Who exactly are “the least of these?”
Jesus goes out of His way to say “whatever you do unto the least of these, you do unto me.” What qualifications do you need to meet in order to be the least?
Are these people the poorest of the poor?
Do they have family?
Do they have friends?
Do they have a job?
Do they know they are the least?
Is it a choice? A series of choices?
Are they servants?
Are they slaves?
Are they the masters of the corporate world?
A few days ago I meandered in a place called the “dumps.” This pile of trash slowly smoldering from the inside out brought me back to Senegal in an instant. Burning garbage…ironically there have been times these past couple years that I have missed that smell because it brings me back to my friends and students at Dakar Academy. The small hills of trash were very sizable but not near the size of the fields of trash I would see in Dakar. However, I only was near a lot of trash there…here I walked in and through it as another surreal facet of my life in the now.
It was quiet…almost too quiet. There were people scattered in and on top of it collecting and organizing pieces of trash to recycle. For every kilo of plastic that they organize and pack they receive seven cents. I do not know how much they make for metal or glass. These people though weren’t in a hurry. They took their time perusing with their eyes and stabbing with their metal rods that would be better suited for roasting marshmallows. Instead of a bonfire with friends and family though, they worked and sometimes lived on a smoldering heap of garbage fire. Meanwhile the bulldozers just kept leveling it on out in their mutinous pace that cared little about what it was doing and less about the people around it. It evidently isn’t even a rare thing for someone to be crushed or killed by one of these vehicles as they go about work in “business as usual” fashion.
As I drew closer to the stench that was soon to saturate me I realized that I wasn’t rocked, offended, saddened, angered…in fact I was fairly emotionless. There have been times in my life where I’ve shut off some of my emotion in order to numb myself to some of my surroundings but that wouldn’t accurately describe me this day. In fact I was fairly open and responsive yet quiet and pensive. As I continued to soak in my surroundings I realized that their was an air of dignity and self-respect with a sense of belonging…these people were a part of a community. If you took the time to notice you could even see some of the ladies donning freshly painted nails that matched their sheepish smile…I hummed “beauty from ashes” as I continued further…
These people have very little materialistically in this world…but they have a community of others who live like them and live with them. They make seven cents a kilo for the work they do each day but they also work when they want and stop when they want and they don’t have tens of thousands of dollars in debt. I don’t imagine many of these people hoping or dreaming to someday live in these conditions but I also see how it could be a form of a comfort zone to those who only know it. I don’t at all want to down play the severity of their circumstances or indifference by those who could do something about it. However, these people are just that…people. Does their monetary or living circumstances make them less than that? The least???
…At this point, I leave our group to find a place to just sit and watch…to process. My memory flashes back to something my dad says fairly often; true wealth is found in relationships, not in money. In this context my mind wanders into the possibility of someone who has a lot of money being considered as “one of the least of these.”
I am convinced that some of the loneliest people in the world today are rich monetarily. The more money you have the more people want it and are willing to do anything to get it. People who have more money often have more people who have motivation to not be real around them. I’d imagine this makes it infinitely harder to trust and have a health and depth of relationship with many people. I don’t really know though. In all honesty I’m fairly thankful that I don’t have a lot of money right now because it quite possibly would hinder my growth in learning to trust. I am sure there are people in this world who have everything they’ve ever wanted but friendship, companionship or love….If a man has everything and no one, does that make him less? The least?
In the end you can feel free to disagree with me but my heart finds peace in the thought that wealth is found in relationships. The relationship that is most vital is with the most passionate lover ever…God. All the commandments are wrapped up into loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and loving others as ourselves. So, to me, that means that the least of these includes anyone who doesn’t know Jesus whether they live in a garbage dump or own all the garbage that gets dumped….so I guess our challenge is to learn to live and love serving both…
We are all slaves of some sort…either to sin or righteousness…
Choose you this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord…
