Jesus

When I was a youth minister in Massachusetts the local ministers from various churches would gather for a pre-Easter service. Seven ministers would get up one by one and share the last seven phrases that Jesus said from the cross. I always wanted to be asked to share number 6, “It is finished”, but I was never asked to, so today I will.

Saying the words, “It is finished” can bring relief. The pain, the distress, the task at hand, or the conflict is over. No more of whatever was causing such discomfort. Those words certainly said a lot for the one who spoke them that day, for he was going down a “dead end!” But was “it” really finished? Sure the work Jesus came here to earth to do was, but I believe our work was just beginning.

Jesus showed us how to live, pray, “be”, love, overcome, deal with evil, trust our heavenly father, face fear and even die. When He said, “It is finished” He might as well gone on to say, “You are just beginning. Now go and show others there is a better way to live. Don’t just tell them, but show them the love of my Father as I have shown you. Convince them that in believing in my death and resurrection there is so much hope it will last for eternity.” For us, it isn’t finished, yet.

I work in downtown Chicago. Just walking from the train station to my building I see a lot of humanity. The best and the worst of mankind, but today, today I saw Jesus.

I had run out of my house this morning to catch my train and did not take time to eat breakfast. As a result I stopped by a fast food establishment to pick something up. I saw a woman who appeared to be taking her time in ordering breakfast. The line was getting long. I didn’t know until later that she was ordering something that she usually doesn’t and she wanted to make sure the person behind the counter got it right. I got my order in, grabbed it, filled my drink and hurried out the door, and that is when I saw Jesus.

I saw the woman who had taken so much time ordering, who had held up the line, giving a homeless man his breakfast. She saw me watching, and the next thing I know we were talking. I told her that was very cool. She then said, “If a man is hungry how can you not feed him?” As she went on to share with me the words of Jesus, “Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me–you did it to me.” (Mat. 25:40 MSG), I sensed the Holy Spirit, the presence of God. If Yoda, from “Star Wars”, was a Christian he might say about her, “The Holy Spirit is strong with this one!” It is an awesome feeling to sense God’s presence oozing out of a person who is so filled up with God it can’t help but come out!

I know Jesus would have fed the homeless man too, and he would have also fed his soul. If you look around at humanity you will see there are a lot of people who need to be fed. Here I am talking about their soul’s need to be fed. They need to hear hope. They need to know there is One who knows them, sees them, and not only loves them, but gave his own son for them. They are starving. There is a spiritual famine in this world today. That is why there are so many conflicts going on all over the world. The worse thing is some don’t even know they are hungry. They have ignored the spiritual hunger pains so long they don’t even realize why they hurt inside. Be Jesus today. Be Jesus every day. Feed the multitudes.