00:06God sees things we don't. Choosing unoffendability frees us to love people in risky but profound
00:14ways. Jesus is this way with the most morally embarrassing people. You can't find a single
00:20story in the Bible where he's so disgusted, so scandalized by someone's moral behavior
00:26that he writes him off. It just doesn't happen. In fact, a friend recently pointed out something
00:33to me that I had never noticed or thought about before. I think it's remarkable. In John 13,
00:41Jesus is having a last meal with his closest friends and followers. He tells them that he
00:47will soon have to leave them, and where he's going, they won't be able to follow him. Peter objects to
00:53this and tells him that he wants to follow and that he'd even give his life for Jesus.
00:59Then Jesus says, Will you lay down your life for my sake? Most assuredly, I say to you,
01:05the rooster shall not crow till you have denied me three times. That's the end of the scene,
01:11and it's pretty chilling. The chapter ends right there. But here's what I'd never thought about.
01:17The scene isn't actually over. Yes, there's a chapter break, but chapters aren't in the original.
01:25Bible translators added those centuries later to help us find things in the Bible.
01:30The next chapter, John 14, starts with this. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God,
01:38believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told
01:44you.
01:45I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will
01:51come again and
01:52receive you to myself. That where I am, there you may be also. So think about this. When Peter insists
02:00that he is even willing to die for Jesus, Jesus tells him, No, you'll betray me. You'll deny me
02:07three times. But don't let your heart be troubled. Believe in me. I'm going to prepare a special place
02:13for you. And I'm coming back to get you. Jesus wouldn't even let hypocrisy, betrayal, backstabbing,
02:21lying, and abandonment stop him from loving Peter. He saw something in Peter that Peter could not have
02:28possibly seen in himself. And sure enough, in the book of Acts, there's Peter, boldly putting his life
02:35on the line to tell people the good news about what God has done for them. Yes, God sees things
02:41we
02:41don't. We can risk loving people, incredibly difficult, insulting people, because he loves
02:47us. That person you find so offensive? Somehow, God sees something there. Something you don't.
02:55Ask him what it is. Maybe he'll show you. I bet he wants to.
