Politically Incorrect Grace

After the Watergate scandal, disgraced former President Richard Nixon returned to Washington for Hubert Humphrey’s funeral. The other dignitaries made it obvious that he was not welcome there. They all shunned him. One man said that Nixon “looked like he was four feet tall, all shrunk up in himself, and gray as a ghost.” However, when sitting President Jimmy Carter entered the room and saw Nixon standing alone, he immediately walked over to him, held out his hand with a smile, and said, “Welcome home, Mr. President! Welcome home!” Carter was from a different political party and knew how everyone in the room felt about Nixon. Yet he went out of his way to show compassion. That’s grace.

There is another interesting facet to that story. Hubert Humphrey and Richard Nixon were bitter political rivals. They had squared off in the 1968 presidential election, which was one of the closest and most hard-fought elections in history. Yet shortly before Humphrey passed away, he arranged for Nixon to attend his funeral and insisted that he receive the full honor due a former President. More grace.

Jesus spent His whole life showing grace to the disgraced. From touching a leper to speaking to a Samaritan woman to eating with tax collectors, He was the personification of “loving the unloved” and extending favor to those who least deserve it. Christians are called to do the same!