It made me think, we strive to meet Jesus, we strive to hear him, to obey him, however we have so often missed his words which tells us how we will get to meet him, daily if we want. But only if we are prepared to step out of our comfort zones.
In Jim Wallis' book "God's politics" Jim talks about how many of the Americans Church goers he meets, when asked about the poor, will quote John 12:8, Mark 14:7, Matt 26:11 that the poor will always be with you. We assume that this means that there will always be poor people. However, Wallis argues that this was not about the status of the poor, one we should just accept, but it was about the proximity of the disciples to the poor. If you read the context, Jesus was talking about his presence amongst them physically, he was talking about the disciples remaining close to the poor, physically close.
I love Matt 25:32-46 because Jesus, just before he heads to Calvary, explains to his disciples exactly how they can continue to meet with him, by feeding the hungry, giving water to thirst, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked and visiting the prisoners. This is how we can meet Jesus.
But so often we do this by proxy, a direct debit covers the hungry and thirsty, strangers are welcomed if they step through a church building, charity shops are donated to and we can write letters in support of people who are imprisoned unjustly. There is nothing wrong with any of these things, and I do all of them. But they lack the personal, sacrifice element.
Proximity to the poor, "the poor will always be among you" as John is also translated. Are they among us, do we share our food with them, do they sit at our table, do we search our cupboards to clothe someone with our best, not our cast off, have we ever visited a prison? I am not saying I do all these things, but next time we want to meet Jesus, maybe it is time to think differently about where we look.
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Here's a further challenge. Whether we truly act from compassion, guilt, a feeling of duty, embarassment or otherwise I think most would be able to envisage giving a bit to the poor, or at least feeling sorry for them, alittle bit of love. How often do we feel compassion for the fat-cat banker? The deceitful politician (or should that just be politician?), the bailiff, the dodgy landlord? Jesus chose to eat with tax collectors, he willingly gave time and love to those who collaborated with the oppressors, defrauded the people, grew rich off theft and extortion. Have you shown love to the oppressors today? How do we challenge them with love rather than with confrontation and denouncement?
Geoff,
You are so right. We demonise people that look different from us, Bankers, Politicians and Journalists are as demonised by some as Asylum Seekers, Rioters and Islamic Fundamentalists are by others.
Jesus was amazing in the sense that his disciples included both Simon a zealot and Matthew (Levi) a tax collector, and when you think that zealots carried small knives, which they would use to stab tax collectors, you can see how different those two people were.
However, I still feel that sharing a table with a banker is much more socially acceptable than sharing that same table with a drug addict or a prostitute. Our institutions still favour the rich over the poor.
I read James 5:1-6 this morning and it made me think about how the rich are institutionally favoured even today. Tom Wrights commentary makes a good point that bankers are not so willing to forgive people their debts, preferring to threaten to send in bailiffs and repossess houses, but when the economy collapsed in 2008 the bankers were all to willing to get their debts forgiven, and the Government were all to willing to forgive them their debts.
In Luke the Rich Young Man's story is followed by questions by the disciples on how the rich can be saved, Jesus says all things are possible with God, then the story of Zaccheus is told, a rich man who we are told is finds “salvation”, but he does so through repentance and restoration of his personal acts of injustice. This was of course spurred by Jesus’ offer to eat with him.
We cannot forget that we have a mission to all people, both rich and poor, but we must also remember that one group still remains hidden, forgotten, alienated and disempowered.
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