A Gentle AnswerPrimjer

In our current cultural moment, outrage has become more expected than surprising; more normative than odd; more encouraged than discouraged; more rewarded than rejected. Outrage undergirds each day’s breaking news. It is part of the air that we breathe—a native language, a sick helping of emotional food and drink to satisfy our hunger for taking offense, shaming, and punishing. Outrage has become something we can’t get away from, partly because we don’t seem to want to get away from it. Instead of getting rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger as scripture urges us to do (Eph. 4:31), we form entire communities around our irritations and our hatreds. Tribes and echo chambers form. Social media-feeds grow. Political pontifications multiply. Book deals prosper. Podcasts rant. Churches split. On some level, we are all engaged in the seemingly insatiable, ubiquitous theme of us-against-them.

Those of us who identify as Christian have been given a resource that enables us to respond to outrage and wrath in a healing, productive, and life-giving way. Because Jesus Christ has loved us at our worst, we can love others at their worst. Because Jesus Christ has forgiven us for all of our wrongs, we can forgive others who have wronged us. Because Jesus Christ offered a gentle answer instead of pouring out punishment and rejection for our offensive and sinful ways, we can offer gentle answers to those who behave offensively and sinfully toward us. But make no mistake - Jesus’s gentle answer was bold and costly. His gentle answer included pouring out his lifeblood and dying on the cross. Our gentle answer will be costly as well. We must die to ourselves, to our self-righteousness, to our indignation, and to our outrage. For “whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matt. 10:39).

Jesus has been gentle toward us so we have good reason to become gentle toward others, including those who treat us like enemies.  Because Jesus has covered all of our offenses, we can be among the least offensive and least offended people in the world. This is the way of the gentle answer.