While the leg heals, I have lots of time for reading. Here's an excerpt from this book:
"...The second major feature of Jesus' life; Jesus lived for others. He was not simply called but actually was the friend of publicans and sinners. He befriended the rabble, the riffraff of his own culture. One of the mysteries of the gospel tradition is this strange attraction of Jesus to the unattractive, his strange desire for the undesirable, his strange love for the unlovely. The key to this mystery is, of course, the Father. Jesus does what he sees the Father doing, he loves those whom the Father loves.
The gentleness of Jesus with sinners flowed from his ability to read their hearts and to detect the sincerity and goodness there. Behind men's grumpiest poses and most puzzling defense mechanisms, behind the arrogance and airs, behind their sneers and curses, Jesus saw little children who hadn't been loved enough and who had ceased growing because someone had ceased believing in them. Perhaps it was his extraordinary sensitivity and compassion that caused Jesus (and later the apostles) to speak of the faithful as "children", no matter how tall, rich, clever and successful they might be.
When Jesus tied a towel around his waist, poured water into a copper basin, and washed the feet of the apostles (the dress and duty of a slave), the Maundy Thursday revolution began, and a new idea of greatness in the kingdom of God emerged..."
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