Empathic Wisdom Series, Week 2: The Good News of Inclusion
My mother taught me a lot about grace, mainly by showing it to me repeatedly during my teenage years. Lost in the myopic struggles of an identity search, trying to find my place in the world, I certainly tested the depths of my parents’ mercy and patience. For several years I abandoned my academic responsibilities and being present with my family in a seemingly endless pursuit of whatever I most wanted in the moment. Beyond those juvenile struggles, however, I have been the recipient of a master class in grace by being loved by my mother. Somehow, despite not growing up with either of her parents or most of her siblings, being raised by a grandparent until she was on her own during her senior year of high school, my mom discovered and chose to live her life with immense grace. Witnessing her patience, forgiveness, hospitality, and generosity, for both those she loves intimately and those who have caused her pain alike, I have learned the cost and power of grace.
Grace is Totally Unfair
As an unworthy recipient of tremendous grace and mercy, I have sought to repay this gift by living a life of grace. There is no other response that has ever made sense to me. Humility overwhelms me when I consider the precious gift of grace that has marked my life. Thus, grace is my understood vocation, the purpose I carry with me in the world. Extending grace to others, especially working with those who have received anything but grace in their lives, is perhaps the greatest joy I have discovered. There is something I have observed about grace, however, as I have extended it to others. People who receive it are often ironically very slow to extend it.
So why is it that those that receive mercy are often reluctant to extend it to others? Is it a scarcity issue? Are we concerned there isn’t enough mercy to go around? Is it a misplaced sense that maybe we deserve grace more than others? Is it a sense that we aren’t special anymore if others can receive what we have received? Is it because grace, at its most fundamental level is unfair? Grace is unearned, it isn’t fair, it is unreasonable.
For Christians, the grace of God is the foundation of our faith. We can have a relationship with God, our creator, because God is gracious. Grace is a part of the holiness of God that permeates everything about God. God’s holiness is always gracious, reconciling, healing, and merciful. In 1 Peter 2 we see this laid out beautifully as Peter calls us to be holy as God is holy and to be merciful because we have received mercy. Our faith is defined by a relationship of grace with a God of mercy who calls us to extend to the world what we have received. And yet, for many of us Christians, grace is something we don’t really want to extend to others. In fact, seeing grace extended to some people infuriates us and leads us to actions that are not only unholy but are hypocritical.
There is something I have observed about grace, however, as I have extended it to others. People who receive it are often ironically very slow to extend it.
Religious People Struggle With Grace
In Luke 4 Jesus has a very important moment early in his public ministry. Having traveled around the region near his hometown, preaching, healing, and causing a stir of excitement, he finally comes home. One Saturday, with his neighbors and family packing out the synagogue in which he had worshiped throughout his life, Jesus came with his disciples. There was an anticipation about what would happen, about how this hometown hero would change things. Jesus took the scroll of Isaiah that was handed to him and read this passage:
The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Having read the passage, he made a simple yet profound statement, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” The people were amazed at the way he taught, his authority, and the hopefulness of his message. This Isaiah prophecy promised that one day God would heal the wounds of his people, right the injustices of the land, and pour out blessing on all God’s people.
The imagery evokes the promise held in the Year of Jubilee, which God has commanded his people to practice. It was a year when debts were canceled, those who had sold themselves into slavery were set free, and land was returned to its original owners. Isaiah proclaims a day when Jubilee will be made complete and whole because God will enact Jubilee for his people. Jesus declares in this reading and his presence, that he is the one announcing, embodying, and bringing about this work of God. Jesus is the beginning of a new eschatological age of justice, restoration, healing, and salvation. No wonder the people were excited at this message!
Jesus, however, knew that his hometown community didn’t really get the extent of this proclamation of God’s salvation. They were overjoyed at the thought that they would be freed from injustice and suffering, that they would receive the blessings of God. But, they didn’t realize this message of salvation and restoration, one that would be fulfilled and initiated by God, in Christ, through the Spirit, would be for all people. They were certain it was merely for them. In fact, the next line of the prophecy, which Jesus doesn’t read, is a promise of judgment on Israel’s enemies. Wrapped up in their salvation is the hope that their enemies will be punished as they are rewarded.
The big sales pitch that Jesus gave to those he encountered was, “Follow me.” Nothing is simpler than that. “If you want to be part of what I am doing in the world, follow me.”
So, Jesus knowing their assumptions, provokes them. Jesus reminds the crowd that people don’t listen very well to prophets, especially ones they know. God sent Elijah and Elisha to people outside of Israel and included them in the work of God. In fact, God has always made provision for those outside of Israel in God’s plan of salvation. The reaction of the worshipers gathered that day? The people who had watched Jesus grow up and knew his family? The people who had just rejoiced because God was finally going to fulfill their hopes and dreams for salvation and healing? They decided that they should kill the Spirit filled Messiah who had proclaimed the message. Why? It was offensive to them that this promise of salvation could include their enemies. How could God possibly extend God’s blessings to unclean, unworthy, shameful people?
This scene plays out in various ways throughout Jesus’ ministry as he embodies the promised eschatological salvation of the Kingdom of God. The gatekeepers of Israel’s religious structures pushed back against Jesus every time Jesus crossed their expected boundaries of inclusion. Whenever Jesus extended healing or compassion to those considered unworthy of such attention there was immediate and strident push back. The culmination of these repeated acts of grace was the unjust and conspiratorial arrest and murder of Jesus. Jesus’ grace was a threat to the religious leaders of his day.
Grace Leads Us to Humble Empathy
We are recipients of this outward inclusive grace of Jesus. It is the grace that was displayed and lived out on the cross. It is the grace that fulfilled God’s promise to Abraham that his descendants would be a blessing to all nations. This grace is the work of God to welcome all people that would call on the name of Jesus to be part of God’s family. We are all recipients of an undeserved act of self-sacrificial love that has transformed us. If we understand this, we must let this grace lead us to a humility that manifests in empathy.
As recipients of inclusive grace, the mark of being in Christ is participating in Christ’s offering of grace to the world. But this is an offering that cannot happen from afar. It is not a mere proclamation to join in what is offered from a distance. Following Jesus we must go to those who are excluded and work to include them in the work of God. As we do so, we will encounter all sorts of boundaries that we might not even realize we have within us. We will discover that offering grace to others, especially those who we might consider enemies, costs us. It cost Jesus everything to offer this grace. Our assumption is that it will cost us as well. We do not get to receive such grace and then exclude others. To do so would be as hypocritical as Jesus’ own hometown who praised him one minute and sought his death the next.
One of the ways grace will reshape us, as we come close to those we would otherwise exclude, is that we grow in our empathy for them. Our humility will lead to a greater appreciation for them and their need for grace. God reshapes us and begins to tear down the walls of hostility that hold us apart. We cannot claim to be a people of grace without being a people of compassion, forgiveness, mercy, and empathy. So, how do we begin this process of becoming the people we have been reborn to become?
Jesus has designed his church as the place where our empathic journey begins. It is in relationship with one another, a shared life of unity, that we learn to love as God loves. This is where we learn to extend grace first, that we might extend it to the world.
So, learn to love each other as the church and then learn to love the world, sounds easy enough? Right? Next week we will examine our difficulties in experiencing unity as the church in hopes that learning how to first love each other will empower us to love the world.
Start your empathy journey by exploring Ideos Institute’s The Way of Empathy as a spiritual practice that can help you better love God and love your neighbor.
