Recently when Greg and I were camping I had the opportunity to people watch a bit. There was a family camping next to us with two little girls, one was about 7 or 8 years old and the other was perhaps 3 years old. They were cute girls, but as older sisters will do, the 8 year old seemed to be constantly antagonizing the younger sibling. It seemed that the little one cried each time her older sister looked at her and when that happened, out came the father. The father appeared to be a nice guy, but he was not very kind to his oldest daughter. Every time the little girl cried out, the father berated the older daughter in a loud voice where the entire camping area could hear it. Although the older child may have needed to be disciplined, the father could have done it in a way that didn’t shame his child in public.
Watching this go on over the course of the weekend reminded me of the fact that I am so glad Jesus never heaps shame on us for our bad behavior. Never once in the Bible do we find Jesus speaking in a degrading or shaming manner to a person, even if they appeared to deserve it from a human standpoint. Think about the Samaritan woman at the well whom Jesus spoke with in John 4. Even though Jesus pointed out that she had had five husbands and the man she was currently living with was not her husband, she obviously felt no shame. On the contrary, she went throughout the town encouraging people to come see “a man who told me everything I ever did”—and she had done a lot!
Consider the adulterous woman whom Jesus rescued from stoning by the Pharisees in John 8. In contrast to the Pharisees desire to stone her, Jesus challenged them by saying, “if any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Only after the Pharisees slinked away when Jesus wrote in the sand did Jesus tell the woman that He would not condemn her. He encouraged her to “go now and leave your life of sin.” No words of shame or degradation, but rather words of kindness and love.
How often do you and I go flying off the handle, spouting words of degradation and shame at someone who did not act the way we think they should act? How often does our impatience with another person show up as condescension or disgust? Husbands and wives do this frequently to each other. Children are the recipients of this from parents. Employees experience it from bosses. Why can’t we just be kinder to the people around us?
If Jesus can be patient and kind with someone like me who has sinned against him and offended him so many times, how dare I be impatient, condescending or degrading to another person? Jesus treated others the very way that we need to treat those around us. It is my prayer that you and I would remember this as we deal with others in our lives. If we want to look like Jesus to the world around us, we must be patient, kind and loving. Just like Jesus!!
