Jesus’ Ministry
February 23, 2019
Scripture Reading: Luke 6:27-38
‘But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.
But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. –Luke 6:27-31, 35-36
Give to everyone who begs from you. Oklahoma has a strong work ethic. I was raised to work. While I describe myself as the laziest person in my immediate family, I was placed in charged of chickens when I was five years old which meant I fed and provided water for them and gathered their eggs every day. I added milking cows in grade school and got my first paying job when I was sixteen as a nurse’s aide in a nursing home. I could go on, but you get the idea. My history is very much like most of the people in my farming community were hard work was a necessary way of life. It was not drudgery, if anything it was fun. The idea of giving to everyone who begs was foreign to me. I do not remember seeing anyone begging as a child. I will confess that I never give cash to panhandlers on the street and only rarely give cash to anyone begging.
That said, helping people become self-supporting and self-sufficient does require investment of our time and energy and perhaps our financial resources. It requires our loving our neighbors enough to walk together with them as they search for wholeness in what must seem to be a dry and weary land*. Treating people like they are inferior who were not raised with the same values we were, who had no role models working beside and with them every step of the way and did not have the same privileges that open doors for us that were shut for them does not help. Seeing the Christ in every beggar requires us to give deeper than tossing a few coins in a cup.
While working my way through college as a waitress, I waited on two young mean whose only tip was a pamphlet that said something about the greatest tip you will ever get and listed five steps to salvation. While the audacity of the assumptions of the pamphlet left me angry, it did teach me a good lesson on how not to do evangelism. Seeing the Christ in every beggar requires us to humble ourselves as we work for justice and show mercy as we help them recognize the Christ within themselves.
Prayer: Lord, open our eyes to see the potential of everyone we meet particularly those in search of enough. Amen.
*See Psalm 63