Stepping on specks to climb the ladder
Whose kingdom are you building?
My oldest daughter Addie is an 8th grader this year. Among other things, like being absolutely bewildered where all the time has gone since she was that little, fat-cheeked toddler that I laid next to at night looking at pictures of Dora the Explorer on my phone until she fell asleep, I’m in disbelief that it will only be 3 more years until I have her as a student in my U.S. History classroom.
To say that will be a weird experience is an understatement. Not that I expect it to go poorly. She’ll be respectful, we’ll make light out of the “Mr. Heck, I have a question” stuff that I know she will have a blast saying sarcastically in class, and she’ll earn her grades like everyone else.
But as I mentioned at the beginning of my sermon yesterday, there’s one thing that I’m very apprehensive about when it comes to having her, or any of my children, in my classroom. And it isn’t them. It’s their friends. Specifically, the way that I’ve seen some of them treat my daughter through the years. Kids are kids and just like mine (unfortunately) mistreat others at times, it’s true that mine have been mistreated by some that one day I’ll be looking at in class as my students. Being an adult, I will treat them fairly and compassionately. But I’m sure I’ll have human moments where I fight resentment.
Any of us who have children and loved ones understands this reality. And so does Jesus. If He created and cares deeply for every “speck of dust” that He has formed into living beings, then He doesn’t appreciate seeing any of them mistreated, ostracized, betrayed, stepped on, or forgotten. Yet isn’t that, so often, what we do as we attempt to climb the social ladder of success. We seek the attention and speak fondly of those who can do things for us. We tease, mock, chastise, or simply ignore those who can’t. The “least of these,” Jesus calls them.
So how much does Christ resent this mistreatment of His image-bearers? Jesus reveals the eye-popping answer:
Matthew 25
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ 44“They also will answer, ‘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?’ 45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
We spend our lives, we live each day, trying so hard to achieve great dreams. We want to “do something big,” and so we are working towards that. Many times we couch it in religious terms, suggesting that we are wanting to do something big for the Kingdom. But if we really did desire that, if we really did want to serve God in a big way, why wouldn’t we be serving Him in the way that He tells us to?
James 1
27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Serving orphans and widows and remaining undefiled by the world isn’t “doing something big” in our understanding. But it’s the kind of religion, the kind of life, that God calls us to. It is “doing something big” in His eyes. Whose eyes are we wanting to please? Whose kingdom are we seeking to build?
Don’t miss what Jesus taught us.