JESUS WAS A HATER

Yes, you read correctly - Jesus was a hater. But he did not hate the same things that many of his followers hate; he did not condemn many of the things his followers have condemned. But he was a hater.

Jesus hated something that most don't even consider worth noting, certainly nothing we find worth preaching against. Jesus hated when people filled their hearts with things. Jesus hated so see people in spiritual anguish because they filled that Daddy-shaped place in their hearts with money, with prestige, with religion. Jesus hated to see people taken a need placed in our lives by God and trying to fit a man-made concept to plug the hole in their hearts.

However, Christians are not hating what Jesus hated. Christians are instead known for hating things like being "anti-gay," something Jesus never addressed. Christians are not hating when we see others try to fill their lives with stuff. We do not hate it when we see people trying to fill that Daddy-shaped hole in their hearts with money. And we Christians almost always ignore it fellow "Christians" try to do the same thing. Jesus hated just as much when the Pharisees and scribes tried to fill that spot with religion. Many Christians today still think we can do this - if we get enough religion, it will fill that hole in the middle of our hearts.

But that hole can only be filled with a relationship, an intimate relationship with our Creator. So why don't Christians hate what Jesus hated and do everything in our power to see that people get to see the relationship instead of religion? Why don't we preach that money can't fill that hole, that power can't fill that whole - instead of pursuing money and power ourselves?

Hating what Jesus hates does not mean that Christians should hate certain groups of people, it means just the opposite. It means Christians LOVE; love to a point where we want nothing else but to see people's hurting extinguished, their thirsts quinched. And to a point where we HATE to see people put themselves through the agony of filling a God-sized hole in their hearts with stuff. 'Little Christs' should love to such an extreme that we become haters as well.