So I’ve been thinking about the idea of presence lately. It started because this past week in the Cambodian provinces, it felt like the only reason we were there was to be the attraction of the “white americans” – thus allowing the pastor a greater in when speaking and evangelizing to local villagers. It honesly was hard to see past that because we spoke no Khmer and had no real role other than smiling and being confused.
But then I met Grandpa. He is seventy-eight, poor, has bad vision, is losing his memory, and lives in a remote village in the Kampong Thom Province, and I visited him and his wife with the pastor and our translator. You could see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice that he had a kind and pure heart, and was genuinely seeking God and Truth. He was an amazing man, asked many good questions about being Christian and retaining still his Buddhist traditions and culture, and as we were leaving gave me his blessing on my travels. He knew I had journeyed a long way, had left behind all the good things that are offered in the nation I am from, and that I was there with the pastor for an unusual reason.
And it got me thinking…
What is my presence with the powerful? The people who are rich, who are in high positions and places of power, who are healthy and wealthy and comfortable? My presence is negligible. They have no need of any news that Jesus Christ is Savior and the greatest hope this world has, and that He offers a better way of life; in this life the rich and powerful and self-righteous “receive their reward in full,” Jesus would say. But what about my presence with the poor? The orphans and the widows, the sick and the refugee? To the oppressed people of this world, I bring hope and love that they might not ever have in their lives otherwise. My personal presence -a “wealthy” foreigner who should have no business being here- is immeasurable. What are you doing here? they ask. Why are you so far from your country and your family? It is immediate, it is intriguing, and it is a simple simple simple way to freely answer that I believe that Jesus Christ is the hope of the world and that through Him the Lord God is healing His creation. “The good news is proclaimed to the poor,” Jesus would say.
I will follow my savior Jesus Christ. He was born in a stable to a poor carpenter and his disgraced virgin wife. He had “no place to rest his head” – he was homeless. He was without honor in his hometown, he was hunted and ridiculed by the religious leaders, and he spent his time loving and ministering to sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes, the poor…all the outcasts of his society. When he was arrested and brought before the powerful Roman government officials, he refused to defend himself or even proclaim his gospel. Instead, he was led silently to his death, because he knew that a Gospel of top-down influence is a corrupted gospel. It may sound nice, but its words are hollow nonetheless.
Jesus did nor worry about “places of influence,” nor how to affect change within them. Instead, He blessed the poor, the meek, the peacemakers, and preached love, repentance, and forgiveness. His influence was with the “least of these”
…and He changed the world. In the most perfect, elemental, impossible, and irresistible way, He changed this world.
