HOPE! - Jesus the Just and Gentle

In the New Testament, we see how many people did not recognize Jesus for who he is. Many people believed him to be the Messiah, but they had a different idea of what a messiah should be like than what he actually was. Many people thought that when the Messiah would come, he would destroy all of Israel’s political enemies. He would do away with the oppressive Romans once and for all and would make them into a great nation once again. However, this is not what Jesus was all about. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law… the Law which said to “love your neighbor as yourself.” But Jesus took this even further, and declared the need to love not only your neighbor… but your enemy! This was not the Messiah the people were expecting.

Sometimes we think the same way the people back then did. We think that we serve a Jesus who will destroy our political enemies and make us into a great nation once again. But if Jesus wasn’t about that kind of stuff back then, is he any different today?

Jesus had a fiery passion about him. You don’t get confused for Elijah over and over again if you’re not passionate after all. He got angry and fired up at times – remember that incident in the Temple?

But Jesus was also kind and compassionate. He was gentle. He shared a meal with the hated tax collector Zacchaus. He protected the woman caught in adultery from being stoned. He defended Mary from Judas when she poured perfume on his feet. He took on the role of a slave and washed the dirt off his own disciples’ feet. He wept when his friend Lazarus died. He even stopped to talk to the weeping women as he was being led to his own death. And while his mother watched him dying on the cross, he told John to take care of her for him after he was gone.

And even when Jesus was angry – he was angry about injustice. About those who thought they had an in with God, but who at the same time “despised the poor,” cheated their neighbors, and oppressed widows, orphans, and foreigners.

But Jesus was gentle. He is described in this way by the prophet Isaiah:

“Here is my servant whom I have chosen,
    the one I love, in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
    and he will proclaim justice to the nations.
He will not quarrel or cry out;
    no one will hear his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
    and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out,
till he has brought justice through to victory.
    In his name the nations will put their hope.”

We also put our hope in his name. In the gentle Jesus who proclaims justice to the nations.