November 22, 2009: Heaping Coals – Michael Hidalgo

Kindness is a term sometimes reserved for little things like a smile, a card, a flower picked for a special someone, or helping someone out. All of these things move toward a proper understanding of kindness, however there is more there than just friendliness. Chrestotes (Gk. Kindness) was an inscription that was used for as a title for honor among rulers and important public figures. 

 

It is interesting to note that when Jesus called people to follow him he invited them to take his yoke upon them. The yoke that he described as chrestotes; if this is the yoke we are called to take onto ourselves. Which may be why when Jesus calls us to love others in Luke 6 he appeals to this by describing God as one who is “kind (chrestotes) to the ungrateful and the wicked.” In our kindness we never know what effect we have on someone else. We may heap burning coals on their head – which does not mean to get even with them – for coals were symbols of purification. It means that through our kindness they may meet the source of our kindness.