Looking for Jesus (Rev. Dr. Charley Reeb)
What does God look like? That was a question a kid asked me one time when I was leading Vacation Bible School. I thought it was a good question. What does God look like? Can you imagine looking into the face of almighty God? Now, I know many of us have heard strange stories throughout the years of people who have claimed to see the face of Jesus and the Virgin Mary in the strangest of places. In fact, there’s a man in Ontario, Canada by the name of Fred Whan some years ago who claim to see, get this, the face of Jesus on a fish stick. I think it was a conspiracy with a Gorton fisherman company. I don’t know. What do you think?
This next one is from a person in Florida, and I’ll warn you and I can say this because I lived in Florida, Florida is a very strange place sometimes, and there was a lady by the name of Diana Duyser, and this is a doozy from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, get this, who claimed to see the image of the Virgin Mary in her grilled cheese sandwich. Yeah. And guess what? She auctioned it off on eBay for $28,000. Yeah, I love grilled cheeses, but not that much. And of course the rest of the stories are very interesting. Some people claim to see the face of Jesus on bathroom tile, on kitchen stains, potato chips, that’s a religious experience, and even ultrasounds.
But seriously, how do we find the face of our Lord? Can we find the face of Jesus? Can we find our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Where did we look? Well, the good news is the Bible tells us exactly where we can find the face of Jesus Christ. I want to read to you Matthew 25:31-40. These may be familiar words to you, but perhaps you’re not going to hear these words quite like you will today, Matthew 25:31-40.
May the Lord add His blessing upon this reading of this holy Word. Help us to hear it, understand it, believe it, and then live in response to it. A powerful parable once again from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and there are a few lessons we learn from this powerful parable. One of those lessons is this, we can find Jesus in just about every person we meet. We can find Jesus in every person we meet.
Now, over the years as a pastor, one of the things I’ve seen in many people is their desire and parishioners’ desires to get close to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. They want to grow closer to Jesus in their walk, and of course, part of the responsibility of the church is to provide ministries and programs for that to happen, bible studies and prayer groups and study groups, on and on and on. But you know what I’ve learned? All those things are great, but you want to know the quickest and easiest way to get close to Jesus Christ? Go find a homeless person, buy a sandwich for them, give it to them, and look them in the eyes. Go visit somebody in the hospital who is suffering greatly and hold their hand. Listen to a friend whose heart has been broken. Go to a prison and visit someone who is so lonely and distraught. I tell you, in those moments, you just may find the face of Jesus Christ. That is the quickest and easiest way to the heart of Jesus Christ.
Jesus said so. So did Mother Teresa. Her name is synonymous with love and compassion and care. She went to Calcutta and found people in the streets dying of malnutrition, of disease because the religious community said they were untouchable, and Mother Teresa said, “Oh no, not on my watch.” And so, she went to Calcutta, she built a hospital there and she gathered those sick people up and she held them and she prayed for them and she rocked them and she sang to them, and some got better and some died in her arms. Mother Teresa was awarded at Nobel Peace Prize and given some money and a car.
You know what she did? She gave that money to the poor, then she sold that car and gave that money to the poor.
Why do you do it? Why did she do it? And she revealed why she did it to a group of nuns one time when she gave the best 10-word sermon I have ever heard. Don’t you wish my sermons were just 10 words? She looked over to those group of nuns and she lifted up her hands and she said this, “What you do for them, you also do for Him.” What you do for them, you also do for Him. Would you lift up your hands and repeat after me, “What you do for them, you also do for Him’? Jesus said it, “Just as you’ve done it unto the least of these who are members of my family, you’ve done it to me.”
So, look around you today and you’ll find the lonely and the hungry and the distraught, and if you have just a little bit of courage to reach out to them, you just may find the face of Jesus Christ. Christ can be found whenever and wherever the impulse to love is acted upon. Yes, sometimes Christ can be found in books and theology and ideas and in studies, but most often Jesus Christ is found in acts of love and mercy and compassion and laughter and love and relationships. Oh, you can find the face of Christ in every person you meet.
This parable teaches that, but this parable also teaches us another powerful lesson. It’s a hard lesson, but it’s one we need to hear. It is this: We will be judged by how we treat people. Now, did you notice in the parable how the sheep and the goats are separated? There’s something in particular that separates the sheep from the goats. Did you notice it? How we treat people. How do you treat people? This is how we will be judged. Now, the Bible clearly teaches there will be a judgment, make no mistake about it.
Christians will be judged. Even saints will be judged. We’ll all be judged. Now, this is different than salvation. Salvation is a gift of God by His grace through faith. The Bible is very clear, church, very clear that we will be judged by how we responded to God’s gift of His great grace.
In this parable we’re told we will not be judged by our beliefs, even though they are important. We will not be judged by our creed, denomination, or doctrine. Jesus says we will not be judged by how we were baptized or how many Bible studies we attended, but Jesus Christ did say we will be judged by how we treat people. One day Jesus will ask us, “What did you do about the homeless in your very community? Did you ever visit a local prison? Did you ever welcome a stranger into your home? Did you ever encounter someone who was completely lost, had nothing and could do nothing for you, and showered them with kindness?” What you do for them, you also do for Him.
This is a powerful point that sometimes keeps me up at night, church, that Christ is so deeply in love with this world and with each one of us and is so connected that He feels every tear and every cut and every scream and every tear, and because He is that intimately connected to all of us, whenever there is healing, whenever there is kindness, whenever there is wholeness, He feels it. Can you imagine? Can you imagine when Jesus was on the cross, how He felt all of that?
It’s a little bit like, well, you parents can appreciate this, when someone else treats your child with kindness and love, I mean, you feel it just as much or even more, don’t you? I mean, when I walk around during the week and I see Paul and I see the teachers and everybody being kind to him and encouraging him, oh my gosh, I feel that. When Paul hurts and he’s suffering, oh my gosh, it just destroys me and I want to do everything I can to make him feel better. My mom once said something and I really didn’t understand it until I had a child. How many times will I say that before I die? She said, “Having a kid, Charley, is like having your heart jump out of you and walk around in the world.” That’s how Jesus Christ feels about every single one of us, every single one of us. We’re His children.
Tom Long remembers reading a story in a newspaper about a reporter who was covering the war in Sarajevo many years ago, and this reporter, he noticed this little girl walking slowly and was not very steady on her feet, and he was shocked to discover she had been wounded by sniper fire. Before he could do anything, before he could react, a man scooped her up and pleaded with the reporter to take them to the hospital, and they went. They were in the back seat of the car and the reporter drove and the man in the back said, he said, “Please hurry. Please hurry. She’s still alive. Please hurry. Please hurry. She’s still breathing. Please hurry. Please hurry. This little girl, my little girl, she’s still warm.”
Well, they finally got to the hospital, but it was too late. She had died in that car. And as the reporter and the man went into the bathroom to wash the blood of that little girl off their hands, the man said to the reporter, “Well, now comes the hardest part.” “What’s that?” “Now I have to go tell her parents that she’s gone.” “Wait, wait a second. I thought she was your child.” The reporter said, “Aren’t they all our children? Aren’t they all our children?”
We’ll be judged by how we treat God’s children.
But there’s another lesson in this parable I want to lift up for you, and that is this, opportunity to love God’s children are absolutely everywhere. Did you notice in the parable the refrain, “When, Lord, did we find you thirsty? And when, Lord, did we find you hungry? And when, Lord, did we go and visit you? And when Lord, when Lord?” You see, they had no idea. They were completely unaware when Jesus was in their midst. The answer, all the time. You see, that’s really the point. If we knew when Jesus was with us through another person, our attitude would be much different, wouldn’t it? I mean, if the innkeeper in Bethlehem had known that Mary was carrying the very Messiah, I bet he would’ve found some room in the inn. Amen? And if the Sanhedrin had known that the man that was arrested that faithful night was the Lord the Messiah, they would’ve followed Him.
We must assume that Jesus is encountering us in every person we meet and every person that has a need in front of us. Right now in this sanctuary, there is someone suffering from abuse. Right now in this sanctuary, there is someone suffering from loneliness. Right now in this sanctuary, there is someone suffering from addiction. Right now in this sanctuary, there is someone who’s suffering in silence so much they’re crying in the inside.
Fred Craddock remembers going to a conference on hunger, and all these speakers were brought, in these experts to talk about world hunger, and Craddock said by far the best speaker was the very last one. She was a very small lady, had long hair that went right down to her waist, and she brought a legal pad up to the podium and she began to read. At first, Craddock couldn’t make out what she was saying, but then it dawned on him as well as the rest of those at the conference that she was reading the same sentence over and over again but in a different language each time. Finally at the end, she got to the English version, and it was this, “Mommy, I’m hungry, Mommy, I’m hungry.” Well, later Craddock and his cohorts were driving back to Atlanta, and on the way he saw a billboard that he had passed many, many times, but this time it was different, he said. The billboard said, “All-you-can-eat buffet, 4.99.” And he said, “I had never seen a more obscene message.”
What you do for them, you also do for Him. I mean, my gosh, we have so many resources, don’t we? I mean, it’s unbelievable all the resources we have. If a Boeing 747 carrying 400 people went down every day, I tell you, government agencies and charities and faith organizations would rally around and help the family of those victims. But did you know far more people die every day of malnutrition, of hunger?
But First Church gets it. That’s why this church has always has such a heart for this community. First Church knows, down its very core, that Jesus can be found in those who are in need. And yet, there is so much more to do.
There was a lady in Boston who was keenly aware of those in need. The story was so unbelievable that it appeared in The Boston Globe. It really did, it’s a true story. She and her fiance walked into the Hyatt Hotel in Downtown Boston to plan their wedding reception, and they looked over menus of gourmet food and looked over different china and silver. They even looked at catalogs of different flower arrangements. At the end, they had discovered they had very expensive taste. That’ll be $40,000, please. Well, they wrote a check for half that amount, went home to get the invitations ready to send out. Did you know? Can you believe? A couple of days after those invitations were mailed out, the groom got cold feet, and the wedding was canceled. This distraught bride just dragged herself into Hyatt Hotel and begged for her money back, and they said, “I’m sorry, it’s a policy. You can only have $2,000 back.” So, she had a choice. Eat all that money or go ahead with the reception.
So, there she stood in the lobby of that hotel in Downtown Boston, and you know what she said? She said, “I’m going to have this reception.” But who would she invite? Oh, she knew exactly who because you see, 10 years earlier that very woman was homeless, living in a homeless shelter, had nothing and nobody, and she was able to pull herself up and get a job and set aside a sizable nest egg. And so, she decided at that moment that she was going to throw a party for all the homeless people in Downtown Boston. Can you imagine? True story.
She sent out invitations to homeless shelters. She invited everybody and everything was set. And so, in June of 1990, there was a party of kingdom-like proportions at the Hyatt Hotel in Downtown Boston. People who normally dug through garbage cans for food savored the taste of chicken cordon bleu. Those who were dressed in tattered and torn and smelly clothes were served by waiters and tuxedos. Talk about the kingdom. And bag ladies and vagrants, well, they drank champagne and danced till midnight to big band music. As that woman looked upon that scene, you know she felt a little of what that hymn writer felt when he said, “O, love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee, I give thee back the life I owe, that in thine ocean depths its flow may richer, fuller be.”
Oh, I don’t think you’re going to have a hard time applying this little sermon today. You don’t have to solve world hunger. You don’t have to find out how to bring world peace. All you have to do is find one person who is in need, and you just may find the face of Jesus Christ. What you do for them, you also do for Him. And this I know, for the Bible tells me so.