Did Jesus Ever Stew? By Catherine Weiskopf

Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. (Colossians 3:13 NIV)

Ever catch yourself stewing about a slight from a friend? Recently in the middle of a week full of mulligan stew so thick I could barely chew it, a comical image popped into my brain. Jesus is walking with James down a dirt path and is confiding in him about a recent situation with Peter. “I just can’t believe he did that to me. After all I’ve done for him.  Heck he even walked on water with me and then he goes and denies me three times.”

In another scene Jesus is complaining on the road to Emmaus, “I healed them, fed them, and taught them all about God’s love and then what do I get? They hang me from a dead piece of wood. That’s the absolute last time I’m doing anything for them.”

It’s comical to think of Jesus talking this way but for many of us, including myself, it is my operational normal. I sometimes complain to my husband about how I am treated, but I most often complain to myself, stewing inside about how little I am appreciated, how much I listen without getting listened to, or how little I’m noticed.

Jesus, by not fussing, is demonstrating one of the guiding principles of Christianity: forgiveness. When we think about the difficulties of letting go we often think of the big things: forgiving a parent who abandoned us, or a drunk driver for killing a loved one, but we all struggle with forgiveness on a day-to-day irritation level. I struggle with the choice of letting go of the little things and not allowing myself to get worked into a self-righteous tizzy.  We have to choose to not defend ourselves and mentally fight an imaginary battle in our brain with our foes.

Recently on PBS, a show followed a brother of another faith who worked in the inner city in the United States. His focus was on trying to get gang members out of their mindset. He commented at one point that gang members didn’t understand and couldn’t buy the “turn the other cheek” of Christianity. The belief of defending themselves was more appealing to this group of people.

Isn’t defending ourselves more appealing to all of us? It’s how animals survive in the wild and it’s our first and most instinctual reaction.  Isn’t that why we stew?   But, and here’s the big but, we have made a commitment to behave in a way that goes against our human nature. We made this decision when we decided to follow Jesus. So I’m trying to hang up my Neanderthal ways, give up what feels good, one nasty habit at a time, and strive to even clean up my insides by forgiving.

Jesus, more than any of the rest of us, had reason to stew about his treatment by others. But Jesus made a decision, out of love, not to bring it up to His friends, to his neighbors or even to himself. Can we do the same?