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....in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So from that day on they planned together to kill Him. (John 11:52-53)
I suddenly realized recently close connection in these verses. A number of versions miss one of the main points here by not noting the togetherness in their planning to kill Jesus. But I believe John is here trying to highlight the fact that there is a unity that heaven is bringing about among those who are willing to respond to the truth Jesus came to reveal that is in contrast with the kind of unity sought through fear and resistance to God by His opposers.
That there was polarization taking place in this story is an understatement. People were being compelled to take one side or the other as a result of the unmistakable evidences Jesus was uncovering of the truth about what God is really like. Either people were drawn to respond and be changed by the clear demonstrations of love and compassion that Jesus displayed or in their resistance they found themselves becoming more and more aligned with the diabolical schemes being crafted by the enemies of Jesus who were settling into their firm determination to block all alternative views of God that were out of line with their traditions. These men so entrenched in their stubborn resistance of the real truth about the Father were being backed into a corner by ever-increasing evidences about God as a loving Father as Jesus was portraying. As a result all middle neutral ground was fast disappearing.
One of the themes that religions like to promote is the issue of unity. When one joins a church or a religion of any kind they are expected to surrender their own opinions and views for that of the mainstream. Otherwise they are not viewed as loyal members of the group and are seen as dissenters and disruptive. People are urged for the sake of unity to submit to the authority of the organization they belong to for the sake of the strength of the whole.
The degree to which pressure is placed on people to conform to the mainstream opinions and beliefs of those in charge is based on underlying assumptions about what authority is and how it is to be exercised. Our typical idea of authority is a far cry from what I find in Scripture. Heaven's version of authority is based on respect, truth, freedom of choice and freedom from coercion. Earthly models of authority are based on nearly the opposite depending largely on force and punishment rather than on earning the respect of those expected to submit to authority. True authority can only be given by those submitting to it and cannot be commanded arbitrarily. This kind of authority is based on respect for the integrity of those in charge and a trust that they will do what is right. Counterfeit authority seeks to impose itself on others and relies on fear, intimidation and even force to get its way. It is willing to compel others into compliance to maintain control while avoiding accountability for personal integrity.
While authority is necessary for unity is a given. But how people go about seeking unity varies vastly with their ideas about what creates unity. The principles which heaven uses to bring about unity among the children of God are in stark contrast to what most of us depend on to produce unity. This is actually revealed in this story as it is all throughout the gospels. But the fact that unity is the goal of each side for the purpose of having greater strength and effectiveness is not in dispute.
Something that troubles me at times is when I see methods and attitudes among Christians seeking for unity that rely on counterfeit principles adopted from Satan's methods of keeping people under control. Christianity has come to depend on many of Satan's methods in the assumption that they are needed when love and truth don't seem to be as effective as we would like. It is often assumed that to live together with others as Christians, love and compassion and kindness will only go so far and then one must resort to fear and force to accomplish what we want because God's methods are too weak to bring about conformance. This thinking has perverted the truth of the gospel and has brought confusion and darkness into the churches and the hearts of all those affected.
It is not too hard to see the methods used and the attitudes that shaped events from the perspective of these leaders hostile toward Jesus in this story. What is harder to grasp is the sharp contrast and the methods and spirit used by Jesus to bring about His kind of unity. In all His dealings with people and in all His teachings, Jesus revealed a radically different motive for unity that was to be founded in the hearts and affections of all who would join Him, not based on eliciting fear through threats, shame or any other false means of motivation.
If Jesus had chosen to use any of the world's typical methods for achieving unity by conformity to rules or by relying on superior force, He could have done so at any point in His life. He specially addressed this in His words to Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane when He mentioned His option to call legions of angels to His defense. It was not that Jesus was powerless in the face of overwhelming odds that He chose not to use His power but that His kingdom was to be founded on very different principles than what we are used to living by. Jesus was quite aware of how we think and do things here but He had no interest in utilizing counterfeit ways of thinking. He came to show us a superior power based on freedom, love, humility and selfless deference for the good of others.
Even living in deference to others over our own desires cannot be something imposed by force into a person's heart. As soon as force or intimidation is used to try to impose Christian fruit into a person's life it loses its authenticity. When principles based on fear rather than love are used to motivate a person, the infection of Satan's counterfeit system immediately destroys the reflection of God and His likeness in us is distorted. Only by close cooperation with the superior principles of heaven can the power of God be seen clearly functioning in a person's life.
The unity that Jesus brings is based on attraction rather than compulsion. Clearly these hostile leaders found Jesus' methods and attitudes totally incompatible with their own beliefs about achieving unity. They refused to accept that God's methods relying on respect and appreciation for His love and His defense of the freedom of each person to choose for themselves was sufficient to hold people together in lasting unity. They had bought into the notion that love was not reliable enough, not strong enough to overcome the forces that always seek to tear apart unity. They believed much like we still do today that there must at some point be a time when force must be used and fear must be injected and people's freedoms have to be violated for the benefit of those in charge.
What most fail to realize about these basic assumptions about unity were conceived in the mind of Satan and are not the true principles created by God. Satan is the one who originally asserted that God's government based on love was flawed because it was unwilling to resort to relying on force when necessary. It was Satan who claimed that there were hidden flaws in God's character and that God's methods were too soft to rule effectively. At the same time Satan asserted that God was too harsh and demanded strict obedience arbitrarily. Ironically if God had not been as gracious as He is, Satan Himself would no longer be in existence; for if God had treated Satan as Satan insists must be done God would have long ago resorted to force to stop the horrible results of Satan's activities.
God knows that unity achieved using any of the principles promoted by Satan will only result sooner or later in even greater problems and more dissension. Any unity founded on fear is doomed to fall apart and disintegrate sooner or later. Only unity achieved by earning the respect and affections of the hearts of those willingly united under the banner of love can be truly lasting. All other methods of producing unity have fatal flaws and relying on them to hold people together will ultimately end in failure. This false adhesive for bonding people together will fall apart when the light of the presence of truth exposes all things into the open.
What I see in these two verses is the idea of unity being pursued from two completely different directions. In dying at the hands of hateful people who opposed allowing the truth about God to be seen clearly, Jesus accomplished what nothing else could do: He exposed the kingdom of darkness for the fraud that it really is. In allowing sinners to demonstrate their hatred against God they only ended up exposing the deceptive nature of the accusations of God by Satan. Jesus demonstrated that forgiveness, kindness and true love can never be suppressed from the heart of God. No one could do anything wicked enough to get God to stop loving and forgiving sinners. All they could do was to destroy their own reflection of His image in their souls that will ultimately lead to eternal death as a result.
All who choose to embrace the truth about God as revealed in the life and teachings of Jesus will find themselves inexorably drawn into a true unity that results from coming into synchronization with the character of God through natural assimilation. God never imposes Himself or His character onto the life of any believer. Rather, He transforms from the inside the motives, the character, the impulses and desires of the life until each person finds themselves living in perfect harmony with all others who likewise are living in harmony with heaven. This is the unity that has true power – power to attract others, power to redeem any willing person from any amount of sin and restore them to wholeness, power to overcome all odds and power to produce a universe ultimately free of all fear or dissension.
I really want to have a clearer, firmer grasp of these principles that make up God's body. This verse demonstrates that the unity within the body of Christ is dependent on a positive response to the attractiveness of the character of God like that displayed in the actions of Jesus in raising Lazarus from death and in the ways Jesus treated Mary and Martha. I want to understand and cooperate with the methods that Jesus uses to achieve heaven's kind of unity and to refrain from all use of force, fear, deception, shame or any other false method of pressuring others to conform. I want to come into much closer sympathy and harmony with the attitudes that Jesus demonstrated that brings about true long-term, permanent unity that has no regrets. I want to enjoy the unity that protects each person's freedom and that draws out spontaneous reactions of love rather than relying on fear to hold people together.
