Be Relational - part 2
Most people are relatively self-absorbed. It comes with the territory. We're human. We love ourselves. While we think this is normal for us, we expect others to be different. They shouldn't be self-absorbed. They should focus their attention on us. There's a delicate balance here. If they give us too much attention we assume they're needy, probably weak, likely co-dependent and, in all likelihood, self absorbed. This prompts us to go find a more balanced person to give us the attention we crave.
Enter Jesus, the ultimately relational human being. Not needy, not weak, not co-dependent, not self-absorbed, but at the same time, other focussed. When you read the gospel accounts, you can't miss the way Jesus related to people. He paid attention to them. He cared about them and their needs.
Matthew 4:23 tells us that: "Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people." He wasn't merely sympathetic, empathetic, and compassionate. He did everything in His power to improve the lives of those He met. He fed the hungry, healed the lame, restored sight to the blind and life to the dead. He also forgave the guilty and followed that up with a simple "go and don't sin anymore."
But Jesus wasn't just a workaholic social do-gooder. He was touched by the plight of the people who crossed His path. He was fully engaged. He helped a celebrating family avoid the embarrassment of running out of wine, by turning water into the best wine anybody there had tasted. (John 2) He shared the grief of mourners at a funeral, shedding tears and offering comfort. (John 11) He responded graciously to anyone who came to Him in faith, even when that faith seemed small and was exercised secretly. (Matthew 9)
Jesus was open-hearted with the underclass at a time when they were often blamed for their own problems and seen to be under the judgment of God. (John 9) He was unprejudiced as he related to ethnic diversity in His environment. (Matthew 8; Mark 7:26-28) He included the socially unacceptable at His table. (Matthew 9:10-11) He related comfortably with both genders, offering the same warm friendship to both men and women. (John 4)
Jesus treated people as individuals. He honoured their personhood regardless of the social class with which they were associated. Rulers (Luke 8), sinners (Luke 7), the rich (Luke 19), the poor (Mark 12), the sick (Luke 8), everybody was welcome to accept His invitation to come and follow Him.
As we seek to be like Jesus, we need to be especially sensitive to the way we treat others. There is much to learn from the way Jesus interacted with others and it often goes against the grain of our personal preferences and social convention. It's easy to identify people who are of a different ethnicity, class, intellectual capacity, social circle and so on from our own. The question is how do we treat them, those ones who are different? We can follow our own inclinations to separate ourselves from them, or we can open our hearts and, like Jesus, draw them toward the Father.
