Do you know someone that drives you crazy? Everyone does. Jerk, know it all, loudmouth, braggart, bonehead - these are just a few of the words we use to describe them when we're angry. It's hard to understand why they act the way they do. Why can't they act right, we ask ourselves? Maybe that's not the right question. Perhaps "How does God see them?" would be a better question.
Most people in New Testament times despised tax collectors, with good reason. They were often Jews who collected taxes from their fellow Jews for the Romans. They made money by collecting more taxes than necessary and keeping the excess for themselves. Jerk is one of the nicer words the Jews would have used to describe them. Yet when Jesus encountered Zacchaeus the tax collector (Luke 19), he befriended Zacchaeus and went to stay at his house. You also see the reaction of the crowd: their response could be paraphrased as "Why would he hang around with such a low life?" Why indeed?
The answer can be found in John 2:25, which tells us that Jesus "did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man." The people in the crowd saw Zacchaeus from a human perspective. Jesus saw him as he really was, from God's perspective. The crowd saw a thief and a traitor; Jesus saw what was in his heart - guilt and a desire to repent from the evil in his life. We see that Jesus had the right perspective from the reaction of Zacchaeus: "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount". Note also the response of Jesus: "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." Rather than condemning him for his past, Jesus commended him for his willingness to change. Jesus is still willing to accept sinners who will repent and change, even the most obnoxious ones.
I'm not saying we should make excuses for the bad behavior of others. You have the right to live your life freely (within the limits of the law) without harassment or intimidation. If a co-worker is making your life miserable at work, and he refuses to change his behavior, you have every right to talk to his boss or your human resources department if necessary to fix the problem. If a waiter is rude to you in a restaurant, you're not the bad guy if you complain to the manager. There should be consequences for bad behavior. God doesn't condone bad behavior, but he loves everyone, regardless of how they act. We know this because he sent his son to die on the cross so that everyone (even the jerks) would have an opportunity for salvation. So the next time you encounter someone who is rude or obnoxious, try to set aside your anger and see them through the eyes of love, because that's the way God sees them.
