Something disturbing happened to me at a prayer meeting the other day. One of the participants was someone on the fringes of our congregation, on the edges of society, marginalized by those around him, ostracized by most, stigmatized by his past, and hindered by his lack of mental agility. This is someone who I usually avoid or ignore. As we all got up and were in the process of leaving I glanced at him, and on the inside I hear “He is one of the least of these.”
I found this disturbing because of Mt 25:45: 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
Why is it so easy for us to say we love God, when we don’t respond with love to everyone around us? Becoming like Jesus is much harder when we want to love with our natural, or old nature’s love, instead of His love. It is easy to love those we have a natural affinity for. It is easy to love those who are like us. It is easy to love those who are easy to love. It is not as easy to love or respond in love to the unlovable, the marginalized, the wounded who wound others, the stigmatized, those on the outer fringes of society, the social misfits, the emotionally limited, the mentally deficient, the victimized, the misfits, the dregs of a contaminated society.
Who are the ‘least of these’ to you? It certainly will not be those you have a burden for or those your are drawn to. It will be those whose presence bothers you, those you don’t want to be bothered by, those you don’t want to listen to, those who are offensive to you or have a past that is offensive to you. Add to the list those who you marginalize, who you limit, who you feel better than, or more capable than, or more moral than, or more beneficial than.
When we limit the ‘least of these’ to be the prisoners and the poor, we do not go far enough, or deep enough to understand Jesus’ heart. Jesus has said whatever we do, or don’t do, to/for the least of these, we do or don’t do to/for Him.
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