“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
Matthew 25:40 (NIV)
Here’s a thought to ponder;
We will all meet Jesus one day, and will stand face to face before Him.
It will happen on the day when we transition from this temporary life to the eternal one. What if, on that day, Jesus says to us, “Thank you for visiting Me in my loneliness”, or “Thank you for giving me something to eat,” or “Thank you for giving to Me, sacrificially, from your heart”.
We might at first wonder what Jesus is talking about, but this scripture describes an after death life review. He will remind us of those times in our life, when we visited someone who was sick or lonely, or when we helped someone in desperate need, or gave a sacrificial, monetary gift from the heart. As Jesus said in the gospel, He will also say to us on that day,
“As often as you did it for the least of them, you did it for Me.”
We all know that we are supposed to see Christ in others, but one of the last places we look for Him is in our own place of our pain. When a crisis strikes, it’s very difficult to see Christ at all, much less in others.
Since my son’s motorcycle accident, I learned early on, that I have a choice. I can either dwell on the tragedy, or search for the face of Christ in the midst of that tragedy. Jon’s traumatic brain injury and disability, is what first led me to the inside of a Nursing home, where he now lives. Prior to that, I never gave much thought to Nursing homes. My mother took care of my father and my grandmother in our own home. Years later, I took care of my husband and my mother in my home. Fortunately, my family had very little need for Nursing homes at all.
The Nursing home became an eye opener for me. I became more aware that God wanted me to look at the faces of lonely people who are living where Jon now lives. I needed to decide what part of reality I would permit my mind to dwell on. Instead of dwelling on how or why a tragedy happened, I needed to find the face of Christ in those faces all around me. Once I looked outside of myself, the Holy Spirit showed me that Christ was right there, in each resident of that Nursing home.
There is a scripture that has always been like a compass, guiding me in certain times of my life. Jesus said, “Whoever has been given much, much will be required in return…”(Luke 12:48)
Being “given much,” can refer to many things. Most people think of wealth, but we are given many other gifts like wisdom, knowledge, faith, talent or innate skills attributed to various personality types. The more we are given by God, the more we are required to share with others. God almost never gives us gifts to keep for ourselves.
The body of Christ in the world is composed of many people, many parts but one body. We all have a role to fulfill in order for His body to function successfully in this world. Staying alert to what I have been given and how to share it, has always been a guiding principle that helped me focus on the path that God laid out for me, even after a crisis of some kind.
Jesus referred to Himself as the King, who will return in glory, to sit upon His throne and separate the sheep from the goats, in the final judgment. He said that the sheep will be blessed by His Father, for the kind deeds they did for His son. Jesus then explains that whatever kindness we do for the least of people around us, we are actually doing for Him.
As long as we wake up with breath in our lungs, and a beating heart, it’s another day to look around, and see who God has led into our lives. In spite of the hardships or sorrows we have overcome, we need to remind ourselves that we are here to serve the king of Kings, and until He returns, He shows us how to do it, with the instructions He left us in the gospels.
The “least among us” may mean something different to each person, but that’s the beauty of the body of Christ, different callings to help different people, but all of us working as His one body.
Lord, awaken us to see your deeper purpose in the painful complexities of this life. Show us your face in others and help us to be your hands and feet in this world. Amen
