The Bible says of Jesus the Messiah, "A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out." To understand an idea like this, sometimes we need to see its opposite. What does Jesus not do?

In May of 2009, on the Haizhu bridge in Guangzhou, China, a disturbed man in deep financial debt was poised on the edge of the bridge contemplating suicide. Because of him police had closed the bridge, disrupting traffic for five hours. People stood watching at police cordons to see what he would do. Suddenly a 66-year-old man pushed his way through the police cordons and walked up to the man considering suicide. He reached out and shook the hand of the troubled man. Then he pushed him off the bridge.

Later he explained why: "I pushed him off because jumpers like [him] are very selfish. Their action violates a lot of public interest. They do not really dare to kill themselves. Instead, they just want to raise the relevant government authorities' attention to their appeals."

Fortunately, the police had spread an inflatable emergency cushion beneath the bridge, and as a result the suicidal man was injured but not killed.

Jesus does not push troubled people off bridges. A bruised reed he will not break. A smoldering wick he will not snuff out. He is patient and merciful.