Be Kind to Jesus
Kindness to the poor is a loan to the LORD
And He will give a reward to the lender.
– Proverbs 19:17
Who are the poor? Do they look like you? Do they live in your community? Are they lazy? Are they children with parents who don’t care? Are they women escaping violence? Are they the person sitting next to you on that church pew?
Increasingly, we have no care for the poor. We’ll gather items for shoeboxes. We’ll contribute diapers or clothes to an organization of our choosing. We might even put a few cans of food into a donation box for the food pantry.
But we don’t want to do anything that might get our hands dirty. We don’t want to associate with people who don’t look like us or speak the same language we speak. We really don’t want to see the poor or associate with them.
Do you remember what Jesus said in Matthew’s gospel?
“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.
Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or see you thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?
The king will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
– Matthew 25:35-40
Our world is filled with hate and entitlement. We proclaim a faith we don’t live. We quote scripture but refuse to live it out in our own lives.
Don’t tell me what the Bible says. Show me. Get your hands dirty. Make a sacrifice for someone you don’t know who can never repay you. Do the right thing even when the wrong thing would be far easier and less costly.
Following Jesus was never meant to be easy. Stop thinking that it is.
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