Do not let kindness and truth leave you;
Bind them around your neck,
Write them on the tablet of your heart.
So you will find favor and good repute
In the sight of God and man.
--Proverbs 3:3
In my last post, I discussed a few earthly examples of kindness from the Old Testament. These showed us that biblical "kindness" happens when an authority figure steps down to show undeserved favor to someone in life-or-death danger, especially when it seems illogical or even imprudent to do so. But those were just human examples.
Now, we'll get to the good stuff: some examples from the New Testament that show us GOD'S kindness, and what it means for humanity, especially on this holiday where we celebrate its coming.
We know that the New Testament advises us to be kind to one another; that is, for brothers and sisters in the Church to treat one another with kindness, so that the world may know that we are His disciples. (Because, to be frank, if we can't treat each other kindly, then we can by no means treat the world kindly.) We are empowered by the Holy Spirit to do this. Everyone knows these verses:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. {Galatians 5:22-23}
So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, bearing with one another, and forgiving each other whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. {Colossians 3:12-13}
Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. {Ephesians 4:32}
It's clear from these verses that we wouldn't know how to be kind to one another without Christ's example. It's also clear that His example has something to do with forgiveness. But what does that have to do with a baby in a manger?
Well, we saw in our OT examples that it's not kindness if it costs you nothing to give. David had to give up riches and the good opinion of others to bless Mephibosheth; Jonathan risked his life to protect David. Rahab also put her life on the line to help the Israelite spies. None of them HAD to do what they did; in fact, it would have been easier for them if they hadn't. But they had the power to rescue someone in a less fortunate position, and out of compassion, they did it. Without personal sacrifice or compassion, the action ceases to be kindness and just becomes some sterile form of moral justice.
Jesus didn't HAVE to be born as a baby. He could have descended, full-grown, from the clouds in a glitter storm, threw some lightning bolts around, and shouted, "I'm takin' back the earth, little pipsqueaks! Bow down to me! If you don't become a robot to my will, I will SQUASH you!" He would have had the authority to do that--just as David had the authority to slaughter Mephibosheth if he had wanted to. He is, after all, the King of Kings. It would have been totally just and moral for Him to complete a heavenly coup d'etat with some angelic tanks full of Holy Spirit power.
But Jesus didn't do that. He became a baby.
A BABY.
I don't know if you've spent much time around babies, but they are very small. And very helpless.
Can you imagine packaging the force that created the whole universe into a newborn human? And then wrapping that human up in old cloth and laying Him in a cow feed trough? I mean, He was probably bitten by fleas within the first hours of His life.
Can you imagine sending your own child into a dark, primitive, pre-medieval world, full of nasty diseases and a very short life expectancy? And would you send Him there knowing that He would live as a foreigner; and then He would not just be murdered, but brutally and barbarously murdered as a spectacle, an object of ridicule, for a savage audience?
I mean, these people didn't even take baths once a year. They probably never washed their socks and underwear (if they even had underwear). They were callous towards death, because it was all around them. Who could love them? Or, even more, who could send their only son--beloved and beautiful--to love them? What an insult: to be rejected by proud people who regularly raped and murdered others and didn't even brush their teeth--and thought nothing of it. And then submit to being mocked and killed by them!
The Father sent a BABY to do that. HIS baby.
He didn't have to. But if He had had to, it wouldn't be kindness. If it had cost Him nothing, it wouldn't be kindness.
Are you starting to get it?
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus {Ephesians 2:4-7}.
Jesus is the Father's kindness.
The Old Testament characters we discussed rescued those who could not save themselves, often from brutal death. Jesus stepped down and went even further: He gave His own life in exchange for our adoption into the family of God. It would have been enough just to be saved from death; but He brought us into His own family.
And--in Jesus' own words--that's what Christmas is all about: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him" (John 3:16-17).
And again, in Jesus' own words: "But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful" {Luke 6:35-36}.
What would it have been like for Jesus to say these words, knowing that He Himself--His birth, His life, His death--was the very demonstration of a Father's mercy to an unrepentant, rebellious, stinky, flea-bitten lot of sinners? And knowing that He would accept some of these with joy into His own family, sharing His Father with them?
That is the greatest kindness of all: that the Father was willing to share His Son, and that Jesus was willing to share His Father with us. Maybe that's why Jesus was born as a baby, into a family. Because He is our savior, but He is also our brother.
Maybe we take baths and have iPhones and wouldn't dream of putting a baby to sleep in flea-infested straw; but we are human just the same. Don't let the first-world conveniences anesthetize you to this painful truth: we, like our savage forbears, were born into a position of utter despair and hopelessness, sentenced to death from our conception, unable to save ourselves from our own habitual immorality, hardness of heart, and downright meanness. I don't care how "good" you are: you cannot be good enough to stand before the One who is the very definition of goodness. He Himself is the only one good enough to save us. We need to receive life from the one who created it. There is no other way.
But what a beautiful way it is! That a Father would give us His baby--innocent, glorious, a little package of hope in an utterly dark world--and would use our own brutality against Him to exonerate us of it. How ironic! He fulfilled His mission not with the indifference of a judge exchanging a bond for a prisoner's freedom, but with the compassion of a Father's heart.
The beauty of the Lord is that He did not just save us with justice--He saved us with kindness.
Listen to Me, O house of Jacob,
And all the remnant of the house of Israel,
You who have been borne by Me from birth
And have been carried from the womb;
Even to your old age I will be the same,
And even to your graying years I will bear you!
I have done it, and I will carry you;
And I will bear you and deliver you.
{Isaiah 46:3-4}
I'll end with one more example of kindness from the New Testament.....
In the last chapter of Acts, Luke relates the story of Paul and his companions being shipwrecked at Malta. They could have expected to be robbed or even killed by the people of the island, or at the least ignored; but instead, this is what happened:
The natives showed us extraordinary kindness; for because of the rain that had set in and because of the cold, they kindled a fire and received us all. {Acts 28:2}
The Lord knows that the earth is rainy and cold, and that we are shipwrecked and lonely. When He sent Jesus to earth, He kindled a fire and received us all.
Kindness is well-described by one of our favorite Christmas hymns:
Truly He taught us to love one another
His law is love, and His gospel is peace
Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother
And in His name, all oppression shall cease
"Fall on your knees" indeed!
Repeat the sounding joy! Let heaven and nature sing!
Merry Christmas!
No comments:
Post a Comment