I saw Jesus

Yesterday our team, FUSE!, was meeting with our squad leaders Kelly and Kyla.  They’re a couple of great women of God, Kelly was my team leader until our team switches after Uganda, and they have been living with us and team Holy Banditz for a little over a week now.  We were meeting with them so they could be up to date on how our team is doing and so they could speak into or situation.

It was Monday morning and we were meeting on the lower level of our house.  The lower level is a carport or garage of sorts surrounded by a fence with a gate at the entrance.  About two-thirds through our meeting a man came to the gate.  He was old and looked like he hadn’t had a shower or a shave for a few days.  He was carrying two large sacks on his back and a walking stick in one hand.  He was muttering at us in Spanish. 

At first we thought we would ignore him.  And we did…until he started to push his way through the gate.  Then Janina said, “OK we have to do something.”

So I walked over to the man and said, “Hola.”  He started muttering at me in Spanish fast and soft so it was hard to hear or understand.  I picked up that he had been walking for a long time and would be walking much more.  I said I was sorry and tried to tell him I had nothing for him.  Then he began to make a drinking gesture and said he wanted water.  Exasperated, I turned to my and team and said, “OK, he wants water, can someone pour him a glass of water.”  So we did.

As the man was finishing his glass of water, team Holy Banditz returned from their morning of ministry.  Ben, their team leader, could tell we were all a bit frustrated with the interruption to our meeting.  He said in a jovial tone, “Oh I see you’ve met my friend.  His name is Jesus.”

It took me a second to catch what he was saying.  This man was one of the least of these who was asking for a drink.  For all we knew, he could have been Jesus.  And yet our first response was to say that we were too busy.  We wanted to go about our holy lives and talk about how God was changing us, rather then tend to the needs of the tired man at the gate.

I think as we walk out our Christian lives, we often say, “Of course I would help those in need, that’s what Jesus wants me to do.”  Or at least we say, “Thinking of others is hard, but when I put on my Kingdom eyes, I remember that I’m serving Jesus and I make time for my Lord.”

But how often do we push Jesus out every day?  How often do we say, “I’m just too busy for church this week, and isn’t three out of four good enough anyway?”  How often do we neglect our personal time with God with the excuse that our worship was so great with the whole congregation?  For me it’s getting easier to see Jesus in the eyes of the weak and weary, but as I go home in about six weeks I’m going to need to remember to see Jesus in the eyes of Jesus.

So later in the afternoon on Monday Jill and I were on the balcony surrounding our house and we saw the same old man sitting on the street below, with his bags and walking stick lying beside him.  Jill said to me, “Jacob can we invite him to dinner?  Is that too weird?”  I shuttered for a second, “Maybe we can just take him a plate when dinner is ready.”  I started in reading my book.

For the next few minutes the man was in the corner of my eye as I tried to focus on my silly novel.  I was battling myself.  “I already gave him water.  He’s probably just sitting there because he knows white people are staying here and he wants a handout.”  I already knew the man could be Jesus, and I still wanted to push him aside.

I put my book down and asked Jill if she wanted to go with me to buy some food for him.  We went to the store next door and picked out some bananas and some bread.  Jill picked up a coke because “…he probably doesn’t get coke very often.”  We took the food to him and I didn’t even ask to pray with him.  I wanted him to know that we gave him food simply because we knew he needed it, not because we had some ulterior motive.