Preparing for Easter - The Receivers - Philip Yancey

This last recorded parable (actually more than a parable) of Christ, given just two days before Passover when, He told His disciples,  "The Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified" (Matthew 26:1).....


Then the King will say to those on his right, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.

Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did you see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?"

The King will reply, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."
                  -- Matthew 25:37-40



From The Jesus I Never Knew, by Philip Yancey

Commenting on this passage, the great American theologian Jonathan Edwards said that God has designated the poor as His "receivers."

Since we cannot express our love by doing anything to profit God directly, God wants us to do something profitable for the poor, who have been delegated the task of receiving Christian love.

One night I was absently flipping the channels of television when I came across what seemed to be a children's movie, starring the young Hayley Mills. I settled back and watched the plot unfold.

She and two friends, while playing in a country barn, stumbled across a vagrant (Alan Bates) sleeping in the straw.

"Who are you?" Mills demanded. The vagrant jerked awake and, seeing the children, muttered, "Jesus Christ!"

What he meant was an expletive, the children took as the truth.

They actually believed the man to be Jesus Christ.

For the rest of the movie (Whistle Down the Wind), they treated the vagrant with awe, respect, and love.

They brought him food and blankets, sat and talked with him, and told him about their lives.

In time their tenderness transformed the vagrant, an escaped convict who had never known such mercy.

Mills's mother, who wrote the story, intended it as an allegory of what might happen if all of us took literally Jesus' words about the poor and the needy.

By serving them, we serve Jesus.

"We are a contemplative order," Mother Teresa told a rich American visitor who could not comprehend her fierce commitment to the dregs of Calcutta. "First we meditate on Jesus, and then we go out and look for Him in disguise."

According to this parable, Jesus knew the world He left behind would include the poor, the hungry, the prisoners, the sick.

The decrepit state of the world did not surprise Him.  He made plans to cope with it: a long-range plan and a short-range plan. The long-range plan involves His return, in power and great glory, to straighten out planet earth. The short-range plan means turning it over to the ones who will ultimately usher in the liberation of the cosmos. He ascended so that we would take His place.

"Where is God when it hurts?" I have often asked. The answer is another question, "Where is the church when it hurts?"


[Note: According to Scripture, we, the church, are part of the long-range plan (we come with Christ when He returns to make things right here on earth) and the short-range plan (we take His place here now). All of God's plans from before creation involve us, His special people, His children and heirs, His bride.]