‘I was thirsty…’

Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in;  I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.' "Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.– Matthew 25.34-40

It is amazing how often Jesus talked about our spiritual work being carried out in a very real and practical manner.

Here he illustrated the truth with the illustration of a king and his servants. The time has some for rewards and the king tells them to come and get there blessings. He then tells them why they are being blessed. ‘You fed me when I was hungry, gave me a drink when I was thirsty, took me in as a stranger, clothed me when I was naked and visited me when I was sick and in prison.’

They knew what they had never done any of those things – ‘When did we do all of this?’

Jesus answer is powerful – ‘you did these things every time you did it to the most needy of my brethren.’

The lesson is pretty clear – we show how we really feel about Jesus by the way we treat the poor and needy. I am challenged every time I need this because this is real life. We all come across people who are needy. We all see opportunities to help. And far too often we all walk on by.

The challenging thing here is to examine our hearts when we come across these situations. Are our hearts even moved or do we even see these souls? I know we have to be wise and careful and use discretion but it is so much easier just to write the people off and move on our way.

The next time we see the hungry or thirsty or poorly clothed or homeless or ill, or even just that stranger with a need perhaps we ought to take time to consider Jesus words here. It hard to imagine how it would be wrong to help.