Avoid the Outrage

By Kevin Thompson January 2nd 2022

Consider how we respond to the sins of others. Typically, we either downplay them or are outraged by them.

If we like the person, we downplay them. Their sins don’t define who they are.

If we dislike the people, we are outraged by them. We dehumanize others because of their sins.

Yet how did Jesus respond to our sin? He didn’t deny them.

He wasn’t outraged by them.

He died for them.

The Cross is the ultimate expression of meekness—power under control. Jesus withheld His power and refused to react to His murderers. Instead, He endured the Cross on our behalf so He could pay the price for our sins.

He was gentle. He could have become outraged and avoided all the pain and suffering of the Cross, which would have been better for Him in the short term. Yet, He responded in a gentle way to our sin, and neither we nor Jesus have any doubt that that was the right long-term approach.

His lack of outrage allows us to come to Him. Wherever we are

and whatever we have done, we are invited to come to Jesus—to experience His forgiveness and grace, to allow His love to transform our hearts, to begin to live like new people.

As we bring our sin to Him, we find life. Freed from the horrific weight of our sin, we experience the freedom that comes from His love.

As we find life in Him, we then begin to love our neighbors. The gentleness we have received begins to express itself through us to others. We don’t live in denial or outrage. We live in love that desires us to help others find the same life we have found.

We live in a day of outrage. Power rests with the one who can feign the most outrage regarding a situation. Yet Jesus showed a different way. While He defended the innocent, stood against injustice, and spoke truth to power, He also avoided the cultural outrage of His day and modeled gentleness. The funny thing about outrage is that it rarely does anything except create more outrage. Few people’s opinions or actions are improved by the outrage of others. Humble truth spoken with great conviction and grace may or may not change the situation, but it will certainly change us, and for the better.

COLOSSIANS 1:3-14 (NIV)

3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— 5 the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel 6 that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. 7 You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant,[a] who is a faithful minister of Christ on our[b] behalf, 8 and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,[c] 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you[d] to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Reflection Questions:

    1. What is the hope about God?

    2. How is that hope for you?

    3. How can you share hope with others today?