Grace for difficult people

Jesus said, 'If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles' (Matthew 5:41 NIV). In Jesus' day, Roman soldiers were permitted to force a Jew to carry a burden a mile for them. They treated Jews as tools to be used.

What do we do when dealing with difficult people? Jesus invites us to take the high road. A Roman soldier like these could be quite young, a stranger there, probably poor himself. All he receives is local resentment. So, we finish the mile and say, 'You look tired. Can I help you some more? Can I carry it for you another mile?' That would blow the soldier's mind. Nobody ever asked that! That's what we're called to do! When someone takes advantage of us, we want to think of them as unlikable rather than a real person with their own story.

It's said that a friend offered to introduce English essayist Charles Lamb to a man who Lamb had disliked for a long time. 'Don't make me meet him,' Lamb said. '"I want to go on hating him, and I can't do that to a man I know.' But, Jesus asks us to instead give the gift of empathy, remembering that the person we don't like is also a human being.



So what now? Choose to put yourself in a difficult person's shoes; imagine how they feel, what they've been through and how life has treated them. When you do that, it opens the door to extend the grace of Jesus.





— SCRIPTURE —

'If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.' Matthew 5:41 NIV
— SOULFOOD —

Num 4:34-6:27, Mark 1:14-20, Ps 94:1-11 , Pro 10:24-26