The Trouble with Jesus
by Constance Hastings
It’s a mess out there right now, one side screaming at another. You may be feeling if you don’t choose a side, you’ll get caught in the middle with both sides pounding you instead of just one. It’s an absolutely pernicious world, no doubt about it. Jesus warned them…
It’s a mess out there right now, one side screaming at another. You may be feeling if you don’t choose a side, you’ll get caught in the middle with both sides pounding you instead of just one. It’s an absolutely pernicious world, no doubt about it.
Jesus warned them. The disciples were headed out on their own, charged with healing sick and proclaiming the kingdom of heaven was right there. But it wouldn’t be an easy sell. Even between family members, his message would be divisive. His biggest caution was, “Be wary as snakes and harmless as doves." (Matthew 10:16) It would be their best defense as they headed into the thick of a fight, where chins jutted just inches from another.
Yes, it can be a terrifying and menacing world, but to this fear Jesus spoke the first version of, “Look for the helpers,” wisely said by a friend of children and the child-like. “Anyone who welcomes you is welcoming me, and anyone who welcomes me is welcoming the Father who sent me.” This welcoming, a broad form of hospitality, might not be found in a rally of supporters, but it would come from those who see in you more than yourself.
Regardless of status, whether it’s the established hierarchy of principle and the prophetic, the ones who toil in doing the next right(eous) thing, or the least of all, the most vulnerable, marginalized, victimized and oppressed in body as well as spirit, look for them. Find them. Welcome them. Give to them.
“Even a cup of cold water.” Even. Just a cup. Cold water, that’s it. All preceded with, “And if you give…” It’s an offering that’s humble but vital to life, a giving that quenches thirst and demonstrates love. Yet in this extending of what little one has to the little ones and all ones, there’s an extension of the healing of heaven, a hope that reveals each is loved by Christ and loved by God.
“And if you give…,” creates more. To meet someone in their own place and world, to extend a sign of welcome and love, to not discriminate between one or another but to accept all in the undeserved, giving grace of God, means relationships are started, friendships are made, and understanding begins. The Kingdom of Heaven then is near. In this, “you will surely be rewarded.”
With just a cup of cold water, no less.
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