“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” Matthew 25:41-46
“The question is not Jesus’ question to persons. It’s the peoples’ question of Jesus. And note both the sheep and the goats ask this same question. ‘Lord, when did we see you?’
His answer is stunning. He effectively says something like, “Remember that time you bought groceries for that family at Thanksgiving whose dad had just been put in prison and then you turned around and made a completely anonymous and extraordinarily generous gift of cash to them to help them with Christmas gifts for their children? Well, I was a member of that family. That was me you helped.”
Note, he doesn’t say, “Great job! You did exactly what I would have done if I had been there.” Jesus is not saying if you are my disciple you should help the poor. He is saying, “I am the poor.” Whatever you did or did not do for one of the least of these you did or did not do to me.
In case what I just said didn’t register, and I admit the statement seems so radical as to not register, let me try it again. Jesus is not for the poor. Jesus is the poor. Wouldn’t this mean that loving the poor is the same thing as loving Jesus?”
J.D. Walt in “Why Jesus Is Not For the Poor—He Is the Poor” Seedbed Daily Text for 21 October 2016. J.D. is a dear brother. I appreciate the wisdom in his Daily Text blog, and yet again, J.D. is spot on!
This post is fitting as Jenni is in Guatemala this weekend as well, though not at my ECFA-related meetings, but at Potter’s House Guatemala. She’s joined by a friend, Donna Hepp from Oklahoma City, and leading a spiritual retreat and training about 80 volunteer teachers who will guide about 2,000 children through the VBS curriculum that she wrote and that Potter’s House translated.
Over the last five years, more than a thousand children have come to faith in Jesus Christ through VBS each November. I am not exaggerating, and the children have been plugged into Bible clubs to disciple them in their faith. As God leads (because all we steward belongs to Him), join us in supporting Potter’s House Guatemala. When you do, you are not sharing with the poor in the garbage dump. You are giving to Jesus!