Mt. 25:34-40
34 "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what's coming to you in this kingdom. It's been ready for you since the world's foundation. 35 And here's why: I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink, I was homeless and you gave me a room, 36 I was shivering and you gave me clothes, I was sick and you stopped to visit, I was in prison and you came to me.' 37 "Then those 'sheep' are going to say, 'Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? 38 And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?' 39 40 Then the King will say, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me - you did it to me.”
There are two clear surprises in this parable.
First that God noticed it when a small thing was done to meet some small persons need and then that that small person, who didn’t count for anything in the annals of human history, was a close friend of the King and counted for everything in the Kingdom of heaven. Now that’s a couple of surprises worth noting!
For as one commentator remarked,
“If we continue to think first and foremost of our own narrow concerns, if we resist stretching ourselves to imagine or experience the enormous suffering due to social sin throughout our world, if we will not countenance personal inconvenience to think or do anything about the systematic oppressions enforced on our fellow human beings, it seems reasonable to conclude that the lively regenerating gospel of Jesus Christ has not worked its way into the marrow of our bones or the sinews of our hearts.”
These are sobering words meant to wake us up and motivate us to not give up and be indifferent; to wake us up and let the regenerating Gospel of Jesus Christ work its way into the marrow of our bones and the sinews of our hearts, there to do its transforming thing and make us more sensitive, kind and gentle in our attitude towards others, especially those who are homeless and powerless and friendless.
To pray and actually mean
“Thy Kingdom come,”
we must also be able to say
“my kingdoms go.”
Richard Rohr
Prayer thought for the week: “Lord, regenerate my heart and mind so I can accept all you have created and love. And give me the courage to work towards the elimination of systemic oppression still very prevalent in our land.” Amen
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