Whatever You Did For One of the Least of These

“Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”

Like most Evangelical Christians, I pray, “Lord, use me.” Then, I wait for Him to arrange divine appointments in my life, to open doors for me to spread the gospel, to dictate text into my ear for a new blog. It’s what we’re supposed to do, right? 

Three times last week, Matthew 25:31-40 was  brought to my attention. Once on television, once in church, and once at our faculty inservice. Last week, I taught a lesson from it. If you need a reminder, Matthew 25:31-40 says:

 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation 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, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit 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? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”

Those words are in red in my Bible.

One would think the message would make it to my brain, right? Well …

It had been a very busy week. After church and lunch on Sunday, we watched a bit of golf, and I fell asleep on the couch. When I woke up, time was scooting on, and I had to do laundry so I would have clothes for school on Monday. In a hurry, I grabbed all the dirty laundry and headed for the basement, got everything started and came back upstairs. There were odds and ends of chores that needed to be done, and I lost track of time. Around 7:00, Marty reminded me that it was time to think about dinner. 

OOPS!

I was carrying the dry laundry upstairs with plans to come back down and cook our last two ears of corn and finish the leftover pulled pork in the fridge–quick and easy.  Then, I heard a loud knock at the door. From my perspective on the landing I could see outside. It was a young man we knew–Marty walks with him sometimes. He struggles with addiction, and often when he shows up, he has been using. Marty even had to take him to the emergency room once. He is also a talker, and his visits usually last an hour or more.

My first thought was “Oh no!” That’s a lie. My first thought was “OH PLEASE NO!”

Marty answered the door and I continued upstairs with the laundry. When I came down, the young man was sitting with him in the living room. 

“Hi. I was just fixing our dinner.” [pause] “Would you like to join us?”

Well, maybe I was expecting something like, “No, I don’t want to intrude.” 

Instead I got, “Yes, thank you.”

UH OH! 

Two ears of corn and a little pulled pork wasn’t going to work. Panicked, I went into “Martha” mode. Remember Martha, the sister who was stressed out about having company? I broke the ears of corn in half and threw them into boiling water to cook; added some chopped onions, peppers, and sauce to the pulled pork and tossed that in the microwave thinking I would put it on the buns before taking them to the table and that could make three sandwiches; found some leftover fruit salad in the fridge and cut and added an additional peach; sliced a tomato; and, oh yes! a blessed box of macaroni and cheese. This came together in about 15 minutes. I cleaned off the dining room table, set out plates and silverware and tea, and brought in the food. Sweat was trickling down my neck from stress. It was not what I would normally prepare for company, but it was the best I had.

We sat down at the table and Marty gave thanks. When I looked up, there were tears in the young man’s eyes! He quietly said, “This is peaceful. I never had dinner sitting at a table before.” 

WOW!

And I was worried about the brand of macaroni and cheese.

Sometimes “serving” does not happen the way we expect it to. Most often, it is not a trip to China or Zambia or Morocco. Very often, it doesn’t involve a lot of people. Frequently, it is inconvenient and messy. Wrapping paper and bows are seldom involved.

“Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”

Once again, gratefully, I find myself humbled.

May God bless you and send you into the field; or send the field to your front door.