Thoughts on 'The Least'

^{Matthew 25:31-46}

 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, accompanied by all the angels, he will sit on his glorious throne.  All the nations will be assembled before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates sheep from goats.  

  The ‘sheep’ he will place at his right hand and the ‘goats’ at his left.  “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take your inheritance, the Kingdom prepared for you from the founding of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you made me your guest,  I needed clothes and you provided them, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’  

  Then the people who have done what God wants will reply, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?  When did we see you a stranger and make you our guest, or needing clothes and provide them?  When did we see you sick or in prison, and visit you?’ 

   The King will say to them, ‘Yes! I tell you that whenever you did these things for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did them for me!’

   “Then he will also speak to those on his left, saying, ‘Get away from me, you who are cursed! Go off into the fire prepared for the Adversary and his angels!   For I was hungry and you gave me no food, thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, a stranger and you did not welcome me, needing clothes and you did not give them to me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 

   Then they too will reply, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, thirsty, a stranger, needing clothes, sick or in prison, and not take care of you?’ 

   And he will answer them, ‘Yes! I tell you that whenever you refused to do it for the least important of these people, you refused to do it for me!’ 

   They will go off to eternal punishment, but those who have done what God wants will go to eternal life.”

    The U.S. Conference of Mayors in 2012 compiled some statistics on the homeless and hungry in America.

     According to the 2010 Census there were 114,800,00 households in the United States.  The survey taken by the Mayors found that 14.9% of households were food insecure. The current household size is 2.59 persons or 44 million persons will go to bed hungry tonight.

     The same survey found that there are 633,000 homeless in the United States. To put this in perspective, the city of Boston has a population of 625,087 as of the 2010 Census.

     According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, the agency tasked with tracking offenders in the U.S., in 2011 there were 6,977,700 inmates incarcerated in the U.S. This makes our prisons the second largest city in the United States almost twice as large as Los Angeles.

     Jesus cares about the hungry, homeless and imprisoned. There many loud voices......politics, religion, Madison Avenue, Hollywood....all shouting for our attention. We all know them, in fact, there have been times when we have all joined our voices to the cacophony. Each side insisting on the right to be heard, declaring the correctness of their cause.
     Upon further review we find, just like the prophet Elijah, that the voice of God is not in the wind, earthquake or fire of public demonstration but He speaks with a still small voice that says, "I am hungry, I am homeless, I am naked, I am imprisoned. I am the least of these."