Jesus is talking to his friend Zachariah and Zachariah invites Jesus over for dinner the next evening. Zachariah tells Jesus that his address is 223 Matzo Ave. So the next day Jesus walks up to 232 Matzo Ave. and knocks on the door. No one answers so he knocks again and shouts, "Hey Zach, are you in there?" A few seconds later Jesus hears a baby crying and a very irate lady opens the door and tells him that he just woke up her baby and now she won't have time to go shopping. Jesus feels really bad about the situation and apologizes. " I'm really sorry, I'm looking for Zach," he says. "Zach? Zachariah lives at 223, this is 232 you schlemiel!" the lady says . . .
Now just freeze here for a moment. This situation looks pretty hopeless. How can our perfect guy, Jesus, go around making silly mistakes like this and causing disharmony in the world. That is not perfect. Lord help us. What is Jesus going to do to fix this situation? Let's see.
Jesus takes a second to compose himself after the shock of realizing his mistake and puts away any hurt feelings he might have because of the lady's harsh reaction to it. He says, "Woman, I am truly sorry for erroneously coming to your door and waking your baby. Let me make it up to you. I will come by tomorrow and watch the baby for you and you can go to the fish market for as long as you want. I'm really good with kids." The lady is pleased by Jesus' response and agrees. A few days later she is heard saying to someone, "That Yeshua, he is a really nice boy, and so polite!"
There is no darkness left in that situation. I would have to say, in fact, that everything is better than if Jesus had not even made a mistake to begin with. Jesus had an opportunity to act in a loving way and be of service to someone, and the lady had an opportunity to forgive and made a new friend. That's crazy! Perfection out of imperfection. That must be some kind of miracle. Jesus was perfectly imperfect! With the sincere desire to not sin and the help of God's grace and Jesus' example I think I can be perfectly imperfect too! Not tomorrow or next week, but today, Querci! Are you with me?
Ember
It's hard for me to be defensive, blocking positive interactions with others, when I love myself so much and trust always trust myself to do my best with good intentions. That's how loving myself allows me to love others. That's how I strive for perfection as a human, by loving.
ReplyDeleteAnd isn't that what we've been told all along,"Love your neighbor as yourself"? Maybe a lot a people are doing just that, but the problem is that they don't love themselves as they should and therefore are not able to love others as they should either.
ReplyDeleteTouche, Ember! I'd better ease up on the self-criticism!
ReplyDeleteI think that if we want to say that Jesus was fully human in every way except sin, then it makes sense that he would need to experience innocent mistakes, and to experience what it means to feel bad about something that's happened and "be forgiven." Because I don't think mistakes are sins.
It seems like, when it comes to mistakes, we'd do better to focus less on what happened, and more on how to make things right.
And to answer your question, YES!
ReplyDeleteOn my honor, I will try, to serve God and my country, to help people at times, and to live by the Girl Scout Law.