A Place to Start

After last week’s blog posting, my friend Jon Gallagher sent me some excellent and convicting food for thought: “I agree that it seems like society is moving away from Jesus, but … Jesus had a way of meeting people where they were, even those considered the outsiders or the lowest in society … These were the people who might have felt rejected or hurt by the dominating culture of the time, including the religious establishment. They were often the ones rebelling or feeling marginalized … [Jesus] saw them as individuals, not as labels or stereotypes … How can we show them the love of Christ, just as Jesus did?”

I want to take Jon’s question exceedingly seriously, because it’s an absolutely excellent question. After all, the command to love our neighbor is found at least eight times in the Scriptures! But let’s get real for a minute: you and I would try to get away from some of our neighbors if we possibly could. We’re often looking for loopholes that somehow permit us to wiggle out of our responsibility to love the people whom we’re having a hard time even liking.

And yet, there it is, straight from the lips of Jesus (Mark 12:31): “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Really? Must I? That neighbor? You see, friends, there’s a “lawyer” buried in each one of us who wants to rise up and ask, “Who is my neighbor?” As if we didn’t already know the answer to that question.

I’m thinking about people who challenge our politics … or treat us rudely … or cut us off in traffic … or climb over us to get that promotion at work that should have been ours. And I’m thinking about people who demonstrate overt hostility toward our God and our faith. These people can, via the pervasive tension that ensues between us, nearly drive us to despair.

Isolation from the world is one option, I suppose, but not a good one. Rosaria Butterfield reminds us that we don’t want to “thank God for the moat and draw up the bridge. Doing so practices war on this world, but not the kind of spiritual warfare that drives out darkness and brings in the kindness of the gospel.” And that’s really the problem with trying to get away from the people who challenge us, isn’t it? It shuts off the current of gospel grace that should be flowing through us at all times.

For starters (for the sake of time, we won’t get much beyond a starting point today), I am convinced that WE MUST COMMIT OURSELVES TO BEING “FOR” EVERYONE. For. Everyone. Let me explain. We don’t have to condone sinful or hurtful behavior to love another person well. We don’t have to agree with them on every point. We don’t have to deny that they make us angry. We don’t have to become inseparable BFFs. What we do have to do is to want the very best for them. We must sincerely desire that they become the person God created them to be. It’s the same thing that we would want for ourselves, or for anyone we truly love.

So my first step (try this on and see if it fits you too) involves humbling myself … sincere prayer, for my heart and for theirs, to be transformed by the Spirit … and a willingness before God to walk with the other person (if provided by God the opportunity to do so) along the journey toward becoming the person they were created to be. Sometimes you and I have to wilfully lay aside our tendency to be critics long enough to become encouragers. This is far from easy, and I freely admit that. It starts in our prayer closet, not while we’re watching the news or scrolling on our phones. We need the prayer closet to prepare us for the news.

So how do we regard large swaths of people with whom we vehemently disagree? I’m including here, of course, lots of people we will never meet. Here’s my answer to that question: As much as it depends on us, we make every endeavor to see them through the eyes of Jesus. And how did Jesus see them? We don’t even have to guess, because Matthew 9:36 gives us the answer … When He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

That’s the secret. That’s the starting place. That’s the hope. That’s the cure. That kind of heart is not naturally in you any more than it is naturally in me. We are in need of a supranatural grace. And our need is desperate for such a time as this. I believe that, if you and I will pray for the love that we need, God will send us the people to love with that very love. Some of them will come from the very categories of people with whom we’re presently struggling (internally, externally, or both). Our Lord is waiting on us to ask.

In the process of loving as we’ve been loved (1 John 4:19), you and I will be stretched, and then stretched some more. It will be a holy stretching, and that is never a bad thing. In fact, we will discover that the current of grace is flowing freely once again.

Pastor Charles