“Brothers and sisters; be kind to one another,
compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ. Be
imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love.”
Can our vocations as human beings, much less Christians, be
expressed any more directly or forthrightly than Paul’s exhortation to the
Ephesians?
Paul’s exhortation echoes the Response to Psalm 1 today: “Behave
like God as his very dear children.”
What is it to be an imitator of God and behave like God?
Luke, in a scene exclusive to his gospel, has us reflect on Jesus’s actions:
“When Jesus saw her,” he was moved to compassion and called out to her that she
was freed from her infirmity. He did
this on the Sabbath, which was “illegal” according to Mosaic Law, so the leader
of the synagogue chastised him. Jesus
rebukes him right back, reminding him that even the oxen are untied on the
Sabbath and led to water. Shouldn’t a
daughter of God be untied from her infirmity as well, regardless of the
Sabbath?
If only we could always look upon one another with the
compassion God has for us, we would be imitators of God, and begin to bring
healing to our wounded world and its many fractured relationships.
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