The least of these, my family

In chapter 25 of the Matthew Gospel, Jesus is quoted as describing the eventual Kingdom of God. In his descriptions, a special place is made for those who have been especially mindful of poor people. They have fed the hungry, housed the homeless, clothed the naked, visited people who were in prison, and cared for the sick. In the teachings of Jesus, repeatedly there is a special concern for “the least of these.” A plain reading makes it clear that Jesus considered poor people his brothers, sisters, and family.

I loved the small Baptist church in which I grew up. I went to Sunday school there and worshipped there. The story of Jesus was told to me over and over again. I was baptized there and found the marvelous experience of congregational singing. I learned the contents of the Bible and memorized the hymnal. People loved me and I looked on the preacher as a very special friend. I have no complaints about my childhood church experience.

However, years later I discovered that something was left out of the experience. No one explained to me how poor Jesus from Nazareth really was.

No one explained to me how poor the people were who lived in Galilee. No one even hinted at how poverty stricken Nazareth actually was. No one explained to me that Jesus was probably a handy man who had no work and his neighbors had no money to pay him even if he did work a bit. My childhood was lived in the 1930s. My childhood was lived in the very worst of the great depression. The Besses were poor but we were not the poorest of the poor. Food at the family table was rationed. Sox were darned, pants were patched and hand-me-downs were common and did not always fit.

Later with college and seminary education, a lifetime of Bible study along with a good bit of Bible history and literary training, I came to understand just how poor Jesus was and how bad the poverty was in Nazareth. It is understandable when the John Gospel asks the question “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

The Besses were poor in the great depression, but it was nothing like the poverty of Nazareth during Jesus’ lifetime.

In Jesus’ day human life was cheap. Ownership of land by those who did the farming had long ago disappeared. Workers were treated like slaves. Starvation was common. The poorest of the poor were considered expendable. Men died young. Widows in large numbers with children were without support.

I now argue that the student of Jesus from Nazareth does not understand what Jesus was about without knowing the social, economic realities of his day. Once Jesus’ economic and social context is understood, the words “the least of these” takes on new meaning. The meaning of Kingdom of God raises new images.

I have recently finished reading “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson. Stevenson is an African American attorney, who somehow was admitted to Harvard Law School and became a civil rights advocate. He founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a law firm dedicated to defending the poor, the wrongly condemned, and those trapped in a hostile criminal justice system. As I read I formed new meanings for the words “the least of these.”

Then I came to chapter 12 entitled “Mother, Mother.”

The chapter’s central person was a woman, who was wrongly accused of murdering a still born child. Overwhelming evidence contradicted the charge. The woman, who was African American, was found guilty by an all-white jury and sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. She was taken to Tutwiler Prison in Wetumpka, Alabama. Tutwiler is the only prison for women in Alabama. The prison now houses twice the number of women for which it was built. Women are warehoused and treated less than human. Many are raped by white male guards. The prison has been named one of the ten worst prisons in America and the only prison in the list for women.

Our wrongly accused mother of two spent ten years in Tutwiler before she was exonerated and released. This happened only after appeal after appeal.

After reading about the women at Tutwiler, I found a whole new meaning for “the least of these.” And I found new meaning in the words of Jesus “and the first shall be last and the last shall be first.”

But one more word. Jesus did not stop with the words “the least of these.” He added “my brothers.” In some translations the passage ends “my family.” His identity was not as the Second Person of the Trinity. His identity was with “the least of these my family.”

Today in the United States over two million people are being held in prison and six million more are under parole or probation. I keep waiting for the reaction of Christian churches. The least of these is a family matter.

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer, Alaska. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.