunteers in a rage. In the end I decided not to. But I saw him yesterday, and one of my volunteers Larry was sitting with him by the bathrooms. And something inside tugged at me, saying, go minister to him. To my shame I must admit that I'd begun to write off Bob. Bob couldn't be helped. Bob was headed in the wrong direction, and nothing could stop it. That may be the case, but I can never assume that. It's just not the right approach to take. It's like the Calvinist who says that person must not be pre-destined to salvation, and if they are, it'll happen anyway. So then should I bother to do anything?
So I obeyed the leading of the Holy Spirit. I went and I talked with Bob. He listened quietly as I told him about the love that Jesus has for him, and that there was still hope, he had expressed being very depressed and hopeless. Apparently when I left Bob threw something at the wall, and left. I figured well, I tried, but just as I expected, it had not yielded fruit.
Then something happened later. I was sitting downstairs as I often do at our daily meals looking for opportunities to chat with people, and after everyone else had left Bob started talking with me. He slowed down, Bob's very fast, and he opened up. He shared about things that had happened to him growing up. He shared his struggle toward faith in God. He talked about losing his mom. And I saw a side of Bob that I'd never seen. I saw someone who was wrestling with God, and faith and Jesus, and the Bible, and church, and trying to find his way through deep hurts, post-traumatic stress, addictions, and even gang violence. I was astonished. I was touched.
And it helped me to see, Bob is a "we." He's one of my people. I think it comes down to "Do it!" Go walk across that room and dialogue. Talk with people, hear their stories, and we can learn to empathize with those we perceive as the "other."
As we empathize with those outside of our circle, everyone becomes part of our circle. The purpose of all of this is to help bring human beings to the valley of decision.
You are no longer other, you are no longer outside the circle. You are loved and the doorway is open. But now you must walk through it. See the love of God. Let it convince you to repent of your sins, to turn away from past lifestyles that were destructive, and put all your faith, hope, and future in Jesus Christ. Then, everything will change.
If not, we fade back into divisions. We fade back into sin. We fade back into darkness. But, light is offered through Jesus.
Jesus ministered to a divided society by crossing all the lines that had been setup by others. Yet at the same time Jesus setup a new line. As much as Jesus crossed the boundary lines, he made it very clear, either you are with me, or you are against me (Matthew 12:30). Enter into the kingdom of God, or face destruction (Luke 13:3-5). Jesus didn't come to bring peace, but a sword (Matthew 10:34). Jesus said, his message would divide families against each other (Matthew 10:35-36). So while at the same time Jesus brought together many disparate groups, he also brought division, as some would accept the message of salvation, and some would reject it. He knew this would be the case.
So in our approach to ministering to a divided society, we must remember to cross all lines to minister to the whosoever. At the same time, we should not expect to find total unity at the end of the journey. We should expect to see a different kind of division, the division between the born again, and the rebellious lost.
Many of us have a strong instinct for complete unity, as we should. This concept is built into western civilization from the Greek school of thought. We constantly in the west seek to build syncretism. We attempt to sync different systems and ideas and religions and philosophies together all under one banner. But this is not the Christian pathway. Nor it is feasible. One could argue that western civilization is in collapse now, because we've taken our egalitarian equalization so far that we've attempted to sync and harmonize such diametrically opposed philosophies that our society has gone schizophrenic and no longer knows what it believes. Some in the body of Christ seek to bring this Greek philosophical construct in the church, harmonize all ideologies and viewpoints under the banner of equality and acceptance. This is not biblical however.
The balance Jesus struck was this: The message of the gospel crossed every line imaginable in society, while at the same time a new line formed, between those who would accept the message and those who would reject it.
