Not long ago, while scrolling through Instagram, I stumbled upon a captivating post that immediately grabbed my attention. It was an illustration by David Hayward, better known by his Instagram alias, nakedpastor.

What caught my eye was how precisely it depicted our human tendency to draw lines and set boundaries between ourselves and others. We have this innate desire to distinguish between who we consider genuine and those we wish to deny genuineness, often using these boundaries to exclude others. 

Yet, there was someone who defied this pattern. He was both man and God. He was a boundary-breaker. In the gospel, we read about how he consistently stood on the side of the marginalized. Jesus, in the illustration, is portrayed as someone who dismantles barriers between people. He reached out to lepers, the sick, women, children, and societal outcasts, embracing them into his community of love and acceptance. 

The Danish pastor and poet Johannes Møllehave also wrote about Jesus and lines. He writes this in a hymn: 

"He drew a line over every line
that is set between you and me.
So not one of those the Lord created
shall be called outside and entirely lost." (translated by me)

That verse echoes Jesus' mission to erase the lines of division, ensuring that no one created by God would be deemed as outside or lost. His ultimate act of love, depicted by the cross, symbolizes his journey of companionship with all those who were and are excluded. Jesus disrupts our systematic boundary-drawing by drawing a line over our lines.
This act, as elegantly described, forms a cross, which became the ultimate symbol of his love and redemption for all. In a world where lines are constantly drawn to separate, Jesus invites us to erase those lines and embrace each other with love and compassion.

Let us strive to follow his example, reaching out to those on the margins and building bridges of understanding and acceptance.