In Matthew 25:34-40 Jesus gives a picture of what love looks like:
“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. …”
All my life I have compartmentalized my “love” into two different categories … I have my love for my family; and I have my “duty” to love everyone else the way Jesus tells me to.
I have always taken for granted that all my effort and love for my family is just a given … obviously all my love and effort for my family doesn’t really count when it comes to the love Jesus is talking about in Matthew 25:34-40.
I’ve always assumed that the love Jesus is talking about in Matthew 25 refers to complete strangers whom I don’t know. If I’m going to love like Jesus says I need to, then I need to be digging down deep and finding extra energy (beyond everything I’m already doing) in order to feed people whom I don’t know, and care for people whom I don’t know.
When I hear Jesus’s words “feed the hungry” – well that obviously means I need to give to the local Food Bank or serve downtown at the Rescue Mission.
In order to love the way Jesus says to … “invite strangers in; help clothe those who need clothes” – well that obviously means I need to let people come move into my home and live with me when they fall on hard times. And obviously that means I need to give money to help provide clothes and warm coats for homeless people.
In order to love the way Jesus says to, I have to serve at my church, and serve in my community, and serve anybody and everybody who has a hardship. But there’s not enough of me!! There’s just simply not enough of me!
I want to love like Jesus says to, but loving and serving my family takes everything I’ve got! There’s not enough of me to love and serve everyone else too!
It never really occurred to me that all my love and effort to care for my family … that counts! All that love counts too! It’s not like all that love is in a separate “category” and that it’s just a given and doesn’t count.
Feeding my family counts as “feeding the hungry.”
This realization really hit home in the ER! We had been in the ER for hours! The afternoon was gone, evening had come, and we were all starving! There was no telling how much longer we would be in the ER.
Finally, hubby decided that he was going out to Chick-fil-A to get us all something to eat.
Hubby took our orders, then left. We continued to wait … wait as the two bags of IV fluid slowly dripped. Wait for the nurse to come in and take more blood. Wait as more tests were run. Wait to hear what the Dr. had to say.
But there was now hope! Hubby had gone to get some food!
In anxious anticipation we waited for hubby to return with Chick-fil-A sandwiches to make our hunger go away. (and lemonade!) And Jesus’s words came to my mind that love is “when you feed the hungry.” The realization suddenly dawned that our hunger matters too! Jesus cares just as much about our hunger as everybody else’s.
When Jesus says that love is to “feed the hungry” … feeding those whom we love and care about, that counts!!
And, hubby going to get food for us … that was the love Jesus was talking about!
This right here is what love looks like!
“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.” – Matthew 25:35
