Christians should emulate Jesus’ love and grace

Social media is a great place to discover what people are really thinking, because sometimes — frequently — people post without reflection, especially when it comes to politics, religion and observations about other people’s actions.

One community chat page I follow is a rich source of this phenomenon, and a post on a child who had been left in a hot car garnered 100 percent censure:

“People like this should be arrested!” (Don’t worry, they probably were.)

“What an idiot!”

“I would never do anything like this!”

Significantly missing was any painful admission along the lines of, “I know it’s foolish to do this, but honestly, I did it once years ago (before we realized how dangerous this was), and I was only gone for five minutes.”

That comment would attract, like flies, spikes similar to ones thrust into the person admitting they were caught in a police trap targeting drivers without seat belts.

“You deserve the ticket! What you did was wrong!”

Let’s get past the obvious: It is foolish to leave a child in a closed car on a hot day. It is also questionable to not wear seat belts. The list of foolish actions, however, is endless, and if neither of these are ones of which we are guilty, not to worry: all of us, no matter how righteous we consider ourselves, participate in at least five before breakfast. We do ... stupid things.

Thankfully, we rarely suffer the full consequence of what could happen: we don’t return to a broken car window, our child in an ambulance, glaring passersby and potential charges — but we could. And even if we would never do anything like this, we will manage to do something careless, inattentive, forgetful, indiscreet and thoughtless — repeatedly throughout our lives — because we’re not Jesus, we’re not robots, and we are humans. It is wise to remember our own limitations when we hear of the misfortunes of others — whether or not these misfortunes are the result of accidents, foolish behavior, or even deliberate, conscious choices.

While as Christians, our job is not to point and state, “They did a BAD thing! They DESERVE what happens to them!” we have an unfortunate reputation of doing so, even though Jesus, the one whom we are to emulate, did not.

In Luke 7:36-50, Jesus is judged by his host, the Pharisee Simon, when Jesus permitted a “sinful woman” to kiss his feet, pour perfume over them and dry them with her hair.

If Jesus were truly a prophet, Simon thought, he would know “what kind” of woman this was.

We presume she’s a prostitute, as sexual trespasses historically top our list of sins. (Check out Jesus’ reactions toward greed.) But maybe she was like the person who left their child in a car — not a perverse, reprobate infidel who wanted their baby to suffer, but a human being who one time, the wrong time, made foolish decisions that resulted in appalling, awful, horrifying consequences.

It’s a bet that no one in the area would ever let her forget about that. No wonder she was crying.

But in looking to Jesus, not Simon, she reached out to the right person, our perfect Elder Brother who knows that we do dumb things, make wrong choices, stumble, fall down and hurt ourselves and others.

His response was not, “What did you think would happen? Well it did, didn’t it?” but, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”

This story was originally published December 30, 2016 at 2:53 PM with the headline "Christians should emulate Jesus’ love and grace."