Fourth Sunday of Easter-B
From countless dirty alleys and streets where addicts are looking for their next fix to the lawless streets where crime is met with a wink and a nod by authorities to the daily uncertainty of the political system, people all over this country seem to be living in chaos.
The culture that has jettisoned the belief in God now accepts the culture of death, and this nihilism has consequences. The destruction of lives is the apparent result, but one that is not so easily recognized is how the person describes himself.
If someone thinks the murdering of babies is fine, much like Bill Maher admitted on his show, or those who promote and engage in the mutilation of children erroneously thinking gender is fluid, have changed their identities from a son or daughter of God to something altogether different.
Those who engage in abortion and euthanasia without repenting have an identity as a person willing to take innocent life. Those who accept the radical harming of children via the LGBTQ+ agenda are known as encouragers of demonic practices. They reject their identity as a son or daughter of God by their choice. An analogy from the moral life illustrates this point.
Take, for example, someone who chooses to rob a bank. An accurate way to describe that person is that they are a bank robber because they have taken something that is not theirs. Even if the person repents from stealing from the bank, his identity can never change; he is a bank robber, but significantly, a repented one. The beauty of Christianity teaches us that identities are redeemable if we accept God’s forgiving grace. A repentant bank robber is an identity that can be a badge of honor because his new identity reflects his sinfulness forgiven by his reconciliation with God.
Scripture wants us to know the beauty of repentance and how identities can be changed for the good in the story of an unnamed sinful woman. This woman broke all of the rules of Judaism by being with Jesus and was forgiven by him. Her encounter with Jesus changed her identity from a wretched person to a loving one. She bathed Jesus’ feet with her tears, dried them with her hair, kissed them, and anointed them with alabaster oil, showing how much she loved him. Once, a sinful woman took on her new identity and embraced it. Her new identity is a lover of God and a repentant sinner. She became virtuous, while the Pharisees who chastised Jesus who allowed her to be in his presence were not.
The question today is, what identity of yourself have you accepted? Have you taken on the identity of a minion promoting evil, or are you one who sees yourself as a child of God? The Epistle from John for the Fourth Sunday of Easter can help us reacquaint ourselves with what our identities should be. “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. In letting us be called children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”
Part of our true identity, which is indelible, whether we believe in God or not, is that we have been created in his image. Nothing we can do will ever change that reality. As we have already illustrated, being made in his image is insufficient to achieve a fulfilled life. Both the good and the evil have been created in the same way. To have life, we need more: salvation through Jesus and accepting a new identity.
Once we believe in Jesus, we become aware of our intimate union with God, over and above sharing his image and likeness, as John beautifully points out: “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall have has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
The craziness of the world can be directly related to the rejection of God and the ultimate desire to change identities from a child of God into something else. You shouldn’t be surprised because the tension began at the beginning of the world and rears its ugly head throughout history. Satin tempted our first parents to change their identities by telling them they could be just like God. He tempts people today with the same taunt. Listening and following the deception only leads to death, which is tragically experienced so many times.
When we choose to follow Christ, on the other hand, we not only regain our true identities as sons and daughters of God but also follow the path that leads us to life now and eternally.
“Beloved, we are God’s children now. We shall be like him and see him as he is.”