Being a dad, I am strong in the animal sounds category. Pigs oink and cows mooo and rhinos snort and snuff (astute readers of Moo, Baa, La la la will get that reference) sheep baaa and goats maaaa.
Jesus warns that at the end of days the nations will be brought before him and he will separate out the sheep from the goats. The goats, to put it colloquially, are screwed. The sheep will be living large. And the difference? A consonant - a b or an m... a baaa or a maaa.
It is a haunting scene he lays out at the end of Matthew 25. There has been much theological debate about what it means and who the animals represent. Many argue that what Jesus is saying here doesn't apply to those who follow him - that this is a sort of second chance for those who hadn't made the decision to follow him. Others argue that this is a terrifying challenge for all believers - a challenge to never become comfortable in their faith.
I don't know what it means. I do know, however, that it has haunted me.
One sleepless night in Uganda I started thinking of this passage in a new way.
The thing that haunted me is the thing that haunts many who read the passages. Jesus is saying to one group that as they served the least of the world they were serving him. And he was saying to another group that as they failed to serve the least they failed to serve him. But what does serving him mean? Jesus says that as they visited the imprisoned and fed the hungry and clothed the naked they served him. But how much is enough? How much isn't enough? What is that line between really serving Jesus and really failing him?
In the midst of the suffering I was witnessing something came clear - my questions were all wrong. Jesus wasn't saying, "Well, you visited me 9 days a year in prison, welcome to paradise." He wasn't saying "Gosh, you only visited me 1 day in prison, see ya." He was simply saying, "Thank you for serving me as I was found in the least of the least."
Put more simply he is saying thank you for doing something.
And that is what it is about. We aren't called to try and solve all the world's problems. No one person is going to be able to care for the 2.5 million orphans living in Uganda... let alone the millions of orphans in other countries around the globe. We aren't going to eradicate the slums. We aren't going to be able to treat every single suffering person. But that isn't what we are called to do. Jesus just calls us to do something... do anything to help the hurting.
Paralysis in the face of the world's problems is the one thing we cannot afford to acquire. We have to engage. We have to do. We have to try. We have to make it part of our daily lives. We have to be his hands and feet on this earth.
This thought has liberated me; it has freed me up to do what I can while freeing me from the unrealistic expectation that I am going to be able to do everything... and it has given me the peace to believe that at the end of days I will be baaaaaaing and not maaaaaaaing.
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You're so right. God just wants us all to do something to help. I lived in Asia Minor for 3 years and when I try to explain it to someone who has never been outside the USA it is difficult. I just always wind up saying something inadequate like the poor there are not like the poor here.
Preved dyatlam!
David, I totally agree with you that as individuals we aren't called to fix all the world's problems and that we have a responsibility to do whatever we can to change one person's life or a few people's lives or whatever. But I disagree on a deeper level, because I think that we, collectively, are supposed to be about the work of solving all the world's problems. What's the point of Christ's message of redemption and the call to live out justice if we aren't supposed to restore the world to what it's supposed to be? How can we read the words of the Old Testament prophets and not recognize a collective responsibility? An intellectually honest Christian has to admit that poverty has both individual and structural causes, and while I believe with all my heart that helping individuals to overcome their own situations is crucial and important, I'm equally convinced that we have a responsibility to work at a larger level to fix these situations. It's not enough to help a poor child grow up to be a slightly less poor adult - that's not Biblical justice. Dealing with huge, structural problems like national debt, disease epidemics, and corruption are key to making it possible for individuals to thrive, and while we can't individually fix those things, as a church, we can.
From living and working in central Africa, I've learned that guilt is a useless emotion. As you say, it's paralyzing, and it leads to a legalism that doesn't help anyone. But it seems to me that Matthew 25 tells us that God's justice is about more than simple acts of charity. It's about a way of life.
I agree that we all can help someone. But the greater need it seems to be in countries where dictators steals all the relief that is sent to the poor. A nation that is rich in resorces such as Africa,should not have the povety that it has. If all the dictators,and crooked business people who are making million of dollars a week,and many people are starving ,it make for a sad situation. My prayer is that the wicked will not continue to abuse the poor in these countries where wickedness is in leadership. We should cry out to God concering the wicked who exploit the poor.
To call attention to those who exploit the poor is also an act of charity. To come together and find a way to provide clean water in a single clinic is an act of charity.
I believe it was a Kenyan politician who spoke of the problem of politics in his country - it is all motion without movement. That is what we must avoid. Moving even a bit is still moving. We are talking politics - and within that conversation is the possibility of moving toward the Kingdom of God. It already exists among us - and we have evidence in those pictures that David took and those stories he tells. It is in the moving toward these people - however imperfectly it might happen - that we are changed.
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