Poor Jesus April 25, 2008
Right now I am surrounded by all of my worldly goods. Everything that belongs to me. I spent today and yesterday packing packing and moving all of my stuff out of my apartment. This is my fourth move within a year. Every time I pack I think to myself, “Ugh! I have so much crap!” I’ve been making efforts to cut down on the amount of stuff I have, but I still have so much. It makes me think about how I lucky I am to have to make decisions about what to keep and what to donate and what to throw out. I tossed most of what was open in my refrigerator and cupboard.
In The Irresistible Revolution, Shane Claiborne talks a lot about the poverty and how wrong it is for someone to be sleeping on the street while another person has a spare bed in their house. He argues that Jesus would not be happy with the way most of us are living. We are so far removed from the poor that we don’t know what they are like. Most people will donate canned food, old clothes, and money but few of us actually go into the streets and talk to these people. We don’t know who they really are or why they’re there or what they’re doing. They’re invisible to us most of the time.
Would Jesus be happy with how I’m living? I think he would say that I could do much more to help others than I am now. I don’t think he’d be happy with my collection of stuff. My $400 kindle, my laptop, my extra clothes and shoes. Sure, I donate everything I don’t need to the PTO thrift shop. I donate my old books to the library so they can sell them to raise money. I work with the local charity that provides food for the hungry. We stand in lines and package the food up. I never actually go and visit the people I donate to. Shane’s right; there is a huge disconnect.
According to the Gospels, Jesus was poor. Likewise he loved the poor. He had no home and worn tattered clothes. He relied on others for food and shelter. Still, he welcomed the poor, sick, and neglected. (I’m sure it didn’t hurt that he was the son of God.)
I don’t feel too terrible about the fact that someone is sleeping on the ground while I’m sleeping in my bed. That makes me sound like a terrible person. But truly, who thinks about that on a day-to-day basis? Maybe Shane is onto something. It is awful that our society ignores the poor. But our society ignores a lot of people. I try to do what I can. I comfort myself with my goal of opening or working in a clinic for low-income/ disadvantaged patients. And I pray and thank God and feel lucky for the things I have. But I still feel guilty sometimes.
