“Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm. But the harm does not interest them.”
T. S. Eliot
If you are like me, you have wasted time trying to get into the mind of another; especially those who have chosen to hurt you. The poet, T. S. Eliot, made the above astute observation concerning the motives of those who hurt others. I was challenged by this thought during the Sunday message on the betrayal of Jesus by Judas. We do not know exactly what Judas was trying to accomplish when he agreed to turn Jesus over to the authorities. He temporarily profited from his agreement, however, some have speculated that he was trying to hasten the arrival of the kingdom of which Jesus spoke. He really meant no harm. While I cannot compare my trials to those experienced by Jesus following his betrayal, I have experienced the pain of harm caused by others.
As I pondered the actions of Judas and the thoughts of T. S. Eliot, I have come to believe that Eliot did not come to his conclusion by searching the heart of others (who, but God, can really do that anyway), but his own heart. I came to this deduction by peering into my own heart. I don’t mean any harm, but my own interests take priority and rip through lives of others with abandon. What is the cure to the recklessness that runs so deep in my heart? It comes in the Person who was betrayed by Judas. The harm that Jesus faced on the cross is the violent, but necessary payment for the betrayal that has corrupted my own heart. Yet, Jesus faced that harm with my best interest in mind. And He did the same for you!
“Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Philippians 2:3-11
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