We have a lot of opportunities nowadays to feel animosity towards one another.  The love of many has waxed cold as the scriptures would say.  

There are a lot of issues people can take a side on.  The question is how can we be passionate about life and what we deem to be good without people being demonized in our hearts.

We cant force people to be at peace with us but we can be at peace with people no matter how they react to us.  Jesus was filled with peaceful thoughts towards the people who delivered him up and crucified him.  He didn’t return evil for the evil that was committed against him.  He prayed for those who despitefully used him.  He blessed those who cursed him.  

This isnt about us striving to do the right thing.  This isnt some metric we are using to judge ourselves as righteous or unrighteous.  This isnt about us needing to perform something.  Its about sitting at the feet of Jesus so we can hear the faith of God and the fruit of his life can be born in us.  

This may come as a surprise but this isnt the first time in human history people have despised one another, and it wont be the last.  

If we look in the scriptures the Jewish people and the Gentile people werent exactly fond of each other.  

The Gentile people saw the jewish people as being so weak and so feeble they didn’t even see them as a legitimate people.  The Jewish people saw the gentiles as being heathens and unclean.  They saw themselves as the special people of God and the gentiles as the rejected of God.  

These guys wouldn’t even eat together.  It was considered a sin for the Jewish people to eat with the Gentiles.  Do you think that caused some animosity?  

You had two groups of people despising one another because they judged each other after the flesh.  They judged each other according to their race; according to the things they saw coming out of each other.  They judged each other by the things they did.  

They saw themselves as being different.  They didnt see themselves as being the same or as equals.  They didnt see themselves as having similar experiences and similar passions.  They couldnt identify with one another.  They couldn’t see themselves in the other’s face.  All because they judged each other after the flesh.  

Ephesians 2 says God broke down the wall of enmity that existed between the jewish people and the gentile people by making of the 2 one new man.  

The apostle Paul says God abolished the enmity that existed between the Jews and the Gentiles by taking the two people who saw themselves as different, and making of the two one new people.

God gathered them both together.  He huddled up with them both and showed them their lives in the face of Jesus, and made it to where they can see themselves in one another.  He took these guys who saw themselves as different and discerned both of their lives in Jesus so they could identify with one another. 

He gathered them both to Himself in Jesus.  He came and said you have these carnal ordinances contained in the commandments.  And the way you’re interpreting them is causing you to see one another as different and at odds.  I will make peace between the two of you by revealing to you that death is reigning over you both and you are both in need of salvation.  

Romans 3:23 says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  Paul goes on to describe this in romans 5 by saying death reigned over all people from Adam to Moses when there was no law.  

Whether Jewish people or Gentile people God came and showed them they were much more alike than they thought.  They were both suffering at the hands of death.  They were both in bondage through the fear of death.  Both Jews and Gentiles were perishing and being beaten and bruised by death.  They were both in need of being cleansed from the wound of death.  They were both in need of being reconciled to God and His eternal life.  They were both in need of having their access to the tree of life restored. 

The hostility that exists between people is torn down by them seeing themselves and others in the face of Jesus.  When we see our lives and the life of every human being in the face of Jesus.  What happens is we no longer judge one another after the flesh, and we are able to understand each other’s hearts.

Jesus identified with the people who delivered him up and crucified him.  He saw himself in their faces.  He didnt look at them and think they dont know what I am going through.  He looked at them and saw they were intimately acquainted with death.  He saw that just as the world and sin were nailing him to a tree.  The people had also been nailed to a tree by the world.  He saw just as he was beaten and bruised by sin and death.  The people were also beaten and bruised by sin and death.  

Jesus understood the pain and the hurt they felt.  He didn’t judge them after the flesh because he was able to discern their heart.  

He didnt see them as standing opposed to him and all that was good.  He saw it as death standing opposed to them all, and he was come as their David to be an advocate to them in the midst of their suffering; to comfort them in their affliction; to slay the giant of death that was standing against them; so that his grace could superabound over the sin of the world, and his life could superabound over the death that was tormenting them.  

In the account of the woman caught in the act of adultery.  Jesus says he judges no one after the flesh.  Jesus didnt judge the woman by the adultery she committed.  He didnt make conclusions about her because of what he saw manifesting in her life.  He saw she was in bondage because of the fear of death.  He saw the sentence of death hanging over her.  He saw her desire for life weighing on her.  He saw her breaking under the burden of trying to care for her own life. 

Jesus was filled with compassion.  He didnt read it written on stones he should be compassionate.  He didnt say I can be righteous if I can be compassionate.  He was filled with compassion because he was intimately acquainted with her suffering.  He saw she was being beaten and bruised by the sentence of death that was hanging over her.  He saw her trying to carry the burden of her own life.  He saw her thoughts were all the time filled with trying to gather peace and love and joy to herself.  He saw the world had nailed her to a tree and the effect that was having on her.  

We see the lives of all people discerned in Jesus.  He is the light that lights up every person.  He has discerned all of our hearts, thus making of the different groups, one new person.  We can identify with one another by looking at Jesus.  We can see the testimony of what we’ve all been through in the face of Jesus.  

We’ve all been persecuted; we’ve all been mocked.  All of us have suffered injustice at the hands of the sin and death in the world.  We all know what it’s like to see our lives perishing and coming under attack.  We’ve all been nailed to a tree by the world.  

We’ve all felt that hurt.  We all know what that feels like; we all know the weakness and confusion that comes from that; we all know the fear that can press in on us.   We all have a deep desire for life.  We all have a deep desire to be vindicated and for our lives to be defended. 

We no longer know people according to what we see in their flesh or what we see manifesting in their lives. 

We see Jesus and it arrests our hearts with love for all people.  For we judge this to be true.  If one man died for all people then all were dead.  If this man Jesus was nailed to a tree by the world on behalf of all people, and his death was their death, it tells us something.  It tells us the world was nailing all people to a tree.  It tells us the world comes to nail all people to a tree.  Jesus being nailed to the tree is a picture of what the world comes to do to all people. 

Should we see someone doing something we dont think is unto life we dont relate to them based on what we see but we identify with their hearts.  Knowing what it can feel like to be nailed to a tree by the world.  Understanding the effect that can have on a person.  

we feel great compassion for Jesus when we think of what he went through on the cross ...... We think of Jesus on the cross and we see the hurt and the pain and the agony and its gut wrenching.  We see the confusion that tried to overtake him.  We see the lies of the stranger.  Now what if the things we saw in Jesus became our only reference point for other people and what is going on with them?  What if we saw Jesus in all of them?  

We dont have to agree with everyone’s perspective.  But, we can understand their hearts.  We can understand what it feels like for our thoughts to be filled with the care of our lives, and the thought that our lives arent being cared for, and that something is come to harm our lives.  We can understand what it feels like to be pressed in on by the fear of death.  We can understand the confusion that can come and the strong desire to be justified and to try and preserve our own lives.  And we can relate to people based on that.

Many times the same passions that cause us to take our positions is what causes others to take their positions.  It doesnt mean we have to agree with their positions but let us atleast understand the heart behind the position, so the people aren’t demonized.  We don’t have to agree with one another’s positions to empathize with the hurt we each feel.

Explain Jacob Blake name on helmet

I wouldn’t do it because I can see the pain it can cause people who have experienced sexual assault.  I wouldn’t want to be a stumbling block to them.  But, i also dont find fault with the people who want to put the name on their helmets or the people who think its the right way, because I can understand the hurt they feel.  I’m not outraged or shocked by the people who want to put Jacob blakely’s name on their helmet because I can understand why they want to do that.  I can see the hurt they feel in their hearts.  I can see the fear of death hanging over them.  I can see their hearts are burdened by the care of their own lives too.

Explain dynamic of police with black people

Both are filled with fear.  We dont judge police as racist or demonize the police because of what might happen on account of their hearts being gripped with the fear of death.  Neither do we judge the black guys as thugs or disrespectful, or as just acting as criminals.  Its a much more nuanced conversation than that.  We don’t look at the destruction that can happen in these interactions and judge the one guy and blame them or judge the other guy and blame them.  But, we judge that if one man was nailed to a tree for all people, then we know the world is nailing all people to a tree and we feel compassion for all the people involved, understanding the way the fear of death can impact them both.