"the King shall sit on His throne..." is the imagery the former tax collector uses to set the stage...
King Jesus is separating the righteous from the wicked... He begins by praising the righteous for their treatment of Him (Jesus) in various dire circumstances... hungry, thirsty, lonely, naked, sick and imprisoned. The righteous seem to be taken aback by His praise for them...
"when did we see you in these circumstances, and serve you?" (translation mine)
His answer seems to puzzle them even more.
"When you helped the least of these brothers of mine, you helped me"
Wow!
This story should make all who claim to be followers of Christ stand up and take notice! We had better be aware of 'the least of these', hadn't we? For most of my life, 'dealing' with 'those' people was left to the benevolence committee... I didn't have to actually 'come in contact' with them... that was the benevolence deacon's job... I just put my $3.80 in the collection plate, and my 'christian duty' was fulfilled!
I repent of that... I confess that I was NOT following the clear teaching of Matthew 25... I was sort of helping by proxy, and that's not at all what God is teaching us in this passage.
So, it is probably important to determine who these 'least' folks are, right?
I am more and more convicted that I don't have to look very far at all to see one of the King's brothers (His description, not mine) who is in need of my help.
- It's the single mom with a baby on her hip and one in the cart spending her very last $20 on formula and diapers.
- It's the child in the sweat shop in Bangladesh working for pennies a week so you and I can wear the latest brand name sneakers
- It's the patient at the Christian Clinic needing a prescription and a kind word
- It's the retired school teacher living in a homeless shelter whose husband left her with nothing but mountains of medical bills after his 11 year battle with Parkinson's disease
- It's the daddy trapped in a nowhere job contemplating having an affair with an office employee
- It's the elementary school student at the El Valle school in Volcan, Panama, who walks 4 hours to get to school by 8:30 without anything to even snack on
It's personal. Or it should be... we must put a face to the words of Matthew 25, because if we don't, we become desensitized...
We must shrink the degrees of separation that allow us the luxury of complacency... because that stagnating stance will lull us into believing (as many have for decades) that as long as we 'do Sunday mornings right', we will be saved on that last day.... and where we got that idea, I will never know.
Because of all the things the King could have praised the righteous for in Matthew's scene, we should take note of what He chose to praise them for doing: helping those who need help.
It astounds me how far I have gotten away from that very simple Christ-like-ness...
May we all look for "the least of the King's brothers" and help them!
Blessings!
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