‘The Least of These’

‘The Least of These’

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Matthew 25:40

Christ takes our treatment of others personally.  The context of our text for today is Christ’s description of the Last Judgment.  According to Him, ‘He will sit upon the throne of His glory.’  Christ will separate those who are His from those who are not, ‘as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.’  What is fascinating is the foundation upon which He makes His judgment.  He says to those whom He counts as His Own, ‘Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as  ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.’  We are going to spend some time meditating upon this text.  Of whom is Christ speaking when He refers to, ‘the least of these my brethren?’  A good indicator would be to consider to whom did Christ minister, and gather around Him?  His closest associates were ‘ignorant and unlearned men.’  He spent His days transforming the lives of people like the woman at the well, the woman taken in adultery, the man at the pool of of Bethesda, the maniac of Gadara, and the man who had been born blind.  He was the living embodiment of the Good Samaritan, ‘despised and rejected of men,’ but ‘who went about doing good.’  Christ sought out the downtrodden, the marginalized and the obscure.  The religionists criticized Him for being, ‘the friend of publicans and sinners.’  What is interesting to note is that few, if any, would have been able to identify these marginalized people as ‘the brethren’ of Christ.  Therefore we ought to consider our view of others whom we encounter because, we never know who are His brethren.

Our Good and Kind Savior,
we rejoice that You hold the least of Your brethren in high regard.
We praise You that You have scattered them throughout the world,
in every circumstance of life and that we may encounter them at any moment.

Tomm Tice
Were the Bush is Burning