Loving the Unloved

As Jesus was coming near Jericho, there was a blind man sitting by the road, begging. When he heard the crowd passing by, he asked, "What is this?"

"Jesus of Nazereth is passing by," they told him.

He cried out, "Jesus!  Son of David!  Have mercy on me!"

The people in front scolded him and told him to be quiet.  But he shouted even more loudly, "Son of David!  Have mercy on me."

So Jesus stopped and ordered the blind man to be brought to him,  When he came near, Jesus asked him, "What do you want me to do for you?"

"Sir," he answered, "I want to see again."

Jesus said to him, "Then see. Your faith has made you well." Luke 18: 35-42       

Just as with the blind beggar, Jesus reached out again and again to the helpless, the poor, the sick and the outcasts. When Jesus saw that Zacchaeus, the hated tax collector, had climbed  a sycamore tree just to catch a glimpse of him, Jesus immediately urged Zacchaeus to hurry down because he wanted to stay at his house. 

When Jesus' disciples and the bystanders saw Zacchaeus being welcomed and treated so well, they began grumbling and saying, "This man has gone as a guest to the home of a sinner." In the closing verses of Luke, chapter 19, Jesus answered them, saying, "The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."

In John, chapter 4, Jesus met with a Samaritan woman at a well, and asked her for a drink of water. Now the Jews and the Samaritans hated each other and Jews would not even use the same cups and bowls that Samaritans used.   Jesus then told her that he was the Messiah. And she went back to town and told everyone she met about him.

We see them all around us, on the streets, standing with a sign reading "WILL WORK FOR FOOD", at the Gathering Place.....the poor, the hungry and the outcasts of this wonderful city of Lincoln. It reminds me of a song by Avery and Marsh that we used to sing in the seventies.  It's called, "Love Them Now."  It goes like this:

"There are lots of lonely people, lots of strange, peculiar people, who need all the love--that anyone can give. We've been told: 'Don't speak to strangers and the ones who aren't approved of,' but perhaps we have forgot how Jesus lived.  Love them now. Don't wait till they're gone away.---Love them now, while they're around. Touch them, hold them, laugh and cry with them. Show them, tell them, don't deny--with them. Honor them, give birth and die--with them now.  Love them now--before they're just a guilty mem'ry. Love them now,--Love them now. There are lots and lots of people, who are hard to get along with, who demand and hate--and tear down everyone. But we're not to be their judges, not their wardens, not their masters, we're supposed to be their servants like God's son. Love them now."

               

Prayer: Dear God, help us to love each other. Help us not to be judgmental, and more forgiving.  Amen

Gerry Draney (reprinted with permission)