Let's start by just getting it out there: it's fun to watch people. And there's hardly a better place to people watch than church.
Recently I was standing in a church lobby and noticed a young boy. This boy was excited about some sort of gadget he had, and was energetically seeking an audience to wow with his toy. I was surprised to see that after approaching perhaps five or six people, none of them showed any interest whatsoever in him. Eventually the boy became discouraged and wandered off.
The reason this troubles me is because of Jesus' words in Matthew 25--"Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." It also works the other way in verse 45; what we don't do to the least, neither did we do for Jesus.
Why does Jesus go so far out of his way to honor those society deems "the least"? And lest you think I am blowing one verse out of proportion, consider these:
Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Luke 6:20
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Luke 4:18-19
And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, "You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." Mark 10:21
When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. Luke 14:12
Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 19:14
Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. Mark 10:15
This says nothing about about his treatment of women, which was revolutionary for the time. Consider the fact that women could be treated as property and yet Jesus' resurrection was first witnessed by none other than... a woman.
What's my point? My point is that these people ignored this boy because they believed his worth was only in what value he could add to their lives. He was boring and annoying and irrelevant--therefore he was useless and could be disregarded.
But the narrative of the kingdom of God says something different. It says that value is intrinsic. Your worth is not determined by what you do but who you are--a child of God. And therefore, nothing you can ever do can either add nor detract from that sum.
That means when you're at your absolute best, you are no more valuable than at your absolute worst, and vice versa. All your striving and struggling gets you nowhere. Neither will uncovering your failures and flaws reveal you to be somehow counterfeit. Rest in God. Trust your Father. It was never about you to begin with.
And now that we've established this identity for ourselves, it stands to reason that the same goes for others too.
Like the boy with the gadget.
Like the homeless begging for change at the intersection.
Or the billions of people who live on less than a dollar a day.
Or your super annoying coworker.
Or your mother in law.
The list goes on. Become like children. Love the poor. Love the meek. Recognize God in people--he's the one who made them, after all. Pay special attention to the ones that seem least important. Recognize that they are blessed precisely because they have nothing but God. And when you come without a thing, you come with all you need. It's all this other stuff that we think we contribute that actually gets in the way.
Peace.
P.S. - Lest I be accused of throwing stones or judging motives, I was one of the people ignoring the boy. For what it's worth, once I realized what was happening in my heart, I went and spent time with him. I believe that's what repentance is supposed to look like.
