You are precious, you are honored, and I love you. Isaiah 43:4 (MSG)
On The Same Level
Time and again, Jesus leveled the playing the field. He didn’t go along with social hierarchies, or man-made equations deeming who’s in and who’s out. Who’s untouchable and who’s worthy. He ate with sinners and outcasts; he sought out the sick and the poor, he made friends with the wealthy and the prominent whether they came to him in secret or followed him everywhere he went – everyone was included. He didn’t turn away from pain, mess, or complexity. He looked it full in the face. Touched it. Held it. Healed it.
He treated people with dignity and respect. He wasn’t the savior who came riding in on the best horse in the stable, a royal banner above his head, servants bending to his every beck and call, and people bowing at his feet everywhere he went.
He came in vulnerability as a baby.
He performed miracles not to gain applause or accolade, but to heal and set right, often asking that they be kept secret.
He told weird and wild stories as every good Rabbi would.
When he made outlandish claims of himself, it was never to solidify his pedestal. It was to reveal the Kingdom.
He served and washed his friend's feet.
And when he died, it wasn’t a heroes death: he died as an enemy of the state. Undignified. Horrific. A victim. An outcast himself.
This is a guy who brought all the playing fields – the high, the low, the in-between – to the same level. There is no honor/shame system for him.
When confronted with the woman caught in adultery (last week's series), he did just that: leveled the playing field. He didn’t get caught up in the politics of it, or even the fairness of it. The men who caught her were using her as a trap to get him in trouble, and he knew it. But he didn’t shame them, either.
“Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” (John 8:7.)
Come on, we're all here, on the same level.
It’s a fantastic reminder for those of us who feel ashamed that Jesus does not see us that way; he doesn’t shame us, he is not ashamed of us.
But, he does want us to take personal responsibility for our actions. That's why he said to her: “Neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.”
It’s not that you can live sinlessly; that you can, and will, be free from behavior (both from within and from without) that separates and divides and doesn’t work. But you can live consciously. Responsibly. Aware.
What Jesus did that day in the dust for the woman, and her accusers was give them all an opportunity to face their own darkness, their own denied and disguised faults. Grace is the opportunity for conviction and transformation. “Truly holy people are able to embrace their failings and have no illusions about being better than other people.” (1.)
In Jesus, the playing field has been leveled. Or better yet, it’s been eradicated as he whispers to all of us, no matter who, no matter what, no matter where:
“You are precious, you are honored, and I love you.”
It's perhaps the most redemptive words in all the scriptures.
Written by Lizzy Milani
1). “Subverting the Honour/Shame System.” By Richard Rohr.
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