The poorest of the poor have more gold than we could ever hope to obtain. Injustice comes in so many forms including exploitation through human trafficking, child prostitution, domestic violence, and extreme poverty. It’s so easy for our consumer society to look at these desolate places with overwhelming pity. We see pictures of starving children and then glance at our full plates and think about how grateful we should be in comparison. We see a homeless family and then finally appreciate our hundred thousand dollar houses. I challenge this pity. Pity, in a sense, is pride taking over and tricking us into believing we are compassionate beings.
These people in the margins of society who are deemed the “poor” and “pitiable” live in a brokenness and humility that we could only pray to experience. They embody desperation physically what we lack in desperation spiritually. Those who have found God and community in the cruelest shadows of the world reflect real love; love that is desperate and self-sacrificing and humble and treasured. If we could see heaven here on earth, we would find ourselves in rags and starving while they are clothed in purple robes and crowns of glory. We are Pharisees unfit to wash their feet.
So much of ministry is approached with the mentality to help others. We make ministry a project, and then turn people into pets. We lose sight of the love that should be driving us. I’ll be the first to admit that when I’ve given water and food to a bum I avoided their eyes because it was easier to see myself as a benefactor rather than an equal. My pride prohibited me from looking into their eyes and being a part of their heart, but more importantly I forbade them from looking into my eyes and seeing the brokenness in mine. I tried to maintain a distance so that I was invulnerable, and by doing so I was exploiting both of us, justifying it by charitable deeds.
I am being overtaken with shame for my own pride. Jesus tells his followers that whatever we do for the Least, we do for Him. We say that we would do anything for Jesus. Would we do anything for a liar and a thief? Would we do anything for the most despicable? We are called to hate sin, not people. We are called to love people. Loving people that are good or broken is easy. Loving people that hurt us and hurt others is what we are called to. We are called to humble ourselves to love those who exploit each other; we are called to look in the mirror and forgive and love even more. We all fall from the same height. Our sin is on the same level. We cannot justify ourselves. We are unfit to wash the feet of the broken until we ourselves are broken.
The challenge is to see the hearts of people, for God has bestowed Himself in each of us and thus gifted each of us with gold. When we go to serve, we should equally receive. We should approach each other always with reverence and awe. When we go and try and give gold to the poor, we should also open our hearts to receive the gold they offer. Their gold is in the purity of their brokenness and emotions and love. If we could exhibit their gold, then maybe we would be fit to enter the kingdom of heaven alongside them.
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