Jesus
said, “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. 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; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you
visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’
“Then
the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord when did we see You hungry, and feed You,
or thirsty, and give You something to drink?
And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and
clothe You? When did we see You sick, or
in prison, and come to you?’
“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.’”
Matthew
25:34-40
In
junior high school I rode the school bus.
Every morning my friend and I would stake out seats all to ourselves,
which was fine until the bus started to fill up. Before long I was sitting in the last seat
left with just one person in it and the bus was approaching the home of the
dirtiest, smelliest kids in school. My
heart would sink as I realized that I would be sharing a seat with them. Then Keith, a senior, would get on the bus
and sit with me. When the smelly kids
got on the bus, he did not say a word, but scooted over to make room for one on
them to share the seat.
I
went to church all the time but I did not want to sit with the smelly kids,
because I thought I was better than them.
But Keith, who I don’t know if he ever went to church, did exactly what
Jesus would have done; he saw a person in need of a seat and let them sit
down.
Being
a Christian means putting ourselves out to show mercy to those who no one has
mercy on; and that is what Keith did.
Mercy is less about me, and more about you.
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