Incoherent Ramblings That Might or Might Not Have Something to Say About Jesus and Affirmative Action...You Decide
Who matters more?
I think everyone mattered equally to Jesus. It might not seem that way at first glance. At first glance, it seems like the poor, the downtrodden, the widows, the sinners, the victims and the sick actually mattered more to Him.
I don't think so.
I think society was (and is) so used to thinking that the poor, the downtrodden, etc., mattered less that Jesus had to make a conscious effort to shock the system, to balance the scales. When the scales are imbalanced, you gotta put more weight on the light end to reach an equilibrium.
But there's every reason to believe that Jesus loved the healthy as much as the sick, the rich as much as the poor. He just had to express that love in a different way. That's always the case, isn't it? Love is love, but it must be expressed in different ways in different contexts. One can love two siblings equally; the one who's got it all together, loving family, beautiful kids...and the one who just got raped. Same quantum of love, different expression.
I think that's how Jesus saw/sees us, all of us...as siblings. And I think it was with the same quantum of energy that Jesus loved both the rich young ruler and the blind man at the well; both Lazarus and the Pharisees; both Mary and Martha; and, where this principle was tested to the breaking point, both the mob at the cross and the women sobbing at the foot thereof.
Pretty worship-worthy stuff, huh?
What about you? Who matters more? The sick or the well? The rich or the poor? The victims or the victors? The all-together sibling or the rape victim? Who deserves a larger quantum of your love?
I suspect that most of us in the choir would say "the sick and the poor," but secretly or subconsciously believe "the well and the rich."
And I think, as we ponder the gargantuan love of Jesus, we'd see that we were wrong on both counts.
Grace and Peace,
Raffi
Thank you for this great post! This is included in the Christian Carnival, up tomorrow at Diary of 1.
So, maybe this means Jesus would not like affirmative action? Because why give someone preference just because they were historically downtrodden? Very interesting to ponder!
Here is a completely different take on the popular occupation today in Christianity to obssess about the poor. While I understand that we need to consider the poor more than we probably do, don't the rich get to have some minsitry too? Most upper-middle and upper class towns do not have evangelical churches that preach the gospel. Don't they deserve to hear the gospel too?
Today's Christian seems to despise the rich which is going to keep the ongoing problem of reaching them. They basically can be classified as some of the most unreached people's in the world. Most missionaries minister to the poor. But thankfully, an organization like Campus Crusade does know they exist and has excellent programs to reach them. too, in college and post-college.