Loving a person at one’s very worst! I think that’s God’s specialty and is at the very heart of His compassion.
We human beings tend to measure each other with a certain standard. Whenever someone falls below that, we immediately think someone to be irredeemable, an outcast beyond healing.
And so we look at those who seem like public sinners like those tax collectors in the past. And we see the filth in those who don’t observe chastity like the woman caught in adultery. We congratulate ourselves for not being punished like the thieves that hung upon the cross.
But we fail to see how we can be like the Pharisee who looked down upon other people. Or how we can be like bystanders who were unable to offer anything to Jesus when He cried, “I thirst!”
At that time upon the cross, Jesus became like the very worst of us.
At that time, He took upon Himself the state of being a sinner, an outcast and a criminal whom everyone despised.
“He was spurned and avoided by men,
a man of suffering, knowing pain,
Like one from whom you turn your face…”
-Isaiah 53:3 (NABRE)
Who can render mercy? Who can love the most unlovable?
If Jesus walks among us today, will we give Him our compassion?
The truth is that He still walks among us. He walks among our brothers and sisters who starve not only for physical food but for spiritual nourishment. He walks among those who need to be clothed with mercy and compassion.
Do you see Jesus now where you are?
Are you ready to love your brothers and sisters at their very worst?
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I find it tough to love myself when I'm at my lowest. I think it's always difficult to love. Wonderful but hard.
Such a great post! So true and so good. Thank you, Jocelyn! Jesus, please help me to love, even people at their worst, and to be full of compassion. Thank you, Jesus!