{"id":9294,"date":"2017-03-20T11:47:59","date_gmt":"2017-03-20T17:47:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oddwalkministries.com\/oddblog\/?p=9294"},"modified":"2017-03-20T13:10:12","modified_gmt":"2017-03-20T19:10:12","slug":"jesus-and-the-border-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/oddwalkministries.com\/oddblog\/2017\/03\/20\/jesus-and-the-border-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesus and the Border War"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Palestine in Jesus’ time<\/p><\/div>\n

I did not grow up loving college basketball.\u00a0 We were more of a baseball family.\u00a0 So, when I moved to Missouri, I had to do some quick catch-up on the long and heated rivalry between the beloved Missouri Tigers and the hated Kansas Jayhawks.\u00a0 It’s called the “Border War”<\/a>. \u00a0The roots of this war can be traced back to the time of the Civil War. Like most sports rivalries, there is no shortage of disdain shared between die-hard Tiger and Jayhawk fans.\u00a0 Even the coaches have gotten into the act.\u00a0 Legend has it that long-time Missouri Men’s Basketball coach, Norm Stewart, would refuse to spend money in Kansas.\u00a0 Allegedly, when his team had a game in the State of Kansas, he would wait to have the team dinner until after they had crossed back over into Missouri.\u00a0 Now THAT’S dedication.<\/p>\n

Sports rivalries are one thing.\u00a0 They can be kind of fun, actually.\u00a0 Human rivalries are quite another thing.\u00a0 All of us experience them.\u00a0 For whatever reason, we all have that one person or group that we just. can’t. stand. And, if the animus is strong enough, our behavior toward those people or groups can lead to truly ridiculous behavior.\u00a0 Take that famous story from the Gospel of John, the one about the woman at the well, which most of us heard at Mass yesterday<\/a>. Did you know the conversation that begins that passage, the one between a Samaritan woman and Jesus, should probably never have taken place? It’s true. Here’s why: First off, John mentions that Jesus was passing through Samaria.\u00a0 But why was he there?\u00a0 Jews hated Samaritans and Samaritans hated Jews.\u00a0 Jews refused to set foot in Samaria, let alone travel through Samaria, even though doing so would significantly shorten their travel time. Typically, if Jews needed to go back-and-forth between Galilee and Judea, they went around, through the Jordan. Secondly, according to Jewish custom, it was considered improper for an unmarried man and an unmarried woman to speak to each other privately.\u00a0 Third, since Samaritan women were considered ritually impure, it was against Jewish law for a Jew to drink from a vessel handled by a Samaritan woman.<\/p>\n

Jesus went through Samaria anyway.\u00a0 Jesus spoke to the woman privately anyway.\u00a0 Jesus took a drink from her anyway.<\/p>\n

By example, Jesus shows us how to handle those we’ve come to see as enemies or in the case of the woman, those we’ve come to consider as less than.\u00a0 Jesus reminds us that laws and customs aren’t always just. Jesus calls us to recognize in everyone a God-given dignity and humanity.\u00a0 Show kindness, mercy, and understanding.\u00a0 Initiate reconciliation.\u00a0 Love.\u00a0 Maybe this isn’t what we feel like doing when dealing with our enemies, but Jesus didn’t come to appease us.\u00a0 He came to save us from ourselves, from our sin.\u00a0 He came to show us what true justice looks like.<\/p>\n

You might ask: What does any of this have to do with justice?\u00a0 Consider this. How often do we think of justice as a punishment for bringing harm or hardship to someone or something we care about?\u00a0 We talk about this or that person being “brought to justice”.\u00a0 As Jesus demonstrates, a Christian’s view of justice should be altogether different.\u00a0 The Catholic website, newadvent.org<\/a> defines the word justice as “\u2014a moral quality or habit which perfects the will and inclines it to render to each and to all what belongs to them.” Regardless of her social, religious, or political status, the Samaritan woman at the well deserved to be treated with honor and respect.\u00a0 Jesus did that, and showed the rest of us what was possible.\u00a0 Now it’s our turn.<\/p>\n

Think for a moment. \u00a0Who or what makes you angry? Is it a person, school, place of employment, public figure, political party, religion?\u00a0 How long have you held on to this anger?\u00a0 Whom do you think it harms the most, you or your enemy?\u00a0 The answer may surprise you.\u00a0 Be free of this unnecessary anger, as Jesus is free of it, so you can be an agent of true justice for others.<\/p>\n

-Shannon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I did not grow up loving college basketball.\u00a0 We were more of a baseball family.\u00a0 So, when I moved to Missouri, I had to do some quick catch-up on the long and heated rivalry between the beloved Missouri Tigers and the hated Kansas Jayhawks.\u00a0 It’s called the “Border War”. \u00a0The roots of this war can…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,9,19,88,91,52,89,65,21,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-family","category-friends","category-jesus","category-jesusjusticejoy","category-judaism","category-justice","category-liturgy","category-reflection","category-scripture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/oddwalkministries.com\/oddblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/oddwalkministries.com\/oddblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/oddwalkministries.com\/oddblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oddwalkministries.com\/oddblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oddwalkministries.com\/oddblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9294"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/oddwalkministries.com\/oddblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9299,"href":"http:\/\/oddwalkministries.com\/oddblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9294\/revisions\/9299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/oddwalkministries.com\/oddblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oddwalkministries.com\/oddblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oddwalkministries.com\/oddblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}