“Wash your hands with bleach as soon as you can” he said as I knelt on the floor.
***
My wife texted during Renovation Community’s new Tuesday night GriefShare group a couple weeks ago. One of my chronically homeless friends had just stopped by the Parsonage front door looking for me. Kelly sent him over and warned me, “He looked bad.”
I met this man after a worship service summer 2013. We drove him to the hospital for a bad open wound on his ankle. That wound has never fully healed.
I’ve watched him slowly lose teeth from drugs, drinking, and poor dental hygiene. But he still looked relatively healthy until last year when he received a Congestive Heart Failure diagnosis. His body and mind now have quickly deteriorated.
As I walked out our front entrance, I saw a frail man with yellow skin. He looked much worse than when we met two weeks earlier. A hospital bracelet on his wrist confirmed his story— he’d been released from the emergency room earlier that morning.
The amazing funeral director in our building provides snacks for our weekly GriefShare group. So I brought my friend inside, filled his plate with food, and led him to our fellowship hall for his supper. The irony struck me as I walked back into the next room for our meeting– this man has eaten several meals in that empty hall over the years but never once felt comfortable to join us in there for a service. Crowds intimidate him, even our church’s small numbers.
***
Throughout the Christian Bible, we read examples of God walking among His people. In Genesis 3:8 it seems God had regularly walked with Adam and Eve ‘in the cool of the day.’ In Genesis 18 God (and two others ;)) walk up to Abraham’s tent and share a meal with him. In Exodus 13 God guides the newly-freed Israelites with a pillar of fire by night and pillar of cloud by day. English translations say the pillars “went” before the people, but the Hebrew word there could just as easily (or *should*) be translated as “walked” before them. [Oddly, translators apparently couldn’t envision a pillar of cloud or fire “walking,” yet the Biblical book of Revelation, describes God’s legs as “fiery pillars” (Rev 10:1)]
In the book of Deuteronomy God instructs the Israelites to bury their waste outside the camp after using the bathroom and gives this rather comical explanation: “For the Lord your God moves [“walks”] about in your camp…” (Deut 23:14). Basically, clean up after yourself because God doesn’t want to step in it when He visits. 🤷🏼♂️
But of course the clearest example in Christian Scripture of God walking among His people is Jesus of Nazareth. The introductory verses in the Gospel of John poetically describe Jesus’ time on earth in this way: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14).
Many religions contain stories about gods walking among humans on earth. But these divine visitations often include some sort of disguise. [Fun fact: the ancient Roman poet Ovid recounts a story when Zeus and Hermes visit earth in disguise and punish an inhospitable village. Villagers in a town called Lystra believed the two deities had returned when the Apostle Paul and his companion Barnabas healed a paralyzed man. The villagers began chanting, “The gods have come down to us in human form!” (Acts 14:11).]
But the Judeo-Christian God is different. In the Old Testament and New Testament, in stories ranging from the pillars of fire and cloud to the post-Resurrection Jesus, He never attempts to disguise Himself. When people *don’t* recognize Him (and this is important) the cause lay with a proverbial veil over *their* eyes rather than some sort of mask over *God’s* face.
Other religions’ gods may disguise themselves. Perhaps even God’s *angels* may disguise themselves and visit us (Hebrews 13:2). But never God.
We love it when God flexes his miraculous power and ‘walks in our midst.’ Those times feel easy to see. And it would have been amazing to see God-in-the-flesh walking among us 2000 years ago.
But Jesus warned he could pass before our eyes thousands…millions of times without us ever noticing Him…
“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.” Matthew 25:34-36
Another group in this parable is NOT welcomed into the Kingdom because they don’t serve these same people in need…
“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. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 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.’” Matthew 25:41-43
Every time we serve someone in a situation like that is an opportunity to interact with Jesus.
No, Jesus isn’t “in everything” like some sort of Christian Pantheism. And Jesus doesn’t shape-shift, sometimes taking the form of a thirsty, imprisoned, or naked person. Nor do His words here teach that every person experiencing such hardships automatically becomes a Christian.
Nevertheless, Jesus’ followers must take his words seriously here. He didn’t say doing these deeds is *like* doing them to him. No. In some mysterious way, Jesus explains that we do these kind acts *to* or *for* Jesus when we serve those in need.
***
I walked my frail friend over to our gym, found him a towel and soap (donated from kind people who know how we use them), and led him to the showers.
I returned after my meeting and found him barefoot and mostly-dressed in the bathroom. The large hospital bandage he wore before his shower lay on top of the trash; it covered a new ankle wound which now slowly oozed pus. His old ankle wound from 2013 still oozed from the other side of the same foot. Scabs from scrapes and bug bites covered both legs and extended to both feet, down to the yellow toenails.
I’ve previously helped this man pull a hoodie over his neck, zip up his jacket, place a warm cap on his head, and fit gloves on his hands in the winter. His slow movements and limited dexterity drastically prolong simple tasks, such as putting on shoes. So I offered to help him.
But the blunt truth is, I was only thinking of myself. It was 9:30pm. I felt frustrated he’d taken so long to shower and dress. I wanted him out the door as soon as possible so I could climb in my comfortable bed…
“Can I help you put on your shoes?”
He didn’t want to wear socks. So I crouched down to open up his grimy basketball shoes [probably picked up outside the Goodwill donation area after hours]. Then I placed his feet inside. Each foot, still wet from the shower, stuck against the shoe’s tongue and heel. So I guided his bare feet in with my hands and heard him say, “Wash your hands with bleach as soon as you can.”
Even after his shower, he knew I risked infection by touching his bare feet and dirty shoes.
I asked to pray for him as I later walked him outside. “We’ll both pray,” he replied. As soon as he left, I quickly wrote down the last part of his prayer I remembered:
“For any children around us, help us teach them the straight path…keep us from sin…help Pastor Chris and Miss Kelly…God is great, God is good. Let us thank him for our food…If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.”
This man has frustrated me and occasionally inconvenienced me for almost 9 years. When angry with me in the past, he said hateful things about me to others in the Chronically Homeless community.
I brought his heart medication prescription to the pharmacy the day after this encounter. The Pharmacy Tech grew frustrated when she tried verifying his phone number and address (which doesn’t quite work for someone who’s lived on the streets 20 years and refuses to keep a cell phone). When the woman finally understood I was a pastor buying prescriptions for my sick homeless friend, she exclaimed “I bet he really appreciates your help!”
But I replied with the first thought in my irritated head that morning, “No. He’s actually a cranky old goat no matter *what* I do. But Jesus wants me to help him anyway.”
How’s that for a cheerful giver?! 🤦🏼♂️
But perhaps you can relate to my raw honesty from that day at the pharmacy counter.
It often feels easier to help someone who seems completely innocent or obviously isn’t responsible for their current negative circumstances: a small child; someone sick with an illness not stemming from their unhealthy actions; someone who’s lost everything due to disaster rather than poor choices, etc. But how do we respond to people like my friend who rudely interact with those trying to help him and now suffers the consequences of his past (and current) poor choices?
Jesus didn’t bother elaborating about the conditions of those people we have opportunities to serve.
What about the person who’s thirsty or hungry because they wasted all their money??
What about the person who ISN’T imprisoned unjustly??
What about the person who’s sick because they made decades of unhealthy choices??
Jesus repeatedly avoided people’s “whataboutisms.”
Sure, those may be valid questions. But Jesus knows we can also ask valid questions for invalid reasons. [A little like asking, “Can I help you put on your shoes?” because I want someone out of my hair faster.]
Healthy boundaries matter. And we can’t help everyone. God can guide us as we make those decisions. But how many times have I missed an opportunity to serve *Jesus* by rationalizing away someone’s needs?
I don’t have easy answers for when “help” crosses over into “enabling.” But I do know my own selfishness typically tempts me to help too *little,* not too much.
***
I picked up 3 different prescriptions for my friend that following day, which helped me realize his dire physical condition. And I allowed him to stay in our gym. But he only stayed one night before moving on again.
I passed through our gym a couple days later and saw his basketball shoes lying on the floor. He’d found a better pair in our Clothing Pantry.
I’m guessing Chronically Homeless friends don’t regularly ring your doorbell like they do ours. But perhaps those in need around you look like: a neighbor or coworker struggling to pay bills, an elderly or sick loved one who needs extra care; a moody adolescent or estranged spouse who pushes away your love; or even a poor family in a developing country who needs your financial support (even though you’ll never meet).
People in need.
They walk through our lives every single day. The question is… When we see them, do we see Jesus?
I don’t know how Jesus walks through your life. But in my life, he often stands at our Parsonage front door.
And for a few days…he wore basketball shoes.
