Day 9 – He is compassionate

Social media after any kind of destructive event is a hotbed of prejudice and judgment.  I was speaking to my mom on the phone one day about a week after 17 died at a Florida school in a mass shooting. She said, ” I feel sad for that young man who took those lives.” Then sarcastically she uttered, “just try to put that on facebook!”

All across the ages of history, people have been outcasted for their behaviors, skin color, social status, visible attributes and so on. God in His wisdom gave us a whole book littered with these kinds of situations occurring within peoples lives. I want to share one today.

Jesus enters the home of a Pharisee man name Simon. This man does not see Jesus in His true identity, that this Jesus was the very Messiah he had read about and is now sitting in his home. He simply considers Him a teacher and doesn’t see the truth of the man before him. Then something so taboo, so out of place happens that Simon in his preconceived thinking responds with prejudice rather than to see the glory of the moment happening in his own house. A woman, a known sinner, and one the people shunned and turned away time and time again, entered into his home uninvited. Now, most people have lost it right there. How dare anyone come over uninvited, right?! Call first! Come on people! Anyway, she sneaks up on Jesus and performs this beautiful display of love and adoration in the middle of their dinner and Jesus lets her. Simon is beside himself and thinking,“How can he even let this woman touch Him, if he only knew what sort of woman she was. He surely is not a prophet!” But Jesus knew exactly who she was and He knew exactly what Simon was thinking.

Luke 7:37-40  And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, ³⁸ and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. ³⁹ Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” ⁴⁰ And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”

Simon was about to learn a very needed lesson and the woman was about to be completely restored in society due to the compassion of Jesus. If we begin to see people like Jesus sees people (to see no matter how awful or out of place people may be) could we too, be like Jesus, so compassionate to people? We, in our human thinking, jump too quickly and cast off people because they don’t  act in the way we think they should. I am not condoning what that young man did. He shot up a school. It was wrong and awful and has ripped a hole in the hearts of many. What is so sad about his situation is that no one saw the devastated heart in him. No one moved to restore him. Will we be moved with compassion for the young people who live among us? Will we become a friend instead of seeing their behaviors and attitudes and think to ourselves “Yeah, I am not dealing with that crap!” So we walk on. Becoming one more to just walk out on them. Could we be restoration artists, a people moved with compassion to restore the next generation?  -Tweet This!

PRAYER: Father, thank you, that in Your eyes we are not outcasts but sons and daughters. Thank you, for showing us through Jesus what it means to be a restoration artist. 

Have you been reactionary without compassion to the situations you see on social media? Are you willing to become part of the solution and not add to the pain, hurt and problem? Put yourself in another’s shoes. How would it feel to be them? Look around you, do you see anyone who could use a friend? Be compassionate. See the need. Act!

Thanks for listening,

Starla