A Kind of Kindness

When I pause to think about Jesus and the life he lived, I am touched by how he acted and reacted to those around him, how he treated those on the margins of society, how he treated the religious leaders, and how they treated him. Jesus lived a kind life. He was kind to strangers, lepers, beggars, the lame, the sick, the hungry. He was kind even to those who would eventually turn their backs on him. He lived life with respect for people, a kind of kindness that goes well beyond what most of us live. It's something to behold.

The only group that shifted his kindness (although it is still a kind of kindness, just different.) was the religious group: priests, scribes, rabbis and their close followers. He was harder on them. He was tougher on those who treated humanity with less kindness. Another way to put it, Jesus came choose sides with the those outside of the religious community, which in turn ticked off the religious who kept them out. The kindness of the religious was a kind of earned kindess system.

When I pause to think again, about how Jesus lived, I wonder sometimes how Jesus would come across today if he arrived in our world. (I know he's present in it, but I mean like he did back them, in the flesh.) How would he treat religious people? the church? Would he side with the church in how it reacts with the world? Or would we find Jesus in places the church doesn't want to go? To the people the church doesn't want to admit? To those who have been marginalized by our society and our religious system?

I think you know the answer as well as I do. Jesus first stop wouldn't be in any church. And we know why: we don't live with the same kind of kindness he did!

"Friends, the world is not your home, so don't make yourselves cozy in it. Don't indulge your eto at the expense of your own soul. Live an exemplary life among the natives so that your actions will refute their prejudices. Then they'll be won over to God's side and be there to join in the celebration when he arrives." (1 Peter 2:11-12, The Message)

We need to "drink deep of God's pure kindness" as we become fully mature in God. That way we can share in this kindness with others, an unconditional kindness, showing true love, honor, respect for all God's children. Our job is to become like Christ in all things, mimicking his actions, his reponses, his suffering, his kindness. "This is the kind of life you've been invited into, the kind of life Christ lived. He suffered everything that came his way so you would know that it could be done, and also know how to do it step by step." (1 Peter 2:21, The Message)

We need a kind of kindness, Jesus' kind. It's just one of the things that the Spirit grows in us when we let him have control. Paul calls it the Spirit's fruit (see Galatians 5:21-22). It's what was produced in Jesus. It's what God wants to produce in us.

God didn't ask us to be nice. But we have been told to be kind.

Just like Jesus.

Peace ><>
pc