From COVID19-induced economic and emotional depression to the peaceful protests and violent riots that have erupted after the death of George Floyd, tensions are high in the U.S. these last months. Pockets of unhealthy tribalism based on shared offenses are tearing U.S. unity apart. “Tribalism” is a way of thinking or behaving in which people are loyal to their social groups above all else, and it is a problem when it is used to exclude rather than include or when it leads to oppression and abuse.

But tribalism has potential to be a good thing. It can provide human beings with loyalty, security, and a sense of community and belonging. That’s what God wants for his human creatures, and in the Old Testament, God began working to turn human tribalism to a good end.

He called Abraham out of the mess of tribal nations that formed after the scattering of humanity from the Tower of Babylon. The descendants of his 12 great-grandsons became the “tribes” of Israel, but they were not meant to indulge a type of discrimination or animosity based upon group differences. They weren’t divided by how they were different, but were brought together by how they were the same. They were to form their self-identity around the worship of the one, true God. The twelve tribes in the camp were neatly arranged around the tabernacle, which defined the “center” of their identity.

Israel’s tribalism among the nations of the world was to be open to outsiders, and God’s promise was to “bless all nations” through them. But they often failed, even as we are still failing this week and today. It turns out, human beings could never accomplish a healthy tribalism. That is, not until God himself became human.

Jesus fully loved the outsider and disadvantaged and called his followers to do the same. He appointed twelve disciples as leaders of his new community, a clear symbol of Israel’s original twelve tribes, and he taught them about the reversal of value systems in his upside-down kingdom. He formed a new, alternative people of God by wiping away our past offenses through his death and centering our self-identity on himself through his resurrection.

The current violence is no good. But neither is the old status quo that subtly works to keep powerful people in power and to exclude rather than include the outsider. We need the new way of Jesus—one tribe of followers, spread across all nations and cultures. Different in many ways, yet the same in the most important way—our identity as God’s people, as Christ-ians. Jesus’ disciples lead by serving and live by peacemaking.