We were having a wonderful day. While stationed at Fort Myer in Arlington, Virginia, my family had taken a beautiful, warm, late spring afternoon to see some of the sites and attractions in Washington, DC. It was an honor to see the monuments that we had before only witnessed in pages of history books. As we enjoyed our amazing stroll in the shade of the trees along the sidewalk, another site, not so glamorous, and becoming more and more frequent, was the presence of the homeless who walked the same paths we did, stopping at each trash can to see what wasteful tourists had discarded. You know the saying about one man’s junk being another man’s treasure? It literally unfolded in front of our eyes. Some pushed shopping carts taken from the parking lots of supermarkets elsewhere in the city. Others carried tattered and torn backpacks which they guarded like they were filled with gold.
Being somewhat afraid of what we knew nothing about, to my shame, I found myself choosing to pretend to not notice those folks, just as the other tourists in our vicinity did. Knowing what I know today, I repent for not doing what I could to help those people. We look down on them, ignore them and without speaking, hope they will just go somewhere else.
In Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus, in judgment of the nations, had separated them into two groups. The Bible says like the sheep are separated from the goats. He then proceeded to award the sheep and punish the goats. Both were told the same words except that the sheep were commended for helping Him through helping those who were unfortunate, while the goats were cursed for their rejection of the unfortunate. Both groups had encountered Him as being hungry, thirsty, being a stranger, naked, sick, and in prison. The sheep had met those needs while the goats had ignored, shunned and even gossiped about them.
Both groups asked the same question, “When did we see You in such a predicament?” To the sheep, Jesus said that they had helped those around them and so they had helped Him, while the goats had ignored the same group and had thus ignored Christ.
We can ease our consciences by telling ourselves that these were the nations and so we are safe. But nations are made up of people. We are people in the nations. That being said, we are guilty as nations because we are guilty as individuals.
We might even justify ourselves because works do not save us. Our good works of righteousness are like filthy rags according to Isaiah (Isaiah 64:6). So regardless how much good we do for others it will by no means save us. We are only saved by grace, through the shed blood of Jesus. This is all true. But then, what do we do with the verses in James in which he wrote, “Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works”? (See James 2:1-18).
The simple truth of the matter is that no works can bring salvation but a saved man who is truly saved by grace and loves the Lord, Jesus Christ, will by nature want to do good works. The reason we as Christians are not subject to the Ten Commandments is because when we are saved by grace, we will fulfill them even without knowing them, because this compassionate Christ lives in us.
We all fail. We all fall short. We all sin. We can all do better. It starts with a stop. We must stop justifying ourselves. We must cease from our purposeful blindness and open our spiritual eyes. Instead of seeing a dirty, worthless person, we must begin looking past appearance and see Christ. I am preaching to myself as well as to you. You see, we are all guilty.
Of course, there are those who take advantage of the system. There are people who play on the emotions of others, who pretend destitution when in fact they may be better off than we are. Someone once told me that they offered a job to a man holding a sign at a local supermarket, saying that he would work for food. The man responded with, “Why would I want to do that? I’m making more holding this sign than I would working!” There are those. But do we always know who they are? Can we really say that we know when someone is really in need? We might if we are looking through the spiritual eye. Listening to God in our hearts goes a long way.
When God shows us those who are really in need, who really are hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick or in prison (and there’s more ways to be in prison than being behind bars), then what do we do with that? Do we respond in compassion, helping with what God has givenus? Ordowe lump them into a group with the others and make excuses?
We serve a God of compassion. When will we start being like Him? When will we reflect the compassion of our Heavenly Father? When will we help Jesus?
Jerry D. Ousley is the author of Soul Challenge, Soul Journey, Ordeal, The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel The Shoe Tree. Visit our website at spiritbread. com to download these and more completely free of charge.