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“Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.” Matt. 25:40.
Jesus was answering His hearers when they asked, “When did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee” (Matt. 25:37-39)?
I cannot envision Jesus as a carpenter or preacher in Palestine, some two millenia ago, challenging the religious practices of His time. I do not see Him as artists through the ages have seen him; their art is from their own imagining Him. But how He actually appeared in human form to people is not significant; it is what He said and did that has endured through time and guides us even now. He showed us how to live, teaching us that He comes to us in part through others.
That is, Jesus appears to me in the faces of those whom I am called upon to serve. I see Him in the downcast eyes of the people who come for food and water to the Food Ministry, in the confused and puzzled countenances of the refugees we resettle through Inspiritus and provide clothing for from the Rock of Ages Lutheran Church clothes closet, in the unseen sick people we pray for as a congregation during our weekly services and who I individually pray for and visit at hospital or in their homes, in the trapped faces of prisoners who were brought to the court on which I sat or are in the State Prison or the Metro Transitional Center. It is easy to forget that Jesus reminded us that when we encounter such people, we are to treat them as we would Jesus. They stand in His stead, and He appears to us in this needy fashion.
We are blessed by these people, as they give us an opportunity to give, to share, to serve. And as Paul recorded that Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Acts 20:35. Although I am prone to think I am a giver when I provide for someone in need, I am a receiver as well. When I view those for whom I provide as receivers only, I forget that they are likewise givers, enriching my life by giving me the joy which comes from being able to provide for a brother or sister who stands in Jesus’ stead.
Lord, help me to remember always that you come to me in the persons of the needy and to treat them as I would gratefully treat You. Thank you for all you have given to me. Amen.
Dorothy Beasley
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