Matthew 9:35-38
I recall some former in-laws discussing on several occasions the good old days when they had gone out drinking and gotten wasted. Then they'd laugh because they had driven home and could not remember driving or how they made it home safe. I think they all had, unless there are some untold stories to be told. In any event they seemed to be fine and made light of the matter. There are others who have done the very same thing and they wound up killing an innocent person or an entire family. They wind up with a tortured memory and perhaps some serious jail time. Is the person who escaped and got home safely while driving drunk any better than the person who made the same poor decision but paid the enormous price of death and guilt? It's a mystery I have pondered my entire life. It goes along with how two seemingly similar people with similar backgrounds and experiences can wind up going in two totally different directions. Again, mystery.
It is the height of arrogance to think we get what we deserve or are better than others because we are not so afflicted as someone else. We have all made poor decisions, made sometimes horrible mistakes, placed ourselves or others at risk. Do we pay with our lives? A straight guy who cruises the local watering hole for a one night stand and winds up getting AIDs, is that fair? How many people have done that and escaped with nothing but a hangover or a less lethal social disease. Is the person who escaped better than the person who was not so lucky?
We like to forget our mistakes, miscalculations and the episodes where we were very lucky to escape unharmed. When we forget or place it out of our minds I think many people also like to think they are in some way better than the unlucky ones.
Where is the empathy? Where is the compassion? We love to see people get their comeuppance but truth be told, if we each got what was coming to us we'd all be in really, really bad shape. We seem to think whatever 'our sin' was, it is less serious that what someone else did.
God loves us all and considers us all to be brothers and sisters. How can we treat our brothers and sisters less than we would like to be loved ourselves? In fact God loves "them" at least as much as God loves you, warts and all.
What are the illnesses, mistakes and sins that we look down on others for? We are all sinners. We are also all equally loved by God. I just think I needed to remind myself of that and thought maybe some other people might need to be reminded of it also.
Just remember how loved we all are. Smile and love.
Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.’
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