03/05/2025
, “LORD, WHEN DID WE SEE YOU HUNGRY, OR THIRSTY OR A STRANGER OR NEEDING CLOTHES OR SICK OR IN PRISON, AND DID NOT HELP YOU?”
I have trouble sleeping at night knowing that unabated famines are going on, homelessness and poverty rages, social and psychological imprisonments abound, and children cry out for death in order to avoid the unconscionable horror of being bombed, mutilated, or left for dead without life-sustaining food, medical care, or clothing. I want to do more than send $19 a month. I want to be proactive, a source for good that ends these maladies versus sending $.63 a day to ease my conscious. This is not enough for me. Is doing this enough for you?
As a Christian, I hear God’s response loudly, “And the king shall answer, and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it to me.” This is the criterion that God uses for passage into his kingdom. Are you the Good Samaritan that rights the wrongs in society by your actions, your voice, your vote, and your money?
All of us have an existential date with our mortality. We are mortal beings, there is no fountain of youth or pill that will prevent us from entering death’s door. A lawyer accepting this truth, asked Jesus what he should do to inherit eternal life. Jesus answered by telling him to model himself after the Good Samaritan who had no religious pretensions, hypocrisy, or judgments, simply love, mercy, and forgiveness for his fellow man regardless of their background.
The consequences for not obeying God are real. God’s response in Matthew 25 is as follows: “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” No one likes to be reprimanded, but God is a God of order, justice, and salvation. He is a loving God, not a Santa Claus. The beauty of God’s plan is that he offers redemption and his will is that none would perish, and all would have an abundant life here on Earth and everlasting peace with him in eternity.
I pray that you have ears to hear and will follow God’s plan for mankind’s redemption through his son Jesus. I pray that when you meet Jesus he will say “well done” to you who unlike the priest who walked by, or the Levite that crossed the street, but “well done” to you who like the Good Samaritan stopped, knelt down, picked up bruised humanity, fed the hungry, gave water, provided food, clothing, medical care, and visited the imprisoned thirsty strangers on the Jericho roads of life.