Who is worth our care?

Peter said to them, “You know it’s forbidden for a Jewish man to associate with or visit a foreigner, but God has shown me that I must not call any person impure or unclean. (Acts 10:28)

This points not to any specific Old Testament law but later “logical” conclusions based on warnings against pagan worship, food laws, and ritual cleanliness.  Peter's words help us better understand the environment that Jesus came to. 

Jesus’s ministry starts as we have just been reminded by the turning of the seasons with the ultimate act of empathy, His incarnation.  No one can doubt God’s ability to understand and share in our experience because He came as a human being, lived a life like us.

Once Jesus began teaching and pointing people toward His Kingdom and His ways He upended the answer to this question that would have been given by God’s people in His day.  The answer was not just the Jews…

Jesus takes note of the exceptional faith among two undesirables who He helps in their moment of need.  

Rome was the enemy, they were a foreign military that had occupied and controlled everything.  They taxed the Jews, abused all those that were not citizens.  Some Jews, the Zealots, felt the only reasonable response to the Romans was violent rebellion.  So when a Roman centurion, a soldier of soldiers approaches Jesus with a humble request that his servant be saved, how did Jesus respond?  “I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. Go. As you have believed, let it be done for you.” And his servant was healed that very moment.” (Matt 8:10,13)

At another time Jesus meets a woman of Canaanite ancestry.  These were Israel’s ancient enemies, they rejected God and had been judged by God.  They would have been considered outsiders and morally corrupt.  Her daughter was tormented and in her desperation she came to Jesus and begged for His help, how did Jesus respond? “Woman, your faith is great. Let it be done for you as you want.” And from that moment her daughter was healed. (Matt 15:28)

Last let us consider one last moment, a moment I think most would consider an important one.  Jesus clearly claiming for the first time that He is the promised anointed savior and king, the Messiah.  Surely this would be shared first with His closest followers, or the religious or national leaders of His people… but that is not who Jesus tells first as it is recorded in the gospels.  Instead we find Jesus first reveals this to someone despised, not only by the Jews but even her own people, a Samaritan woman.  Samaritans were considered heretics because they thought the temple should not be in Jerusalem, they were racially mixed, ritually unclean, and covenantally compromised.  These were people to be avoided.  Not only does Jesus travel through their town but shares the news that He is not there just for the Jews (or Americans), but for the undesirables too. Now many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of what the woman said when she testified, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. Many more believed because of what he said. And they told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, since we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior of the world.” (John 4:39-42)

As you consider how you should speak about and care for those you consider your enemy, undeserving, or outsiders; please consider the example of Jesus.  Please remember that Jesus did not come just to save you, your family, your neighborhood, or your nation, but the world.