Day 4232 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Matthew 25:40 NIV

The least of these

So many times it still seems we see only a necessity in seeking the favor, honor, friendship of royalty. We’ve become so amazed by the grandeur and awe of nobility and governance and power that we almost instinctively assume that those who hold such positions are those that we should seek to be like and to get there by showing how much we adore them. We even plaster our cars in stickers showing off our support of whatever suit happened to capture our heart and win our vote.

Lost perpetually in the process of people pleasing people and that through pride and opulence as such are the very uppermost ideals held by all.

Indeed, for the same lie we’ve all fallen and daily fall. It’s that one which tells us that there’s something of a hierarchy in life and that, however it may be that we and our pride may measure it, whatever the different levels may mean, it all aims to accomplish the very same thing. And that is to find for us what are those ways in which we might gain or garner the favor of those who savor the delicacies of decadence and division that we ourselves are trapped in lives looking to ourselves be drowning in.

Yes, we all want for nothing less than to be seen as those of such importance and power and worth that everyone around us seeks to please us, to serve us, to follow us. This entire process of what most here seem to believe a life’s purpose has become so popular that friends and followers are literally how we measure just how much we matter or don’t.

And, well, to a people who measure their importance via virtual relationships with they who are literally people they’ve never met and likely never will, those we do meet who don’t seem to be of the class of society that we’re seeking to be ourselves a part of are then those that we want no part of. As in nothing to do with. As in are there only to remind us of the rungs of our imaginary social ladders that we need to fight to stay away from.

Almost treating those who Christ gave His life for as those we need to live entirely apart from so that we’ll not risk accidentally coming to catch whatever disease or discomfort or other such discrepancy that they seem to be suffering from.

Yes, we’re all of this ability to both think of ourselves as nobility and to do so often by the proverbial, if not literal, looking down our noses at those we ourselves consider to be below us.

It happens every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year lived by everyone who lives down here.

We are in truth the most uppity, judgmental, petty, prideful, arrogant, boastful, unloving, uncaring and entirely unkind people, especially to those from whom we can clearly see we stand to find nothing to gain or glean. Indeed, we’ve become so focused on trying to force our lives over those lines that we’ve either drawn ourselves or had drawn for us in these lives beyond which we’ll find all the friends and favor that we too desire to savor that we refuse the risk of being seen with anyone who may in any way risk that royal reputation that we’re all here seeking.

All because we seem a people truly convinced that those who are rich and powerful are the very best of us.

No friends, they’re just the ones who happen to have the most among us.

And outside of their fancy suits and culturally provided positions of power, they’re nothing but people. And, as I consider that Jesus is pointing out here, so too are those who don’t seem to be anywhere near as important or special or powerful or beautiful or whatever other measure it might be that you and me have decided to use trying to determine who it is that we want to be like and that from all the rest that we don’t.

But again, the problem has always been that we look always up at and toward those who we agree are somehow better or more important whilst thus looking away from those we likewise then must consider not quite so important and perhaps maybe not even good.

Indeed, we’ve all chosen to be they who are judge and jury determining again daily who it is that we’ll show our love, our attention, our appreciation and that alongside all those we won’t or can’t. Won’t because our hearts have become so hard that we now have it in us to simply not care about whomever it may be that we simply don’t wish to care about and can’t because the truth is that we’ve only so much time and praise and attention to give and once they’ve run out, well, tough luck for whoever didn’t measure up as being worth getting a piece.

I think the issue is that life as we’ve all known it has always been so very divided and divisive that the only way we know to live is that in which we seek for our best first and that by trying to emulate those we consider better.

Leaving again those who don’t hold up to whatever our measure of whatever our better may be to be at best ignored if not more often simply not seen.

Invisible opportunities.

That was the title of yesterday’s post in which we spoke about all the chances we’re given to prove we’re His children through the loving of those around us. And how that’s one of the ultimate aspects of this calling we all share to love God and love others as ourselves, two things which, entirely alike, also manage to accomplish the overall desire of the Law and all the Prophets had to say in all they said and did trying to turn our attention and intentions back to such simplicity.

I truly believe that we are sent daily they who are angels disguised as the marginalized, the criminalized, the hospitalized all so that we can, having seen them with our eyes, heard them with our ears, known them then inside our minds, decide what to do in regard to their being there at that time inside our hearts.

All because I know that God knows our hearts and that He’s helping us in every possible way to soften them through the opportunities that we’re all daily given to love those around us.

All of those around us.

Not just the pretty ones. Not just the powerful ones. Not just the ones living the lives of luxury that we ourselves want to live. Not just those who have something we want and who we hope will give.

No.

All of them.

Even those who clearly have nothing to give. Even those who aren’t living lives we want to live. Even those who the world would consider dirty and disgusting and soiled and shameful. Especially those that this world considers dirty and disgusting and soiled and shameful.

Why?

Because as Jesus said himself, “it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” It’s not the powerful who need hope but rather those who are broken and broke. It’s not the successful that need praise and attention but those who are victims of violence and negligence. It’s not the wealthy who need our help as they’re clearly doing more than fine on their own. No, it’s those who haven’t a home to call their own, no food thus in the pantry they haven’t either. It’s those who have but one set of clothes. It’s those who haven’t had a shower in days. It’s those who haven’t eaten in the same.

And yet it’s these we miss or overlook simply because they don’t look like anything we want our lives to look like. They don’t have anything to give us in return for our potential generosity. They can’t hold press conferences telling the world about how great of a person we are.

They’re just strangers. They’re poor. They’re dirty. They’re lonely. They’re sick. They’re tired. They’re afraid. They’re ashamed. They’re forgotten.

How is that possible?

That we as a people can somehow manage to overlook, ignore, literally not care about other people? And, more often than not, mostly those who are considered ignorable?

Such as those on the street corner holding signs. That exhausted mom standing in line taking up our time because she’s trying to wrangle kids while we’re trying to move on with life. The frustrated dad who’s working two jobs and overtime just trying to provide a decent life for his family. That weird guy at work who doesn’t have a family and probably not many friends either. That drunk that keeps asking for money. The lady digging through dumpsters looking for something to eat. The kids we see on TV in all those commercials asking we send them something every month.

We’re surrounded by those who are hurting and in need of hope but so many times we manage to miss them, to overlook them, to ignore them all because we see not Jesus in them because we expect Him to be nothing but a bearded man in a white robe.

But friends, if He really died to live inside each of us, then what are we doing missing all these chances to love one another better?

If everyone we ever meet or see on the street is truly someone that Jesus gave His life for, then what are we doing acting as if they’re not worth our worry? If we’re always in a hurry for the light to change so that we don’t accidentally make eye contact with the dirty dude holding the sign then what are kind of sign are we in regard to this hope in which we say we believe?

How can we continue to ignore the chances we have to love those around us simply because those around us are usually the ones that we consider below us?

Indeed, how can we honestly believe that anyone is either below us or better than anyone else when we’re all but dust and patience?

The dust as we’re all here in what are but vessels taken from the dirt, to which they’re promised to return, and patience in that God is proving daily entirely willing to give us chance after chance to come to our senses and start actually actively living as if both we’re His children and that so too is everyone else.

Even the tax collectors and sinners that Jesus caught so much flak for hanging around.

That’s the very passage in which He said that it’s not the healthy who need a doctor but rather the sick. It was said in response to those in higher social positions asking His disciples why Christ was seen eating and drinking with such scum as sinners and tax collectors.

Scum as considered by those who most considered the best of their culture. For the Pharisees where those who walked and talked as if royalty. They had all the fancy clothes and had all the most important friends. They’re the ones who made the decisions and were thus considered the leaders. They were those who when walking through town everyone else stepped aside so as to stand in awe of their importance.

And yet they were the ones quickest to pass judgment on those they considered unworthy of time or attention. They were the ones willing to condemn those they considered beneath them, those filthy tax collectors and worthless sinners. Yes, they were the ones willing to condemn Jesus just for loving those their own hearts wouldn’t allow them to even acknowledge.

They were the ones who inspired the crowd to ask Pilate to spare Barabbas and to have Christ crucified.

All because they didn’t like what He said, what He did, how He lived. They hated that Jesus went around freely giving hope and mercy and kindness to those they’d long since run out of any such willingness to care about. Indeed, they hated Jesus because He was and remains our reminder of how kind and generous and loving we’re supposed to be, and yes, even to those overlooked and forgotten by what was and remains a society still measuring those who matter in terms of money and mansions.

Things that won’t matter whenever we’ve all left everything here behind.

But you know the one thing that will come with us?

The testimony of those we treated with kindness. The stories of all the times we chose to love those around us regardless of whatever they could or couldn’t offer us. The times we actually tried to show the world a little bit of the Jesus we claim is living inside of us.

That’s what matters.

And yet still we live to flatter and be flattered by only those that we think are better people. We’re all so impressed with wealth and fame and power that we measure one another by the amount thereof seen inside the lives we live. The more someone has, the more praise and appreciation we have for them. The less they have, the less they can then give to us.

And if there’s nothing in it for us then we’re not interested.

Except there is something in it for us. Something huge in fact!

What you ask?

How about hearing Jesus say, “Well done, good and faithful servant”?

That do anything for you?

It should. Why? Because whenever we’re all done with living these lives here, we’re going to be found wherever He went and that to hearing the sound of His either saying that or “be gone, I never knew you.”

It’s pretty clear which sounds best. Problem continues to be that we continue to agree to be distracted from the simplicity of His point and promise. All because, let’s all be honest, we’ve become so engrained to see all of these different levels to our society that we’ve managed to forget that it’s all fallen. Honestly, does it really matter whoever it might be that most might agree is the best of us when we’re all but sinners and thieves and drunkards and addicts and other such losers?

It’s like we’re all trying to win one of those ugly dog contests in which the weirdest looking mutt is finally shown some love.

Only we don’t love those who we consider weird or ugly but rather hope that nobody ever sees just how ugly and weird we really are.

Anyway, my point is that we’re failing miserably in regard to being who Christ calls us to be because we all still live those kinds of lives in which we determine who we’re willing to love only based upon how much they have or what all they can give.

Friends, we’re the ones who are supposed to give. We’re the ones who are here to love. We’re the ones that are supposed to show the world who Jesus is by our doing the same things He did and for the same reasons too. And He didn’t seek to be seen with or by those most considered to be more important. He didn’t perform extra miracles for those who were already enjoying their rewards via the seats of honor at all their banquets.

He ate with sinners trying to show them that there’s a better way. He associated with tax collectors as even they are worth more than their job, one everyone still hates them doing. He even forgave those who had nothing to offer Him in return. Which kind of worked out pretty well for all of us seeing as how none of us have anything to offer Him!

But that’s the point. It’s that despite all of our plays for pride, attention or power, truth is that we’re all the least of these. We’re all nothing. And yet in us He saw something worth dying for. And if we can agree that He did die for us, then who are we to stand and judge those who He also said He died for?

That’s not our place my friends. Our place is to serve, to love, to give, to care. Why? Because that’s what Jesus did while He was here. And no, He didn’t just do so unto those that had plenty of other good things. He didn’t even do so unto those who deserved it. In fact, He only loves those who don’t deserve it and I say that because, well, none of us do.

So let’s stop trying to determine who matters most and just embrace the simplicity known inside a heart that knows that everyone matters. That everyone is worth something. That everyone deserves to be shown kindness and compassion and that not based upon what they have or haven’t but rather based simply upon the fact that in Him we’re servants who are here to love those around us. And that because, if we truly love Him, then we should want for everyone else to know Him too.

Let’s show them who He is:

A friend of we least of these.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold