Respect—Part 2

From the Roadmap series

In our Master’s footsteps

The actions Jesus took during His stay on earth horrified many of the religious leaders of His day because of His total disregard for the prejudice that was so common in the society and religion of that time. His accusers condemned Him as “a gluttonous man, a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!”¹

Think about the parable of the Good Samaritan, the salvation of publicans, calling Matthew the tax collector to be His disciple, and befriending Mary Magdalene. Under all circumstances, Jesus’ offer of salvation was offered equally to all; Jesus showed the same amount of respect and made the same offer of eternal life to a despised criminal as He did to a holy ruler of the Jewish people.

As familiar as these Bible stories are, think about the incredible amount of respect for human dignity that Jesus manifested. When Jesus ministered to the Samaritan woman at the well, it was no ordinary occurrence. The people that Jesus was born into deemed themselves so far above the Samaritans that they had to undergo an extended cleansing period if they came into contact with a Samaritan, or if they went under the roof of a Samaritan’s house, let alone if they drank water from the “defiled” water jug of one of them! As unbelievable as this seems now, that was reality at the time. But in order to show God’s love and respect to each human being, Jesus was willing to break the accepted codes of conduct. That’s how much it meant to Him to show each person how much they were valued in God’s eyes.

Suffice it to say, there was some serious religious tension between these two cultures. Clearly the Judeans generally despised the Samaritans, and the feeling was probably mutual. With that in mind, we can see what a big deal it was for Jesus to do what He did in bringing God’s message of love and truth to Samaria.

First, He chose to go to Samaria with His followers, and to sit on the well outside the city to rest while His disciples went to look for food. When a woman came to the well to draw water, He then asked her for a drink. The woman was shocked, and asked, “How is it that thou, being a Jew, asks for drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.”²

Jesus took that opening to launch into a powerful witness about His mission on earth and to explain to her the ways of heaven, which have no relation to the laws of man, telling her that it didn’t matter where she chose to worship so long as she was worshiping the Father in spirit and in truth!

When the disciples returned, it says that they “marveled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What do you seek? Or, why do you talk with her?”³

Obviously they were wondering what was going on, but they sensed that something important was happening, and we can imagine that each of the disciples came away from that day with a great life lesson after witnessing Jesus’ utter love and respect for someone whom they had been trained to treat unequally.

Here is a true story from a more modern time:

All of us have heard of Desmond Tutu, but few of us will know who Trevor Huddleston is. Yet, without Trevor Huddleston there may have been no anti-apartheid leader named Tutu.

Asked by the BBC to identify the defining moment in his life, Desmond Tutu spoke of the day he and his mother were walking down the street. Tutu was nine years old. A tall white man dressed in a black suit came towards them. In the days of apartheid, when a black person and a white person met while walking on a footpath, the black person was expected to step into the gutter to allow the white person to pass and nod their head as a gesture of respect. But this day, before a young Tutu and his mother could step off the sidewalk, the white man stepped off the sidewalk and, “as my mother and I passed, tipped his hat in a gesture of respect to her!”

The white man was Trevor Huddleston, an Anglican priest who was bitterly opposed to apartheid. It changed Tutu’s life. When his mother told him that Trevor Huddleston had stepped off the sidewalk because he was a man of God, Tutu found his calling. “When she told me that he was an Anglican priest, I decided there and then that I wanted to be an Anglican priest too. And what is more, I wanted to be a man of God,” said Tutu.

Huddleston later became a mentor to Desmond Tutu, and his commitment to the equality of all human beings, due to their creation in God’s image, was a key driver in Tutu’s opposition to apartheid.⁴—From storiesforpreaching.com

Love begins at home

In part one on this topic we talked about appreciating others, and so far, you might have applied the ideas put forth to people you don’t know very well, or people you’re ministering to, or to those in the foreign country you reside in. But the same principles of success need to be applied to everyone, not just acquaintances and business associates and those we’re ministering to spiritually, but also those we’re closest to and most familiar with—our family, friends, siblings, spouse, and so on.

Like the expression “love begins at home,” that’s often where respect begins, too. And if we don’t have respect for those we love, know well, and work closely with, then how can we have respect for those we hardly know?

Walk a mile in his shoes

It’s not possible to literally walk a mile in the shoes of someone who is different from us. We can’t snap our fingers and try out being older, living with physical or mental ailments, being thinner or heavier, changing our looks, speaking a different language, having a different skin, hair or eye color, or living in a different country or social status. But to get as close as we can, we can try the following:

—Put ourselves in surroundings that are normally outside of our comfort zones, even for a short time, by traveling abroad, taking on a part-time job, or volunteering. Then observe, listen, and reflect.

—Imagine ourselves in the skin of that other person we used to judge, and think about what we’d be like in their situation. We might learn a lot by walking a mile in their shoes. We might find that we have more in common than we expected.

Here’s a poem that illustrates this simple, yet important, principle:

If I knew you and you knew me—
If both of us could clearly see,
And with an inner sight divine
The meaning of your heart and mine,
I’m sure that we would differ less
And clasp our hands in friendliness;
Our thoughts would pleasantly agree
If I knew you and you knew me.

If I knew you and you knew me,
As each one knows his own self, we
Could look each other in the face
And see therein a truer grace.
Life has so many hidden woes,
So many thorns for every rose;
The “why” of things our hearts would see,
If I knew you, and you knew me.
—Nixon Waterman

Here is message given in prophecy where God’s love is depicted in a very close and personal manner. This shows God’s heart for each person He has created, and teaches us what attitude we should have toward mankind—not only those we know well, but all those whom we hope to reach with His message of salvation.

I am the good gardener, the faithful gardener, and I have planted a beautiful, wide, glorious garden. In My garden, each flower is different and unique, beautiful to My eyes and special. Each flower is a unique color and a unique size, and serves its own purpose and has its own place in the garden, and its own place in the heart of the Gardener.

I do not look upon you as “the masses,” or “the group,” but I look upon you as a special, unique individual, My son or My daughter. And I loved each of you so much that I gave My Son, Jesus, for you, just you!

To paint a picture of this love, imagine that there is a scale before you. It is a balance, and I took My own Son, the one who is dearest to Me, My one and only Son, and I laid him on one side of the scale. It tipped so far to that side! Then I took you, with all your weaknesses and your shortcomings and your idiosyncrasies, and all the things about yourself that bother you and that you think make you of little value and hard to love, and not worthy of My love. I placed you on the other side of the scale. And the scale was perfectly balanced.

I saw that it was a good trade. I put My Son on one side and I put you on the other side. I saw that it was worth it to trade the life of My Son for your redemption, that I might have you forever. This is how great My love is for you.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy

God is love, and He loves each one of His creations. Likewise, He has asked us to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves; that love starts with respect for others as created by Him, in His image and for His purpose. He created each person with unique traits, talents, and characteristics, and it’s up to us to appreciate the good in different cultures, nationalities, and religions. We need to ask God to give us the same genuine concern and respect for others that Jesus had with the Samaritan woman at the well; He loved her without prejudice or preconceived ideas.

Let’s celebrate people’s differences, and look for the beauties instead of the flaws! Let’s draw on the strengths of others and the qualities they have that we don’t. We can listen, empathize, understand, and care. We can learn to respect and appreciate individuals for their worth, and above all, for their value to the one who created us and loves each of us equally.

Roadmap was a video series created by TFI for young adults. Originally published in 2010. Adapted and republished on Anchor November 2017. Read by Simon Peterson.

Posted in: audio, bible, discipleship, learning, love, other author, witnessing

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