Day 33
Taylor Swift - Shake It Off from 2:42-end
“I hear what people are saying about me, that I can’t dance, that I’m super awkward. My response? Write a song about it.” Released in 2014 as the lead single from her album 1989, Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” was written as a direct, empowering response to intense media scrutiny, gossip, and public criticism regarding her life and music. Taylor knew exactly how she wanted to respond to the haters in her music video. To dance as awkwardly as she could and have so much fun doing it.
In today’s reading, Jesus shares that “Haters Gonna Hate” his disciples and all who follow after Him. While it might seem on the surface that they hate us, their true problem is with Jesus.
Read John 15:18-25
Jesus and His disciples have left the upper room where they had experienced their last supper together. They walked through the dimly lit streets of Jerusalem, out the gate and across the Kidron Valley, then back to Gethsemane, where they had been camping each night the previous week. As they walked, Jesus continued His Farewell Discourse. Perhaps as they walked past other pilgrims finishing up their own Passover seders, they heard accusations or threats made towards Jesus, or simply felt their loathing of Him. Maybe one of the disciples came out and asked Jesus, “Why do they hate us so much? What did we ever do to them?”
Jesus answered, “If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you.” (v 18) I can imagine the disciples thinking, “Okay Jesus, but that’s not really helping.” Jesus’ words of caution, of expectation, were not only for the men walking with Him that evening, but for all God has chosen out of the world (from v 19) including present-day believers. Christians should not be surprised that unbelievers in the world hate them. I don’t know about you, but I am always surprised, always blindsided when I experience hate from another. Yet, Jesus’ prediction follows a pattern seen in the world since Cain murdered Abel. Later, in his letter to the churches, John would fill out and reiterate Jesus’ reasoning:
“For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another, unlike Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.
Do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers and sisters. The one who does not love remains in death. Everyone who hates his brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has this world’s goods and sees a fellow believer in need but withholds compassion from him—how does God’s love reside in him? Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth. (1 John 3:11-18)
If Jesus had not come, had not fulfilled the Messianic prophecies, had not demonstrated sign after sign of HIs divinity, the world would not be guilty of sin. But that was not the case. Because of God’s great love for this rejecting, hating world, “He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” (Jn 3:16) And so Jesus declares, “Now they have no excuse for their sin.” (v 22) God had made a way, yet the response of so many, Jews and Gentiles alike, rejected the supreme revelation of God that came in Christ Himself, a sin that particularly manifested in hating Christ and all who love and follow Him.
The Apostle Paul also writes of humanity’s lack of excuse for rejecting and hating God in his theological treatise to the church in Rome:
“For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse. For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.
Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.” (Rom 1:18-25)
Finally, Jesus assures his dear friends that the haters are going to hate in order to fulfill Scripture and quotes Psalm 69:4, “They hated me for no reason.” This Davidic psalm depicts the figure of a righteous sufferer who is zealous for God but is persecuted by God’s enemies for no good reason. David writes, “Those who hate me without cause are more numerous than the hairs of my head; my deceitful enemies, who would destroy me, are powerful. Though I did not steal, I must repay.” (Ps 69:4) While the specific context for David’s cry for help is not clearly stated, I have to imagine that it could have been during that season when King Saul was on the hunt for David, determined to eliminate the threat to his kingdom. Jesus identifies a precedent for his enemies’ hatred toward Him in the antagonism encountered by David. Hatred and persecution against Jesus and his followers is often not because of any wrong that they have done but simply because of irrational evil in the hearts of their persecutors.
This wasn’t the first time Jesus had addressed the hatred of the world towards those who follow Him. In His seminal Sermon on the Mount, Jesus concludes his upside-down rationale regarding those who are poor, destitute, and mourning with this blessing:
“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me. Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matt 5:10-12)
And Peter would later write, “For what credit is there if when you do wrong and are beaten, you endure it? But when you do what is good and suffer, if you endure it, this brings favor with God. (1 Peter 2:20)
Haters gonna hate. If we are hated for our trust in and obedience to God, we are in good company.
Big Picture Questions for Today:
Have you experienced hatred from others because of your love for God and your righteous life?
Do you tend to feel blessed when that happens, or singled out or victimized?
Pray for eyes to see the hatred of the world for what it is - a hatred of God and all who are associated with and belong to HIm.
