The Healing Jesus: An Advent Devotional to Encourage Anybody and EverybodySample

JUNIA: THE ONE WHO WAS LOYAL

I'm Junia. It's been five years since Emperor Claudius banished all the Jews from Rome. Our church, which was a majority Jewish, felt torn apart. The new believers didn't know much about this new faith and had to take over the church. It was rough! But now the Jews have returned, and it's not the same. We thought it would be a joyful reunion and celebration, but instead, it has become a cramped and crabby church, divided between Jew and Gentile.

The Gentiles are saying the Jews are trying to come back and call all the shots, demanding that the Gentiles behave like Jews. The Jews feel they are losing all their heritage and uniqueness. But the Gentile Christians have served well and worked hard these last five years and feel like the Jews haven't noticed their work.

The reality of the problem was both sides have an identity issue. Jewish people were the majority in the church before the decree, but now they have more Gentiles than Jews. Fitting back into a group is challenging. People got caught up in non-essential arguments like proper food, circumcision, and standard practices.

The Jews are calling for more rules. If we could get on the same page, we could have less conflict. But the Gentiles remind them that more rules did not help the Israelites in the past. More rules equals more regulations broken. Yikes!

Paul wrote to us that we are all in the same boat: our hearts are hijacked by evil. Rules won't fix that, only Jesus can. His spirit is now on all of us and has transformed the hearts of all believers. We are now one big happy family, and we need to act like it. We should be unified as a church, recognizing the hard work put in by the Gentiles. They are passionate, sincere, and willing to learn. We can also acknowledge the loyalty of the Jews and what they have been through. Their story is long and complex, yet God has blessed them. When we realize that we love the same God, we can learn to love each other and link arms in the rescue mission of all creation. Jesus became what we are so we can become what we are.

Jesus is healing within conflict.

Questions for Talk it Over:

1. What was the struggle that Junia was stuck in between?

2. Do you find yourself in conflict often? How do you handle that conflict?

3. Do you believe that Jesus can work through conflict, or does he always encourage peace?