Excluding the damaged
We visited Finch Park this evening. Anne brought along bread
to feed the mean, hissing geese. Our dog Henry even got in on the fun, barking
his happy barks. We noticed that one of the geese was damaged. He swam using just
one leg. The damaged goose kept his distance from the others. Then I saw why.
It seems that the others were rather vicious towards him when he came near.
Anne said that some birds are that way. Sadly, so are some people.
Damaged people often receive our cruelty rather than our
compassion. This should never be the case among God’s children. After all,
weren’t we all once damaged ourselves?
Are you a bad person?
One day Jesus was invited to join a Pharisee, a devoutly
religious man, for a meal. While they ate, a woman who was known for her
sinfulness (she may even have been a prostitute) entered. The woman began to
weep. Her tears fell on Jesus’ feet as he reclined at the table. She washed his
feet with her tears, wiped them with her hair, kissed them again and again, and
then poured perfume onto them.
The Pharisee who invited Jesus thought to himself that perhaps
Jesus wasn’t a prophet after all, otherwise he would have recognized what kind
of woman she was.
Jesus then asked the man one of those powerful probing
questions that still challenge us today:
"A certain moneylender had two debtors: one owed
five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. "When they were
unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. Which of them therefore will love him more?" Simon
answered and said, "I suppose the one whom he forgave more." And He
said to him, "You have judged correctly." And turning
toward the woman, He said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your
house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has wet My feet with her
tears, and wiped them with her hair. "You gave Me no kiss; but
she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss My feet. "You did
not anoint My head with oil, but she anointed My feet with perfume. "For
this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she
loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little." And
He said to her, "Your sins have been forgiven." Luke 7:41-48
I don’t think Jesus is saying that we should all go out and
do a bunch of nasty stuff so that we can love him better. I think he is
reminding us that God has a special relationship with and attraction to those
who see their own need. People who are humble, broken, and desperate are
magnetic to God. They’re the kind of people he gives extra grace to (James 4:6;
1 Peter 5:5). He draws close to those with broken hearts and contrite spirits
(Psalm 51:17; 34:18; Isaiah 57:15; 66:2).
Becoming bad enough
In a way, I hope you can say that you are a bad person – or at
least that you were. It turns out
that people who were once very bad make the best Christians. Paul the Apostle,
for instance, said he was the worst sinner of all (1 Tim 1:15). Paul was a very
bad person. Who loved and served Jesus better than Paul? Or what about Peter?
He repeatedly denied Jesus in front of people. Just shortly after that Peter,
filled with the Spirit, preached the first Christian sermon. After that he
began an amazing healing ministry.
May we grow close to our holy God and see ourselves as we
are – imperfect. May we have experiences reminiscent of Isaiah’s when that
godly man cried out, “Woe is me! For I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean
lips.”
When we see our own inadequacy we learn to lean on and love
our God. When we remember our sinfulness we learn to show compassion toward the
damaged among us.
Photo by Jim Ario
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