Can You Step Up?

For a couple of days, I had been feeling that I should watch the movie called The Passion of the Christ.  Now granted, I have seen this movie several times before, but I kept feeling that I should watch it again.  So I ended up staying up late one night to watch it. As I watched, there was a scene that struck me.  At first, I didn’t remember reading about it in the bible so I wasn’t sure if that part had been added for the movie or if it really happened.  I began searching in my bible and found the story in Luke.  What’s crazy is that I have read the entire book of Luke before and that section hadn’t stuck out before. 

 

The story is about when Jesus had finished praying and Judas, the high priest and his servants came to find Jesus to arrest him.  Judas had betrayed him so Judas told them that he would give Jesus a kiss on the cheek to signal to them who Jesus was.  So in that scene, they are trying to take Jesus but the disciples flip out.  Some run, but Peter took out his sword and started fighting with the men and he cut one of the servants ear off. Here’s the amazing part…Jesus is about to be arrested to face crucifixion and yet, he stops, grabs the ear that was cut off and healed that man by putting the ear back in place and restoring his hearing.  Are you kidding me? Now that is selflessness. That is true forgiveness, compassion, mercy and love.  He didn’t care that this same guy was with the group of people coming to arrest him.  He still had mercy enough to heal the man.  He didn’t have to do that, but he did. 

 

Can we step up to that level?  When we are being mistreated, can we still treat that person well?  When someone is talking bad about us, can we still speak positive things about them? It’s that level of compassion, forgiveness, love and mercy that Jesus expects from us.  Anyone in Jesus’s situation, would have been panicking. They would have been thinking of themselves and what they were about to face or feeling sorry for themselves.  They wouldn’t be thinking about helping someone in need because they would be too focused on their own need. 

 

Proverbs 25:21 says, “If your enemy is hungry, give him  bread to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.” Now I’m not saying this is easy, but this is the level that God wants us to reach.  Why? Verse 26 says “For so you will heap coals of fire on his head, and the Lord will reward you.”  So it may require sacrifice, forgiveness, and humbling on our part, but the word says that God will reward us.  It’s not for us to take matters into our own hands and act out of vengence.  Our obligation is to do right even when others do wrong, and let God take care of the rest.