The Goat

June 6, 2022

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 NIV

Social media carried many precious posts surrounding Mother’s Day. One of the sweetest was a delighted mom showing the handmade card her second-grade daughter had made. In neatly crooked hand lettering beside brightly drawn flowers, it said, “I LOVE YOU. MOMMY! YOU ARE THE GOAT!”

That expression began in the sports world. To call someone a “goat” is to assert that in the area of which you speak, they are the “greatest of all time.” Perhaps she had heard her dad call basketball legend LeBron James the “goat” of basketball. However she learned the meaning, she assigned it to her mother. In all of mother-dom, she was saying her mother was the greatest of all time.

We can say without question that Jesus is the goat of “truth talk.” He knows the truth and tells the truth about and to every person in the world. But it’s more than that. If He was the world’s great truth teller and there wasn’t something unique and wonderful about the way He handled Himself and the truth, He would be feared and resented, not loved and followed. The difference with Jesus is that He is “full of grace and truth.” That doesn’t mean He knows an unusual amount of truth and is overflowing with truth. It means He IS truth—total truth. He IS grace—total grace.

Jesus knows everything, even the absolute best and the very worst about us, but He doesn’t weaponize the truth and use it to shame or harm us. He uses it to help and build us because of His total grace. Total grace means that He sees us and handles us with favor and love we could never earn regardless of the circumstances. His consistent stance toward us is grace. He wants to have a deep and loving relationship with us. He knows that authentic relationship cannot exist without truth, but truth without grace will destroy any relationship. Jesus works within the context of total grace and truth, so we love Him and follow Him.

We will never be total grace and truth, but the more we follow Jesus and the more we are committed to become like Him, the more truth and grace will saturate our lives and relationships. We will never consider truth a tool to manipulate and control others. We will never stoop to shame as a way to manage another person’s choices or behavior. We will seek authentic relationship, characterized by extending love with truth, even when it isn’t deserved.

• Do you land on the truth side or the grace side too hard? Talk to Jesus about how you can grow.