A Little Help

 

[Jesus said] “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’” (Matthew 25:31-39 ESV).

 

I saw the attached picture on a social media site recently. The individual posting it was responding to the question posed to the group at large: “Do you take your grocery cart back after you use it?” He was a 61 year old semi-retired man working for a little extra money with the assignment of policing the carts left on the parking lot. His reaction was kind, but honest. He went on to say that at least three hours of his eight hour shift was spent walking the parking lot to gather the carts left everywhere but the designated areas. Without getting into a “rant” our reading today has a little to say about this practice.

 

There are many people who simply are so self absorbed that they only think of their convenience. Tragically this problem extends far beyond this example. In today’s parable the Lord Jesus uses a different name to describe millions of people like this worker. He calls them “the least of these.” These are people like the unborn child; the person who is mentally or physically challenged; people who are homeless, or hungry, or refugees; people in prison; people who might never be able to live productive lives are all among “the least of these.” And Jesus does not mean these are lesser people, as if they were not as important as others. He adds that whatever we do for someone in need, we do it for him. As Mother Teresa of Calcutta put it, “When we look into the face of one of them, we see the face of Jesus.”

 

Ask the Lord today to open your eyes to see his face in the faces of people who are literally all around us. Then be intentional about “being Jesus” for them. It really doesn’t take a lot, though it means more than we could imagine.