Human Children (Midweek Message)

 

Fr. Tony’s Midweek Message

Human Children

January 5, 2022

 

There is a passage near the end of the Gospel of Matthew that has always spoken to me: the parable of the sheep and the goats, which ends with Jesus saying, “If you have done [any kind act] for the most marginalized of my siblings, you have done it for me” (Matthew 25:40).  I was moved as a boy by the old English gospel tune beloved by Mormons, “A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief,” where a person gives food, drink and clothing to a stranger, visits him in prison and declares he is willing to die to defend him, and the stranger, suddenly appearing as Jesus, says,  

"Of me thou hast not been ashamed.
These deeds shall thy memorial be;
Fear not, thou didst them unto me."

(Here is a Sacred Harp version of the hymn’s original musical setting:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smUiJNniGG0)

 

Hebrews 13:2 puts the idea a bit differently when it says, “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”

 

The idea of serving and helping Jesus or the angels under the guise of the downtrodden

is a commonplace in Christianity, paralleled by the Buddhist trope of “feeding the Buddha” when placing food or money in a monk’s begging bowl, or the Jewish idea of a good deed being a “mitzvah,” or fulfillment of one of God’s commandments regarding the now-destroyed Temple.  In Islam, giving of alms is one of the five pillars of the faith, and is seen as something owed to Allah. 

 

But I have recently had misgivings at the idea of doing good to others because they are God in disguise: isn’t it just enough that we help others, and show solidarity with them, simply because we have compassion?  To be sure, the basic idea of “god in disguise” is sound, because each person bears the imago Dei, the image of God.  Gen 1:27 says, “God created humankind in God’s image; in God’s own image, God created them; every human being, regardless of gender: God created them.”  But this is an affirmation of the dignity of every human being in creation, by nature, not an expression of unworthiness. 

 

Perhaps it is best to think of this in terms of us all in this together, all sharing a common lot, and the demand for compassion and altruism in our very nature.  Jesus often referred to himself as “the Son of Man,” better translated, I think, as “this humble human child you see before you.”  We are all human children,.   God put the capacity for compassion in our hearts at creation, and in this we are most like God and Jesus.  We should serve others—especially the marginalized— because of our common humanity, rather than out of some expectation of reward from a hidden Jesus, disguised angel, or camouflaged Buddha, Allah, or God. 

 

As Jesus states in the Sermon on the Plain, “Be compassionate as your Parent in Heaven is compassionate” (Luke 6:36).   

 

Grace and Peace,

Fr. Tony+.