Fulfilling the second greatest commandment: ‘Loving Thy Neighbor’
I sat comfortably in my air-conditioned lounge sipping a glass of cold water and reading a book. Earlier on, the weather channel had cautioned people in our area about a heatwave so I stayed indoors, where everything felt so good — cool air, cold water and a good book. Then there was a knock on the door, and I realized that the food I had ordered for my wife and I had arrived. I opened the door, stepped outside and I was immediately confronted with the blistering heat. For a few moments, I felt disoriented as I became exposed to the intensity of the heat.
You see, experiencing the heat was very different from just hearing about it on the weather channel. I reflected on that for a while.
How very true that is about life. We often read about experiences others have had and sometimes react to those without actually having gone through those experiences ourselves. Recently we have read or heard about individuals and families impacted by COVID-19.
Somehow for many of us, we have been spared from the virus and so we have not experienced what others have had to deal with. There are other major life changing experiences like war, migration, injustice, poverty, homelessness etc., that have not been part of our lived experience.
I am not suggesting that we should have those experiences. But I wonder if we paused for a moment and felt what it must be like to be experiencing those situations, how will we react? Will we have more empathy? Will we be a little more understanding? Will we be less judgmental?
The great truth revealed in the New Testament is that the eternal God became one of us; He became a human being. He entered into our world. Because of this he knows temptation (Mark 1:13), poverty (Matthew 8:20), frustration (John 2:15-16), weariness (john 4:6), disappointment (Luke 13:34), rejection (John 6:66) sorrow (Matthew 6:38), ridicule (Mark 15:19), loneliness (Matthew 27:46).
God became human so he fully knows what it is to be human. In reacting to others, let us not rise to judgment without fully knowing what it is they are experiencing but let us show love and compassion like the way Jesus taught.