We Are All One People
When Jesus taught his followers to pray, he began, “Our father. . .”
Using the term “father” in reference to God does more than characterize our relationship with God, it also describes our relationship with one another. We are are all siblings – brothers and sisters. In the book of John it is written:
If any one says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. (John 4:20).
Unless one believes by using the term “brother” Jesus was referring literally to one’s biological brother, then Jesus was teaching us that we are all part of God’s family.
There Are No People Unworthy Of Our Loving Attention!
Divinity is always shared. It is never exclusive.
– from the book Love Without Conditions, by Paul Ferrini, 1994
Jesus was born into a Jewish society that taught that non-Jews were to be avoided. But Jesus refused to abide by such limitations; he sought to accept everyone regardless of religion, ethnic origin, gender, or physical condition. Against tradition he accepted the Syro-Phoenician woman and the Samaritan man. He accepted gentiles, prostitutes, adulterers, tax collectors, thieves, and lepers.
One of his early disciples, Matthew, had been a tax collector. This meant in Jewish culture he had two strikes against him: he was a Gentile, and he was a traitor. Tax collectors worked for the oppressive Roman government and therefore were hated by those whose lands the Romans were occupying.
Jesus accepted not only those who worked for the occupiers, but also the occupiers. The most outstanding example can be found in the book of Luke where Jesus declares a Roman centurion (officer) had more faith than anyone he had ever met – including his own disciples (7:9). This was the equivalent of a Frenchman praising the faith of a German officer during the Nazi occupation of Paris.
So we should think not only of loving the God whom we cannot see, but also the brother or sister, the neighbor and the newcomer, the person like us and the one unlike us, that we can.