I reread the book of Revelation for our Sunday morning Bible study and a couple of Scriptures stood out. The first just gave me a glimpse into the kindness of Jesus. I pictured Him with compassion, love and gentleness speaking to His beloved disciple John and thought, what a beautiful Savior we have.
Revelation 1:12-17 When I turned to see who was speaking to me, I saw seven gold lampstands. 13 And standing in the middle of the lampstands was someone like the Son of Man. He was wearing a long robe with a gold sash across his chest. 14 His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow. And his eyes were like flames of fire. 15 His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice thundered like mighty ocean waves. 16 He held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp two-edged sword came from his mouth. And his face was like the sun in all its brilliance. 17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead. But he laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last. I am the living one. I died, but look--I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave."
Can you picture Jesus reaching out to John, calming His fears, speaking comfort to John's heart. I'm taken back to His interactions with the woman caught in adultery and the women with the issue of blood....kindness oozed from His words to these women, love flowed from His heart to these needy ladies.
John 8:1-11 T Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, 2 but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. 3 As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. 4 “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?” 6 They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. 7 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” 8 Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. 9 When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. hen Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” 11 “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”
Mark 5:24-34 24 Jesus went with him, and all the people followed, crowding around him. 25 A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. 26 She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. 27 She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. 28 For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition. 30 Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?” 31 His disciples said to him, “Look at this crowd pressing around you. How can you ask, ‘Who touched me?’”
32 But he kept on looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of him and told him what she had done. 34 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.”
Like John, these women trembled before our Lord. Fear in their hearts facing the holiness of God...but they found compassion. And so do we. Jesus is not our accuser or condemner....He is our Savior, the lover of our souls. He is our healer and our teacher. He is our King, the One who lives forever. That is why we can come to Him in our lowest state and find His arms open and His love ready to enfold us. What a wonderful Savior!
Lord, I love Your heart. Sometimes we forget how utterly kind you are. We let the struggles of this life tell us You don't care, You're angry with us, You're not on our side...but the Word tells us differently. Help our hearts to never doubt that! Let us be rooted firmly in Your love and
"may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is." (Ephesians 3:18). It's in Your holy Name I pray Jesus. Amen.
Meditate on the kindness of Jesus this weekend.
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