and by the wise considered a fool
when He spoke about faith and forgiveness in a time when the strongest arms ruled
but this man of no reputation
loved the weak with relentless affection
and He loved all those poor in spirit, just as they were
He was a man of no reputation.
– Rich Mullins, "Man of No Reputation"
A few weeks ago, the church I've been attending since last summer started something they call "NT90X" – a fancy, space-agey title for a church-wide challenge to read through the New Testament in 90 days. I am really excited to be a part of it because I've been wanting to read through the Gospels with a fresh pair of eyes to get to know the character of Jesus better.
Reading through the New Testament anew can be a little challenging; since I've been a Christian all my life, I've read/heard most of the stories sometime. So the natural tendency is to just kind of skim over the readings each night to be able to put a checkmark next to that day's assignment. But I've been trying to challenge myself to read through like it's my first time to see Jesus in action, and especially through the glasses of preparing for the World Race.
We just finished Matthew and what stood out to me the most was how much I read the word "compassion" in reference to Jesus' feelings about the people around Him.
When Jesus heard what had happened, He withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed Him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them and healed their sick.
– Matthew 14:13-14
What really strikes me about this particular verse is that is occurs right after John the Baptist is beheaded. Jesus has just lost someone very close to Him and wants to be alone. Natural reaction, right? As someone who needs her alone time, especially in stressful times, I can definitely identify with Jesus at this point.
But then, as Jesus is trying to take some time to be alone and grieve for John the Baptist, a crowd of people come and push their needs on Him. They heard about Jesus and what He had done for others and they wanted to see Him, touch Him and be healed by Him.
I am not going to lie – if it were me in this situation, I feel like I would react just slightly differently than Jesus did. You know, I would land on shore and see all this people coming toward me, wanting something from me, closing in on my personal space, and I might say something like, "Hey, my friend just got beheaded – I'm kind of going through something here – could you just back off for a second and let me be?!" Not so much on the compassion…more like complete frustration.
But Jesus had compassion, which meant that even in His time of need, He healed others and put them before Himself. He didn't do it grudgingly, but out of His deep love for the lost and broken and sick around Him. That floors me.
There's a great series on YouTube of a concert Rich Mullins did a few weeks before he died. During one part, he's talking to the audience and giving them his typical, straight-to-the-point perspective on being a Christian:
Jesus said whatever you do to the least of these my brothers you’ve done it to me. And this is what I’ve come to think. That if I want to identify fully with Jesus Christ, who I claim to be my Savior and Lord, the best way that I can do that is to identify with the poor. This I know will go against the teachings of all the popular evangelical preachers. But they’re just wrong. They’re not bad, they’re just wrong. Christianity is not about building an absolutely secure little niche in the world where you can live with your perfect little wife and your perfect little children in a beautiful little house where you have no gays or minority groups anywhere near you. Christianity is about learning to love like Jesus loved and Jesus loved the poor and Jesus loved the broken.
As I've been thinking about the World Race and trying my best to prepare for it, the concept of loving the poor and the broken like Jesus did has really been sticking out in my mind. I think, even as Christians, loving the poor and broken is kind of a scary concept to us. They're different than us, a little rough around the edges, and heck, maybe even a little dirtier than us. And what's different from us (and dirtier than us) is frightening.
But if we read the Gospels, I mean, really bury our noses deep into them, we simply cannot avoid the fact that Jesus loved those who were perceived as unlovable. The outcasts of society. Beggars. Prostitutes. Tax collectors (even harder to love during tax season, am I right?).
As Christians, we want to be like Jesus. Jesus loved poor, broken, sick, unlovable. So, we must love them, too.
It seems simple, but, at least for me, I think it's going to take some comfort zone stretching. But hey – isn't that why I applied for the World Race in the first place?
