The Least of These

The poor…  have you ever really considered the fact that Jesus came into this world as one of them – and, what this might mean?  Have you noticed that the good news of Jesus’ birth was first announced to the disenfranchised – poor shepherds, who by virtue of the only work available to them, were considered to be unfit to even enter the synagogue?

Even more striking are Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:31-46…  “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”  With these words, Jesus identifies himself with the poor, and equates showing love to them with showing love to Him!  Perhaps this is not too surprising after all.  Jesus also told us that the greatest commandment was to love God – and that the second was like it, to love our neighbors as ourselves.   The idea that when we love our neighbors we are in fact loving God is woven throughout Jesus’ teaching in the gospels, and in the epistles as well.

So who are our neighbors?  In the parable of the Good Samaritan, this question is answered in the broadest possible terms.  The term “neighbor” crosses social, economic, geographic, ethnic, and even religious lines.  Who are the poor – those neighbors with a special need to experience God’s love demonstrated in tangible ways?  The bible variously calls them the poor, the needy, the oppressed, the alien, the widow, the orphan, the hungry, the thirsty, the wanderer, the naked — people who have been disenfranchised economically and socially.  What all of these people have in common is a kind of vulnerability, in that their position effectively prevents them from meeting their basic needs, despite their best efforts.  These are people that the world has left behind, people who are often looked at as though they were sub-human, people whose daily companions are deprivation, desperation, and hopelessness –people who have no meaningful options for improving their situations.

“The least of these”  … In our modern world, this would especially mean people living in extreme poverty… “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”