FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT
KINDNESS
DR. JIM DIXON
MICAH 6:9; LUKE 6:37; GALATIANS 5:22-23
JANUARY 10, 1993
A very, very strange thing happened in 1977 in the city of Lake Arthur, New Mexico, at the home of Maria and Eduardo Rubio. It seems that Maria was in the kitchen, and she was cooking a tortilla in the skillet and to her amazement as she looked down she saw the face of Jesus Christ beginning to form on the tortilla. She called her husband Eduardo, and he checked this out. The two of them decided that this was a miracle, and they took the tortilla out of the skillet, and they made a shrine out of their living room. The “Shrine of the Holy Tortilla.”
Now, this was shared with the media and the media picked it up nationally. It was reported in The Denver Post and The Rocky Mountain News, and believe it or not, thousands of people began to make a pilgrimage to Lake Arthur, New Mexico, to the home of the Rubios to see the “holy tortilla.” To this day, incredibly, 10,000 people claim to have been healed by that holy tortilla in the home of the Rubios.
Now, I think most of us, when we hear a story like that, we do not know what to make of it. I know I have some questions. Some of the questions are not really important. I want to know, “Was it a corn tortilla or a flour tortilla?” Perhaps there are other questions of more substance. I mean I would like to know, “Did Jesus Christ really heal 10,000 people through a tortilla?” Frankly, I doubt it. I really do. My suspicion is that many of those people who reported those healings were experiencing psychosomatic manifestations.
Certainly, if Jesus Christ truly healed some of those people, it was not because of the tortilla. It was because some of those people actually looked to Jesus Christ and put their faith in Him. I really believe Jesus Christ has power to heal I do not believe He would heal in that manner. Now you know, one thing I know for sure. I know Jesus Christ truly does want to manifest Himself. He wants to reveal Himself. He really does want to be seen. Christ wants the world to see Him. Christ wants to be manifested, revealed, not in tortillas, not in cloud formations, not in shrouds like the Shroud of Turin. Christ wants to be manifested, Christ wants to be revealed, Christ wants to be seen in you, each and every one of you.
The teaching of the Bible is very clear on this, and throughout the New Testament, it is clearly revealed to be the will of the Father that all who believe in the Son as Lord and Savior might begin to reflect the very image and likeness of the Son of God. This is the will of God for you, and of course in the Old Testament, in the Book of Genesis, we read how God created us in His image, in His likeness. “In the image of God created him; male and female, created He them.” It was the will of God in the beginning that as we look at each other, we would see something of God’s nature. The Bible tells us, however, that the world is fallen, and sin has permeated the creation and the image of God in man is now distorted and broken, and as we look at each other, we really do not see God as we were meant to.
And yet Christ has come into the world. Christ has come into the world, and now He has offered life. He has offered to make us new creations. He has offered to make us born again through faith in Him. The promise of God is that all who believe in Jesus Christ would now have their sins forgiven, receive eternal life and be indwelled by the Holy Spirit. The plan of God is that those of us who believe might now once again begin to reflect the image of God—that as people look at Christians, they might be able to see the nature and person of Jesus Christ—that Christ might be reflected in us, revealed in us, manifested in us.
And yet I tell you this morning, I believe with all my heart that Christ is never going to be reflected or manifested in any of us unless we have the fruit of kindness—unless this fruit of the Holy Spirit characterizes our lives and our walk. Christ is seen in men and women who have the spiritual fruit of kindness.
Giovanni Bernardone was born in what is now the country of Italy. He was born in the 12th century, in the year 1181 AD. Giovanni’s father was a wealthy textile merchant. Giovanni, as he grew up in his teenage years, was hopeful for all the social and political privileges that wealth provided in those days. Giovanni was a selfish young man. He was focused on himself. He was primarily concerned with himself. He had very little concern with the needs of others. But in the year 1202, something happened. Giovanni Bernardone was taken captive by the enemy. This was a time in Italy’s history when the region was divided into many city states and the city of Giovanni was at war with the nearby city of Perugia. Perugians took Giovanni captive and for three horrible years he was in prison.
Then in the year 1205 it happened. Giovanni had a vision—a vision of Jesus Christ. That vision radically transformed his life, and he committed his life to Jesus Christ. He entered the priesthood. He took all of his money, and he gave it to the building of churches. He adopted a vow of poverty. He lived a life of simplicity. He went into the inner city, and he began to minister to the poor, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked. He sought to show the love of Christ, the kindness of Christ. He led many people to faith in Jesus Christ as people could see Christ in him.
In the year 1210 Giovanni founded the Franciscan Order, approved by Pope Innocent III. It continues to this day. In the year 1212 Giovanni went on the mission field and he went into the Muslim world in Asia. He sought to lead Islamic people to faith in Jesus Christ, and they said to him they told him that he would never succeed, that the Islamic people would never embrace Christ, but he said that he would show them the kindness of Christ that they might see Christ in Him. He went and he did show the kindness of Christ as he ministered to people and lives were transformed. Many Muslims embraced the Christian faith. In the year 1224, the stigmata began to appear on the body of Giovanni, the marks of Christ’s crucifixion, on his hands and on his feet and on his side, the spontaneous generation of blood. Giovanni said he would gladly have bled to death if it might lead one person to believe in the crucified Christ.
In the year 1226 Giovanni died. In the year 1228 he was canonized by the Roman Catholic church. Of course, today he is renowned, and he is famous, not as Giovanni Bernardone but through his middle name, which was Francisco. He is of course today known as St. Francis from the city of Assisi. When people today look back on the life of St. Francis, they think of a man who was kind to animals and he did have a special gift from God to communicate, it seems, with the animal realm. Of course, St. Francis is today cheered by environmentalists and animal rights advocates. But, you see, the Roman Catholic church did not canonize St. Francis of Assisi because of his kindness to animals. He was canonized because of his kindness to people and how, through that kindness, Jesus Christ was manifested to the world.
New we are not a Roman Catholic church. We are not going to be canonizing any of you, but the Bible tells us very clearly that every one of us who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, every one of us, are saints. If you believe in Christ, you are a saint. It is the will of the Father that the Son might be revealed through you, that this world might somehow see Christ through you. It is not going to happen unless we become people who are kind.
Barb and I and our kids went back to California this Christmas time just a few weeks ago. This last week, we were there with my mom and dad and my brothers and their families. We all went, the first time in many years we were all together for the holiday. It was great to be there with my mom and dad. I have shared many times through the years how I accepted Christ through my mom and how, when I was 5 years old, I knelt with her by the living room sofa and asked Jesus Christ to come into my heart. I have shared many times how I saw Christ uniquely through my mother. I have often thought, “Why is it that I saw Christ so clearly, and still see Christ so clearly, in my mom?” I know today why it is. I see Christ so clearly through my mom because my mom is kind. She is unbelievably kind. In fact, I think everybody who really knows my mom and who has had the privilege of getting to know my mom they all say she is so kind. And she really is kind. It is through that kindness that Jesus Christ is manifested.
I would ask you today, “Do you really want people to see Jesus Christ in you?” You see, it is only going to happen as they see the kindness of Christ in you. Now, as Christians, we are committed to the Lord Jesus Christ. We want to obey the full counsel of God. As Christians, we want to stand for the truth. I think as Christians, if we look at the world, we are concerned when we see the Judeo-Christian values eroding in our culture and in our society. We want to be salt and light, but God would remind us we are never going to impact unless we are kind. In all the stands we take for truth, which stand needs to be tempered, characterized by kindness, that we speak the truth in love?
You know our Lord Jesus Christ gave us the commandment that we love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, and mind and that we love our neighbor as ourselves. When He made that statement, a lawyer said to Him, “Well, who is my neighbor?” Of course in response, Jesus Christ told the story of the good Samaritan how a man who was traveling on the Jerusalem Jericho road fell among robbers and thieves who beat him up and who stripped him and left him half dead by the side of the road. Jesus told how a Levite came by and he saw this dying man but he had no compassion. He walked right on by. A priest came and he, too, saw this dying man but he showed no kindness. He went on by. But there came a Samaritan, who to the Jew was no more than a half-breed, and Jesus said the Samaritan was moved with compassion and he showed the kindness that God desires and he took care of the man. He bandaged him and carried him to a place where he could find healing and care.
You know. it is a strange thing when you think about that story. The Levite and the priest were called to be servants of God and yet the character of God was not seen in them. Here they were called to be servants of God and yet through them God could not be seen. But in a Samaritan the character of God—the person, the beauty—was seen. I want to be someone like that. I hope you want to be someone like that too. I think God today would have us make a commitment that we really want to show the kindness of Christ in the way we live day-by-day. I mean, I do not think kindness just happens. I think kindness is the result of a commitment in the life of the Christian to be all that Christ wants him or her to be, and then I think the power of the Holy Spirit begins to be released towards the fulfillment of that commitment.
Now I want to conclude with a little story. I want to say this as I tell this story: God does reward us for our kindness. Now, this story concerns something that happened in the city of Philadelphia 85 years ago. It was in a third-class hotel in the city of Philadelphia. An elderly couple came into the lobby of the hotel. They were looking for a room and the clerk at that hotel was a man named George Colt, a young man. The elderly couple had been to a number of hotels looking for a room but there were many conventions at that time in the city of Philadelphia and they could not find a room. They were desperate. George, the clerk, told the elderly couple that the same situation was true of this hotel. He said that they did not have a room either, that they were all filled up because there were so many conventions in town. He said he was so sorry and said that he wished he could give them a room but that they just did not have one.
He could see how desperate and needy the elderly couple was. He was moved with compassion. Finally, this young man said, “Well, I’ll tell you what I’ll do.” He said, “I have a room and I work at night and I sleep by day. You’re welcome to use my room tonight and I will not even charge you. You can just stay in my room tonight. It is not as nice as the other hotel rooms, but it is clean. It’s clean because I keep my room that way and I’d be honored if you’d stay in my room tonight.” That elderly couple said, “God bless you,” and they took that room.
The next morning, as the elderly couple was coming out, the man, said to George Bolt, the clerk, “Young man, you’re the kind of guy that ought to be the head of the finest hotel in this country, and maybe someday I’ll build that hotel for you.” George just laughed. He did not take it very seriously. He did not even know the elderly man’s full name. The elderly man had simply introduced himself as John.
Well, two years later George got a letter, and the letter included a ticket to come to New York and an invitation to come to New York with various instructions. The letter was simply signed, “John.” George remembered the elderly man and he went to New York and met John. John took him to the corner 5th and 34th Street where George saw this incredible, brand new, just completed hotel with reddish stone and beautiful spirals and turrets. It looked to George like the most beautiful castle he had ever seen, like something out of an imaginary world. George said, “What’s this?” John said, “This is the brand-new hotel that I built for you. I want you to be the manager of this hotel.” George said, “Well who are you that you can do this for me?” John explained that he was John Jacob Astor, and that hotel was the original Waldorf Astoria in New York City.
George Bolt went on to become one of the most famous hotel managers in the world. Now I have heard that story many times. Of course, that story is used to illustrate kindness and perhaps the principal of reciprocity that when we are kind to others that kindness is returned to us and sometimes manyfold. And yet I think we would all have to admit it does not always work that way. Sometimes we are kind to others and kindness is not returned like that. Sometimes we are kind to others, and it is not returned many fold. And yet Christ has called us to be kind anyway and Christ wants us to realize that our kindness will be rewarded someday. It says in Matthew, chapter 10, “No one has given a cup of water in the name of Christ and will go unrewarded.” No one.
And is not it beautiful that someday people are going to stand before Christ and Christ is going to say to those people “Come, O blessed of My Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of the world. I was hungry and you gave Me to eat. I was thirsty and you gave Me to drink. I was naked and you clothed Me. I was sick and in prison and you visited Me. I was a stranger and you welcomed Me.” Those people will say, “When Lord? When did we do these things for you?” Christ will say, “Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these, My brethren, you’ve done it unto Me.”
Kindness. It will be rewarded in the life of the Christian. So this morning I really believe as we come to this table we remember the kindness of Christ. I really believe that God wants us to make a commitment, each and every one of us, that we are going to seek to be a little more kind and make a commitment that every day… I mean would you make this commitment with me that every day you will seek to do something kind for someone, every day something kind for someone? And you will pray with me that the power of the Holy Spirit might be so released in our life as to use that act of kindness for the service of Christ’s kingdom? Let us pray together.