Seeing Christ

Have you heard it said that we should see Christ in others? Good idea. But I do have one problem…

Before we get to that problem, let me just say that Matthew 25 is one of the reasons that I chose to be a Christian. Jesus said, “When I was hungry, you fed me… When I was sick, you cared for me… Whatever you did for the least of my brethren, you did for me.” I see in this how we can encounter God here and now in a deeply intimate, tangible, yet mysterious way. So that’s good. Very, very, very good. When I minister to my neighbor in need, to a stranger or a loved one, I am ministering to Christ Himself. I am, if you will, touching the face of God with tenderness and love. This is how and why we are called to see Christ in others.

The problem is that I have great difficulty seeing Christ in someone who is gossiping or ridiculing other people or flipping someone the bird in traffic. Do you know what I mean? Also, if somebody does something to hurt me, Jesus tells me that I need to forgive that person, but how can I see Christ in the person that I am forgiving? Jesus Christ is without sin and would never need my forgiveness — I need His! Jesus also tells us to pray for those who persecute us, but if I am trying to see my persecutors as Christ, it is very awkward to pray for them. My mind/spirit simply can’t do these kinds of gymnastics.

In the little moments of life, when someone is angering me by being rude or thoughtless or just, well, annoying, I can’t seem to see Jesus in that person, and I don’t know what to do. Christ would not be rude or thoughtless to me. Christ does not have the irritating foibles that we non-divine humans have. So, in these moments, I feel like a failure.

Asking Jesus for Help

Then I remembered something. Jesus gave us one new, rocksolid commandment that is a kind of perfection of all God’s commandments, going above and beyond: “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you should also love one another.”[i] Most people know the first part “love one another” but maybe forget the second part. By ignoring the second part, however, we define love in whatever way we want to define it. But Christ’s words, “as I have loved you,” tell me exactly what I should do when I’m dealing with a hurtful or just plain annoying person.

Love as Jesus loves.

Loving all of His disciples, Jesus patiently illustrated wisdom for the simple among us in beautiful, symbolic, and practical ways. He provided Himself as a living example of forgiveness and charity. He had merciful forbearance for James and John when they wanted to destroy the people of a village, and He had tender compassion upon Peter when Peter denied Him three times, just as Jesus had predicted he would. And, most amazingly, Jesus washed the feet of His disciples — all of them, even the feet of Judas Iscariot who Jesus knew would betray Him. I believe it’s right to say that Jesus would have happily forgiven Judas if Judas had repented instead of believing the lie that his own sin was greater than God’s mercy.

In all of this, Jesus defines love.

What I’m Supposed to Do

It may be hard to imagine a selfish or cruel person as Christ. But it might not be as hard to imagine that person as Judas Iscariot. Will I wash that person’s feet?

It is also important to imagine myself as that annoying, selfish, or cruelly behaving person that angers me or has hurt me. We all have the ability to sin within us, committing small sins probably daily and bigger ones at potentially any moment. How do we want God to treat us when we sin? Do we want God to punish us, to berate us, to mock us, or to treat us disdainfully? No. We want God to love us, we want God to forgive us again and again, we want God to be patient and merciful with us. Christ does love and forgive us, patiently and mercifully — and He wants us to love one another as He loves us.

“Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who have sinned against us.”[ii]

“He who is without sin should throw the first stone.”[iii]

We’ve all been grouchy. We’ve all raised our voices when we shouldn’t have or said things that we wish we could take back. We’ve all made mistakes. Sometimes very big ones. Can’t we have gentle compassion for others when they behave less than ideally? After all, Christ has compassion for us.

When someone is committing grave sin, when we see people acting terribly cruelly in the world, can’t we remember that Christ is brokenhearted over their brokenness? Let’s mourn with Jesus and pray for their conversion, their healing, for they are as naked and as sick and as imprisoned as any needy person in this world. Each of us is a child of God, even those who are succumbing to the darker forces of this world. Rather than a great fear, let this be for us a great sorrow and see Christ weeping beside the person whose soul is in grave danger. Let us see Christ and weep and pray with Him — and let us be willing to make sacrifices in union with Christ for the salvation of the world.

This is a tough one for me, Lord. Help me in Your kind and gentle ways to see You always and everywhere. Amen.

© 2024 Christina Chase

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Feature Photo by Samridhhi Sondhi on Unsplash

[i] John 13:34

[ii] see Matthew 6:12

[iii] see John 8: 7