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There are always voices to issue warnings about division and disunity in the church. Sometimes those warnings are justified and helpful, coming from the position of desiring all sides to be fully heard before any judgments are rendered, and to seek to stay together even amid disagreement.
And sometimes they come from a particular side, and, particularly, the more powerful side. In this case, the warning about division and disunity is a little bit like shaming the wronged person for speaking up because their voice was too loud, and then publicly putting them back in “their place.” It protects those in power, and it protects those who are doing the wrong thing in the first place.
Thus, we must be discerning when this warning comes, or when we are tempted to issue these warnings. Is it really about unity through the process of hearing everyone out and rendering good judgments that protect those who are being wronged? Or is it more about protecting the interests of those controlling the conversation?
Jesus & all the prophets were seen as disturbers of the peace, upsetters of unity.
Jesus’s story of the Good Samaritan was given in love, with a desire to see all those neighbors included in the kingdom that the religious powers had excluded but God had accepted.
And it was highly offensive, disturbing, and upsetting to the religious status quo.
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