A lot has been said lately in our national dialog about concern for the poor (or at least the poorer than you). There’s a raging debate about “spreading the wealth around.” Is it Socialism? Is it good, compassionate fiscal policy? I even heard a guy on the radio expounding on how the book of Acts espouses the same principles and could be considered a Socialist text. This guy was, of course, an avowed atheist of the ilk that likes to quote Bible verses as proof that American Christians are hypocritical. And that got me thinking…
DISCLAIMER: Just about everything in this post is mostly for me. I am not writing to anyone external, I am writing to myself. If you find yourself in the same boat, so be it. And I don’t think I am doing ANYTHING right on this topic in my own life. Think of this as sermon to me, at the end of which I responded to call to repentance and said “yep, that’s me. I suck.”
The early church in Jerusalem for a time had a very communal approach to life. There isn’t definitive evidence that the extreme level of sharing they were practicing extended to every community of faith, but it IS very clear from Church history that concern for the needs of others – especially “the poor” was paramount. Paul even recounts Peter, James and John’s only instruction to him, when they gave him the right hand of fellowship (a phrase we really ought to revive) was to “remember the poor“.
The debate now is fascinating – many Christians have come to believe that a government that cares for the needs of the “poor” or “poorer” (however you define that) by means of taking money from the “rich” (however you define that) is a righteous form of government, and making sure our leaders push through that agenda is more important than any other moral issue. Many Christians believe helping the poor should be the work of the Church, so government should stay out of it and leave the giving to us. Inexplicably, many of the people in camp #2 fight for less taxation and then do very little or nothing at all to directly help the poor (beyond small donations to their local church or some other “distance giving” activity). Which makes the people in camp #1 think the gov. should take their money so they would be forced to do the right thing.
I think both entirely miss the point. It doesn’t really matter to Jesus what your government does. It matters what you do. Let us go to the tale of the tape (old school football reference, y’all):
Luke 14:12-14 (New American Standard Bible)
 12And He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment.  13”But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
And then there’s this one:
Matthew 5:40-48 (New American Standard Bible)
 40″If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. 41″Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two.  42″Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.  43″You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’  44″But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  46″For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?  47″If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
Jesus’ very simple assertion is that the kind of life that marks the sons and daughters of God on the earth is one that does more than is required. And He defines the kinds of actions that cause Him to know us in strikingly specific detail:
The Judgment
31″But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32″All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. 34″Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35’For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37″Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38’And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39’When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40″The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’Â 41″Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;
We all know the rest. The bad guys did NOT do all that feeding and clothing and visiting. A few conclusions we can draw:
- Jesus cares very deeply (in an eternal fire sort of way) about how we treat the hungry-thirsty-naked-stranger-sick-prisoner types.
- There seems to be no discussion of the worthiness of the beneficiaries of this care, and no consideration of what everyone else was doing to alleviate their suffering.
In America, we make these distinctions. First, those who get help must first be worthy of it. We think what Jesus really meant was “I was hungry – even though I have a job and work really hard everyday for minimum wage, I was sick – but not the kind of sickness caused by my own bad choices like aids or cigarette-induced lung cancer, I was in prison – but I was wrongly convicted or I was rightly convicted but I’m really sorry and trying to change my ways.”
Some of us think the “brothers” Jesus is referring to are people who believe in Him – hey Bible scholars – can any of you lurkers out there prove He was only talking about Christians? Or that He wasn’t?
Some of us think He meant “I was in need and no one else was trying to help me.” Those of us in this category think that our responsibility begins where there are gaps in government programs. We adopt the Ebenezer Scrooge mentality that says the poor should avail themselves of the services provided, and if there are no services, we can then be asked to help them (“are all the poor houses out of business?”).
Even more of us think the help should be conditional and, we say, redemptive. We don’t want to just give handouts to those who do not work, because then they will always rely on handouts. We don’t want to enable and perpetuate their negative cycle.
All of these things are fine and well when discussing public policy, but that is not what Jesus is discussing. He is discussing you. And me. And our private policies. And He is telling us to act like God does.
And God does what He does not have to. He goes beyond what is required. He sets up a universe with laws and consequences for actions, and when we choose death, he allows the laws to remain and destroy our bodies, but gives His only Son to save our souls. He sends rain on the just and the unjust. He freely gives mercy to those who will openly mock it and reject Him. He loves those who hate him. He redeems those who have made themselves His enemies, not by accident, but by conscious choice.
Jesus is saying that caring for others is not about what it does for THEM, it’s about what it makes YOU. It makes you like Him.
It’s easy to see what we ought to do, then. I think we should all discuss openly the role of government in our lives, since we live in a democracy and have that right. And after we have cast our votes and paid our taxes, we should take some of the resources Uncle Sam leaves us and use them to invite strangers to our homes, and the poor to our parties, and visit the sick and imprisoned, and clothe the naked.
Of course we must attempt to bring about real change and redemption whenever we can, but we must actively seek out those who do not deserve our help, who do not qualify for our programs, who can give us nothing in return – not even the self-satisfaction that we have helped someone get their lives straightened out with our giving. Jesus said we would always have the poor with us. Because there will always be junkies and criminals and fools and drunks who just can’t seem to get it together. And to love them, with no hope of seeing anyt change in their condition is to hear the heartbeat of God and become His sons and daughters.
Many will say, “Jon, you can’t help people who don’t want help.” I agree. You can’t make anyone do anything. “Aha!” you will then say, “so shouldn’t we focus our finite resources on those we CAN help?” Only if you believe that the goal of Jesus’ story was to get us into the business of rehabilitating the least in our society. But I don’t think so. I think He wants us to do these things to rehabilitate US.
How about this: rather than decide who to show compassion on, let’s decide first to show compassion, then ask God to show us who the target is. You might be shocked to find He picks some very undeserving, unrepentant, unfix-able folk. Don’t worry about that. That’s his problem. The same God who told Hosea to marry a prostitute who would be unfaithful to him the rest of his life might ask you to take care of someone who never says the Sinner’s Prayer. The time will not be wasted. It’s about His agenda, not yours.
In part two, we will discuss how to do all this without becoming self-righteous (or at least attmepting not to become so). But to summarize part one, Jesus commands us simply:
In loving others, go beyond what is required (or even reasonable).
And that can and must be done under any government – socialist, Marxist, totalitarian dictatorship, left-wing, right-wing, Republican, Democrat, Utopian, or even Roman. Because love is not against the law. And loving like Jesus makes us more like Jesus. And that is His point.
As always, if you disagree (heck, even if you agree), puh-leeeze post a comment.
