It hurts to be left out of a game or not chosen at recess. And even after the school years are over, adults ignore, reject, give the cold shoulder, vote you off the island. Why are people excluded or kept out of “the little group”? It could be pride, fear, ignorance or the desire to feel superior.
In Matthew 15 Jesus shows incredible impartiality to a Canaanite woman who appeals to Him for her daughter’s healing. The disciples thought they knew who Jesus did and didn’t have time for and they wanted to send her away. Jesus struck at their prejudices and sense of their own superiority and healed her daughter.
The disciples didn’t quite get it, just like some people today. It’s one thing to have contempt for someone behind their back, but it’s another thing to hear our ugly thoughts and feelings expressed out loud to a real person. None of the disciples spoke up for this woman. In John Ortberg’s book Everybody’s Normal Till you Get To Know Them he says,
“Thinking of sin as exclusion helps us get to the core of Jesus’ teaching…Jesus names as sin what often passes for virtue, especially in religious circles. The religious leaders in Jesus’ day believed that their refusal to associate with people who did not live up to their religious standards was the highest proof of their devotion to God…When people truly begin to follow Jesus, they find themselves becoming Embracers.”
Impartial acceptance is a wonderful gift we all can give to others. Ortberg adds,
“This is the irony of the spirit of exclusion. It causes us to think that merely to associate with those we consider outsiders is doing them a favor. We forget that wherever the spirit of exclusion reigns, it marks those farthest from the Fellowship of the Trinity. When we exclude, we don’t just hurt those we keep outside; we damage our own souls far more. And when we embrace, we ourselves are the ones who receive the greatest gift.”
What could you do to show acceptance to someone in your life today?
1 comment:
I find it hard to believe that no one responded to this. It hit me right in the middle of my heart. I often feel so excluded, yet failed to recognize that I too am guilty of the same thing.
You made reference to the "spirit of exclusion"; is there such a thing? I had not thought of it in this way before. Thank you for pointing this out to me.
Blessings!
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