Love in action

Another Christmas is upon us, and many political, commercial and religious interests continue to invoke Jesus as justification for their accumulated wealth and power. I am not convinced that they understand the import of their devotion.

Jesus was born to an unwed, soon-tobe-refugee mother. He was born impoverished, a feed trough for a crib, unarmed in a world bristling with weaponry. He would live simply, among dispossessed and exploited people, announcing, “Blessed are you who are poor, God’s kingdom is yours”; “You cannot serve both God and money”; and “Lend without expecting repayment.” He manifested God’s unabashed siding with the poor.

He did this because justice is what love looks like in public. For Jesus, God’s love for every living being was the bottom line, which also left no room for violence of any kind: “Treat others as you would have them treat you”; “love your neighbor as yourself ”; and to be crystal clear, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.”

He relentlessly confronted the wealth and power of the politicians, captains of industry and clerics of his day, armed only with an outraged love for oppressed people.

But rather than killing those who came to kill him and his friends, he demonstrated to his followers that liberation meant putting away the sword and taking up the cross.

For Jesus, the voluntary redistribution of wealth and unilateral disarmament were love in action, the signs of God’s kingdom.

Steve Baggarly, Norfolk