Matthew 25:31-46
“To Do or Not To Do”
November 22, 2020
The bronze cast has been installed on the street leading to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and there’s one in downtown Detroit.
Another can be found outside an Episcopal church in Davidson, North Carolina and there’s also one at the front entrance of Father Woody’s Haven of Hope in Denver, Colorado.
Some sites that were approached rejected the sculpture saying it was too controversial.
As a piece of art, it is not everyone’s cup of tea, but it certainly has made people talk.
As a Bible lesson, it is powerful instruction using the eyes to get to the heart.
This is the sculpture that is now in well over 100 sites around the world since first being unveiled in Toronto 7 years ago.
The title is “Homeless Jesus”, and it was created by Canadian sculptor and devout Catholic Timothy Schmalz.
What we are looking at is Jesus as a homeless person sleeping on a park bench covered with a blanket.
The artist himself describes it as a “visual translation” of today’s passage, “Truly, I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me” and he explained that the whole reason he created this sculpture was to challenge people to think and then act accordingly.
It only took 20 minutes after it was installed outside of St. Barnabas Church last month for someone to call the police in the Cleveland suburb of Bay Village.
The Episcopal priest of St. Barnabas told CNN, “I very much want to give the caller the benefit of the doubt that they were genuinely concerned and called out of compassion for someone who they didn’t know.”
Once the priest tweeted about the police encounter, it went viral and many donations for the agencies that serve the homeless in that area came pouring in.
What does Jesus want us to hear in these words that come near the very end of his earthly ministry?
The first, on this Reign of Christ Sunday, is that God is not some far away ruler, sitting in the clouds, above all of the messiness of life.
No, God is to be found in the face of the neighbor who needs us. The young man who was just sentenced to jail.
The woman who was just moved to the ICU with Coronavirus.
The child who will go into foster care tonight.
Nothing in the New Testament is said about what church you do or don’t belong to or how you practice your religion.
In the end our theology and creeds and practices will not be the important part of our lives.
The single instruction we are left with is did I see Jesus Christ in the face of those in need and did I act in love in his name.
Whatever issues the ones we meet have and why they are in need isn’t really our concern.
Thomas Merton put it succinctly when he said, “Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy.”
How do we get past all of the judgments about worthiness or whether someone’s pain and suffering are legitimate?
I heard an interview this week with the British nurse and author of The Courage to Care, Christie Watson, who spoke about a nurse named Rachel who everyone told her was the kindest nurse in Britain so she traveled a great distance to meet Rachel who had worked for many years as a parish nurse in a church that served the homeless, many of whom had been released from prison, a lot of them addicts, some were convicted rapists and murderers.
Her job was to help feed and do health checks on these folks with difficult lives.
In explaining her work there, Rachel said “We don’t have time to judge them because if we’re busy judging them we don’t have time to love them.”
She truly loved these folks and they loved her in return.
Rachel offered great wisdom when she talked about them, saying, “Let’s not call them patients, or service users or clients. Let’s just call them people, like me and like you.”
That is the message that Jesus leaves with us. These are people in whom God resides and our job is to care for them as if we were caring for Jesus himself. That is what is meant by agape love which the Greeks defined as a forgiving brand of love which never excludes. Agape means “a profound concern for the welfare of another without any desire to control that other, to be thanked by that other, or to enjoy the process.” (40-Day Journey with Madeleine L’Engle)
Back to the “Homeless Jesus” statue on the bench. The sculptor purposely left only his feet, the feet with nail holes from the crucifixion, showing. These were the scars that couldn’t help but be seen.
We can’t turn away from those who have been damaged by life, some with visible scars and others unseen by human eyes, because we will miss seeing Jesus. “Truly, I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”
Please join me in prayer:
“Gracious and merciful God, you are in our midst whenever I see those who are sick, hurting, lonely and needy.
Sometimes I wonder if it is me whom you are calling to help them. Give me strength to be your servant by serving those who are in need.
Give me the courage to move out of my comfort zone and to help your people. Amen.” (www.d365.org/devotions/welcoming-jesus-november-21-2014)