I Object!

This post comes from a portion of my lesson that I taught the 4th and 5th graders at my church. The lesson was on kindness and I used the story of the woman at the well found in John 4. If you are not familiar with the story here is a brief summary:

The woman goes to the well to draw water. She's going at a time when she could be alone and away from people. She has been mistreated by the people of the town because of the mistakes that she has made in the past. So you can imagine her surprise when she gets to the well and finds Jesus sitting there (although she didn’t know that it was Jesus). But she gets something different from Jesus that she had not gotten in a while - kindness, compassion and love. Jesus does bring forth her mistakes, but He does it in a way that wasn't condemning. So because of this she went back into town and most of the town came to see Jesus. This let to great revival in the town. [1]

But I want to draw your attention to the objection to kindness.

In the gospels, there are a couple of different places (and there's more than a couple) where the kindness of Jesus is objected too. We see in Luke 19, after Jesus invited Himself over to Zacchaeus' house, the crowd starts to mutter saying “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner." - Luke 19:7 NIV

In the book of Matthew, we see a similar conversation happen:

“While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, 'Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?'" - Matthew 9:10-11 NIV

So back to John 4 - we again see some objection to Jesus being kind to the Samaritan woman, as the disciples are returning from town with food, however they decide not to say anything.

“Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, 'What do you want?' or 'Why are you talking with her?'" - John 4:27 NIV

This is what I want to share with you - people will object to your kindness. If you choose to show kindness to someone who has done something to hurt you - people will object. They will not understand why you are choosing to be kind to someone who hasn't been kind to you.

Let's say you have a longtime friend and one day out of the clear blue sky they all of a sudden stab you in the back.

They betray your trust.

They slander you.

They abandon you.

Everything in you is going to want to act the same way. It's how we are wired. It doesn't make it any easier with people telling us to be unkind to people and we hear the words "treat them like they treated you!" I know I have heard this in my own life.

But that is not what Jesus did.

After Jesus had been beaten, mocked, spit on, slandered, paraded around like a joke and nailed to a cross where the humiliation continued. Jesus said from the cross as He looked out over the crowed - “Father, forgive them..." [2][3]

One of the final things Jesus says from the cross, after everything, are words of kindness.

Not hatefulness.

Not vengefulness.

But kindness.

This is why I choose to be kind, even in the objections of others. Jesus was kind through it all and He wants us to do the same.

He set the kindness example and we should follow it as best as we can.

__________________

1] John 4

2] Luke 23:34, NIV  

3] You can read more about what was referenced in the associated paragraph by reading any or all of the following Scriptures - Matthew 26-27 + Mark 14-15 + Luke 23-24 + John 18-19
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