IT has been hard to concentrate on work this week. Day after day I have watched with growing horror as riots spread across towns and cities in the UK, as vehicles are torched, as people of minority backgrounds keep off our streets, and as rumour and misinformation spread like wildfire.

I find myself wondering what Jesus would think of these riots. Jesus who was a refugee, driven from his home country under threat of violence. Jesus who was a wanderer, travelling Galilee with “no place to lay his head.” Jesus who commanded “love your neighbour as yourself” and illustrated it with the story of a man brutally beaten by his own countrymen, but whose life was saved by a foreigner. How would he feel about violent disorder in our streets driven by hatred of immigrants and refugees?

Jesus, however, knows our hearts, and alongside the violence he would also see those who have reached out with love and kindness to heal the wounds made these last nights. Those who have swept up broken glass, helped rebuild homes and businesses, brought meals and hot drinks to those who fear for their safety. Those who despite being from different backgrounds, ethnicities, religions, have come together to reject and abhor the atrocities perpetrated in their midst. The people, in short, who have shown the best of human nature rather than the worst.

As Christians we are called to be imitators of Christ, his hands and his feet in the world. We are the light of the world, charged with bringing that light even to the darkest places and darkest times. “I lift up my eyes to the hills,” Psalm 121 says, “from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord,” but in the form of his Church. We must live out our hope of a better world, a hope based on repaying hate not with hate, but with love. Love for the victims, love for our scarred communities, love for those who even now are doing God’s work, and, yes, even love for the rioters themselves. We cannot condone what they have done this week, but our desire for harsh justice must always be tempered with mercy. It is only by living out our hope for a better world in our words and actions that we can see it – and them – transformed.