Grace isn't fair

"I marvel at Jesus' tenderness in dealing with people. John gives the account of Jesus' impromtu conversation with a woman at the well. In those days the husband initiated the divorce:this Samaritan woman had been dumped by five different men. Jesus could have begun by pointing out what a mess the woman had made of her life. Yet he did not say, "Young woman, do you realize what an immoral thing you're doing, living with a man who is not your husband?" Rather he said, in effect, I sense you are very thirsty, Jesus went on to tell her that the water she was drinking would never satisfy and then offered her living water to quench her thirst forever.

I try to recall the spirit of Jesus when I encounter someone of whom I morally disapprove. This must be a very thirsty person, I tell myself. I once talked with the priest Henri Nouwen just after he had returned from San Francisco. He had visited various ministries to AIDS victims and was moved with compassion by their sad stories. "They want love so bad, it's literally killing them," he said. He saw them as thirsty people panting after the wrong kind of water. When I am tempted to recoil in horror from sinners, from "different" people, I remember what it must have been like for Jesus to live on earth. Perfect, sinless, Jesus had every right to be repulsed by the behavior of those around him. Yet he treated notorious sinners with mercy and not judgment." (from Yancey's remix version of What's so amazing about grace?)