EMMAUS

“God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house … God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives … God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war … God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives.” — Bono of U2

Matthew 18:18-20
Luke 24:13-35
Matthew 28:16-20

Everything changes. That’s the result of believing Jesus.

In Anne Rice’s “Interview with the Vampire,” Louis tells his interviewer how radically the world appeared to him as a vampire. It would never be as he saw it in his human life.

When we begin to see life through the lens of Jesus’ teachings, people change. Incorrigible scoundrels look less like lost causes and more like neglected children.

Those who looked powerful and wealthy often appear poorer, and somewhat pathetic. The dealers in drugs and guns seem more scared, more hurt. Through the lens of Jesus, you can see Jenna Jameson’s plea: “All I’ve ever wanted is for people to love me.”

What thrills when you look through the lens of Jesus is Jesus. He is everywhere.

Kanye West may have glimpsed this: “to the hustlas, killers, drug dealers, murderers, even the strippers… Jesus walks with them.”

Jesus walks among us, and for some reason, he hasn’t much interest in being exclusive or belonging to members-only clubs. He has not forgotten the Enrons or stained lobbyists. He sees and walks with gun runners, warlords, child soldiers and child prostitutes. Such have always been those he has sought out – the broken, the failed, the rejected and the morally unacceptable.

Maybe they’re more ready to receive him than those who have it together.

He likes people of all nationalities, backgrounds and walks of life. And though we claim to own the rights to Jesus, he’s free to like people of all religions.

You’ll begin to see Jesus in situations you thought needed him most. The places you desperately want him to go, he’s already there. Compton and Las Vegas. The L.A. riots of ’91. Bourbon Street. The red light district of Amsterdam. Back alleys and bordellos. He frequented such locales 2,000 years ago; he’s still there.

It will take time to grow accustomed to seeing Jesus in these places we thought too dirty, too sick or too sinful for him.

It will take longer to believe that he identifies himself with the people in these places. He said, “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40)

Where is the last place you expect to find Jesus? Why?
How does seeing Jesus in such a place change the way you treat others?
Have you ever seen Jesus in “one of the least of these”?

Adam