Jesus Our Role Model - Jesus and People (Daily Devotional)

Greetings and thank you for joining us today for a few moments of a time in the word and in prayer. This Christmas week, we are looking at Jesus and looking at Him as an example that we should follow. God sent Jesus into this world to be our savior, but He also sent Jesus to be a model, a prototype of the kind of people He wants here on earth. And so, we want to emulate Jesus in the way He lived here on earth. Today, let's look at Jesus and how He related to people. So, Jesus in His earthly life, the Bible tells us very first of all, growing up in a family, He actually submitted Himself to His earthly parents and that's very interesting. Luke chapter 2 and verse 51, it tells us that when He went down with His parents, Mary and Joseph to Nazareth, He was subject to them. And that's very interesting to think about the fact that the Lord Jesus, while He was with His family, He remained subject to His parents. Then as we see Him begin His ministry, we see how He looked at people with eyes of compassion. He welcomed people into His presence and in fact, as He ministered and people responded to His message, the Bible says in Mark chapter 3, verses 33 to 35, when Jesus looked around at all those people who sat about Him and were receiving His word, He says, ‘these are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother, my sister, my mother.’ Now that is again showing to us how much He regarded people who would pursue God, who would pursue the teachings of the kingdom. He said these people, they're doing the will of God and they are like family. He valued people who would seek to do the will of God. He held them with regard. We also see Jesus and how He related to the people who were considered sinners and tax collectors. They were not looked upon very well in those days. We see for example in Matthew chapter 9, verses 10 and 11, ‘He sat with tax collectors and sinners. He had meals with them. He would sit with them and just rub shoulders with them so to speak. So, people were amazed at that and that this person who's teaching about the kingdom of God is holding others in regard, sitting with ordinary people, communicating with them and talking to them. Jesus said that He didn't come into the world to condemn the world and so people found that they were accepted and welcomed in His presence. Now, of course, there were times that Jesus was very stern especially with the religious leaders. He didn't mince words when it came to the Pharisees. He rebuked them sharply, He called them out for their hypocrisy, He called them out for becoming a stumbling block to people and preventing them from actually entering in to the kingdom of God. And so, we see even that dynamic in how He related to people. So, what do we take away? We see compassion, we see kindness, we see regard, we see respect and yet we see speaking truth in how He related with people. And so, this is something you and I can ponder about and consider walking, as Christ walked in the way He related to people. Let's pray, Lord, we ask that you grant us your wisdom, grant us your compassion, grant us the same eyes that Jesus had so we can see people through His eyes, that we can love people the way He loved them and we can stand up and uphold truth in areas where we need to be people who will be bearers of truth. So, help us we pray, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

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