Jesus loved people. No doubt about that. If there is any one aspect of his character that convicts us that Jesus is divine, it is his compassion for people.
What is astonishing is the variety of people that Jesus met and ministered to: men and women, old and young, Jew, Samaritan, Syrophoenician, Greek and Roman, Sadducee and Pharisee, Zealot and Herodian, rich men and poor men, lepers, demented, blind, deaf, lame, tax-collectors, harlots, fishermen and lawyers. The Gospels were not deliberately setting out to list all the variety of people he interacted with, - he just had a very compassionate way with people that drew crowds and attracted individuals.
One is immediately struck by the contrasts - Jesus will dine with the socially despised and the honored, with friends and with adversaries and critics. He speaks out for the poor, but he does not ostracize the rich.
To be sure, his extraordinary gift of being at ease with all sorts of persons undoubtedly drew the common people to him. His was a time when the social strata lines were sharply drawn, but with unembarrassed ease he ate alike with Simon, the Pharisee, and with tax collectors and sinners. It was a time when stiff conventionalities limited social interaction between the sexes, but he was able whether in public or in private to associate with men and women on equal terms.
He was at home with little children in their innocence and strangely enough at home too with conscience-stricken grafters like Zacchaeus. Respectable home-keeping women, such as Mary and Martha, could talk with him with natural frankness, but courtesans also sought him out as though assured that he would understand and befriend them.
He was loyal and faithful to his Jewish heritage, yet in the good Samaritan he portrayed incarnate unselfishness, and in a Roman centurion he found more faith than he had found in Israel. This inclusiveness of Jesus, and his ease at navigating the social boundaries that hemmed ordinary people in, is one of his most profound qualities.
The world of Jesus time and our world of today are very similar. Then and now, the world is not a kind place. You don’t have to be a student of history to know that religion has often served as a tool to control people rather than as a means to serve them. Claiming intimacy with God provides all the rationale that is needed for some to treat their fellow man in harsh, abusive and compassionless ways. Karl Marx once called called religion the “opiate of the masses” - frequently it has been a tyrant in the name of God.
It was common, for instance, for eastern rulers to claim deity for themselves to solidify their political power. They used that claim to justify wars, massacres, persecutions, assassination of enemies, etc. From about A.D. 1100 to 1300, the Inquisition raged in Spain and southern Europe. Once again, it was those who claimed intimacy with God who felt perfectly justified in imprisoning, torturing, and murdering their fellow humans.
Remember that it was not the religiously apathetic or even those antagonistic to religious belief who sent Jesus Christ to the cross. It was the religious leaders of Israel, those who thought themselves to be right with God and approved by God, who, in the name of God, murdered His son and persecuted his followers.
Many people throughout history and from a wide variety of belief traditions have defined religion solely in terms of a relationship with God.
Indeed our faith is a vertical business conducted between heaven and earth, and seems to have little relationship to the horizontal connections we have with our fellow man. However, our Lord and Savior clearly shows us that intimacy with God necessitates the right treatment of people. Authentic Christianity has as much to do with how we relate to each other as it does with how we relate to God.
We cannot claim a love of God, whom we have not seen, without loving the people we see every day. To Jesus, religion is not just vertical and God-centered; it is horizontal and people-focused as well. Remember what Jesus said when questioned about the “greatest commandment of the law”....
Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’’ Jesus replied: ‘‘‘Love the Lord you God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’’ Matthew 22:36-40
Find your balance. Love God... Love people. Express your genuine love for God by your sincere acts of service to others. What more can be said?
