Who will stand up for the widow?

More than 200 years ago, Baptist missionary William Carey entered India. Its population today numbers more than 1 billion people.

Among the things he found there was a custom called Sati, the practice of burning widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands. On one occasion, and due to polygamy, he documented the deaths of 33 wives of one man on his pyre. While Sati has been banned now for nearly 200 years, India now has another problem: widows ostracized by their own families.

Forced to shave their heads and dress in white clothing, their color of mourning, these women flock to their holy city of Vrindavan in hope that death there will relieve them of their misery and shame. While it is believed that India has about 40 million widows, 15,000 are believed to live homeless on the streets of Vrindavan. Not allowed to remarry, widows are seen as a financial drain on the family, and must beg for what little food they eat.

But if you find such customs detestable, might I inquire as to how you treat the widows who are in your life?

To be sure, not all widows are the same, and in our country many are able to live out the remainder of their years on pensions which either they or their husbands had earned, requiring little to no financial assistance from family. Equally true is that not all widows are ostracized for the same reasons. While the widow in your life may not need you financially, what about your time?

While it may be detestable how widows are treated in India, if you call yourself a Christian, you need to understand that God calls you to love the widow or widows in your life. And this love goes beyond just saying you love them, but demonstrating your love for them.

We see this first in the Old Testament in Exodus 22 where we are told not to “afflict any widow.” Affliction is pain or suffering to either mind or body. They have affliction enough due to the sorrow of death and being alone; they do not need added pain or anguish brought on by thoughtless family or friends. In Deuteronomy 27, a special curse is pronounced on those who take advantage of them. It says, “Cursed is he that perverteth the judgment of the … widow.” What this means is that if you do not do right by a widow legally, you will have to answer to God.

Yes, widows are special people in God’s eyes.

But we also see that we are to love widows from the cross. In the gospel of John we see Mary standing by the cross in chapter 19. In the book of Luke we are told that this was a sword, which would pierce her soul. She, a widow by this time, was now losing her first-born son who, according to custom, was to provide for her. Such was his love for his earthly mother that from the cross Jesus caught her eye and said, “Woman,” and then turning to John, he said, “Behold thy son!” And then he said to John, “Behold thy mother!” Exclamation points included. The significance here is that even in the face of death, he provided for his widowed mother.

Do you call yourself a Christian? Then you must be like Jesus.

Lastly, we find that so important is our demonstrating love toward those who are widows in our families that it is included as an article of the Christian faith.

Paul tells Timothy in his first epistle to him that children and nephews are to show “piety at home, and to requite their parents.” Piety is Christian duty done out of our love for God. In effect, if you love God, you will do this. The word “requite,” on the other hand, means to repay. Just understand that you wouldn’t have made it in this world if someone hadn’t cared for you when you couldn’t care for yourself. In effect, you owe it to them.

So important is this concept that Paul will add just a few verses later that if any will not do this, that they have “denied the faith” (their Christianity) and are “worse than an infidel.”

You know, as appalling as it is to hear how widows are treated in India, if you call yourself a Christian, such behavior ought to be absolutely foreign to you, too.

Ron Hamman is pastor of Independent Baptist Church of Wasilla. Contact him at 357-4229 or ron.hamman@gci.net.

Opinions expressed on the Faith page are the author’s and are not necessarily those of the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman, its staff or its parent company, Wick Communications Co. To submit a column or other news for the Faith page, send e-mail to news@frontiersman.com, or call 352-2268.