What was it that made Jesus different?
What set him apart from every other person in the crowd?
Was it his teaching ability – his deep and profound lessons that made everyone marvel at his wisdom?
Was it his charisma – his ability to bring hundreds and hundreds of people to himself and speak to them about things that many of them didn’t want to hear?
Was it his political agenda – the hope that surrounded him that this might finally be the one who would redeem Israel?
Maybe.
But as I watch the life of Jesus, I see one thing that sets him apart from all others I have ever seen. There have been other great teachers, and people with amazing charisma, and other political giants, but there has never been anyone, to my knowledge, who has been able to love like Jesus.
He loved people.
Any time, any place.
It didn’t matter what it cost or what it meant to his schedule. It didn’t matter what it looked like to others, or how wretched their life was. He constantly – time after time – stopped everything that he was doing,
no matter how “important” it was,
so that he could love people.“Go and do likewise.”
when i read about the life of Jesus, what i’m struck with time and time again is how he treated people – and so often how we fall short of treating them in the same way. Jesus made people feel special. he made them feel wanted. he made them feel important. he didn’t talk down to them or talk at them, but rather he talked with them. many times our interactions with people – people in general – aren’t guided by the spirit of Christ. they’re just the people who bring us a drink at sonic, or who check us out at the store, or take our money at the toll booth. i think what sets Jesus apart from us is that he made each and every person the most important person in the world when they were around him.
may we each look at the people around us in a different way – through the eyes of Christ.