Ep. 29: Undesirables

CLICK HERE for the corresponding blog post in Yeshua Explored

LUKE 7:36-50

However secure we may feel in our Christian lifestyle, the real test is when our cosiness is disrupted and we find ourselves thinking before acting. When we are in our ‘safe’ environment, among our safe people in a Church building we often have a get out clause to shift responsibility. For instance, a tramp enters the church asking for help/money/food and we say, ‘Hold on while I fetch the vicar, he can deal with you’, thinking that our Christian duty has been fulfilled simply by saying those words.

When I was younger and bolder, I adopted such a person and it was hard work. I regularly allowed him freedom of my house and even took him to a Billy Graham rally. He eventually moved on and, I must say, I was relieved. Is this informed by duty or, as in Jesus’s case informed by sacrificial love. I suspect the first. We need to pray to be a lot more loving to those who disrupt us, when even the inconvenience can be a joy with the thought that we have played our part on nudging someone else – whatever their background – onto a path of salvation.