Wednesday 2 September 2009

Jesus in Need


We are having a food drive at St John's in support of the great work of the Magdalene Centre here in Adelaide. So at chapel I am talking about the reason why Christians are involved in justice work and helping those in need. There are lots of reasons, like most of the Bible is concerned with it, and compassion of course. But also because those in need are Jesus himself, albeit in a most unlikely disguise. At chapel I started with the first half of Matt 25:31-46 and the separation of the sheep from the goats. "Why are we receiving the kingdom?" ask the saved. The answer is simple, "Because you fed me, clothed me, etc." I talked about how reasonable this is, of course, if you see the king of the universe starving to help (or not) is going to be crucial. And then comes the sting in the tail with the second half of the parable: when you did it to the least of these, you did it to me.