Thursday, December 27, 2001

Read: Matthew 25:31-46

Some may think that the picture of judgment of the nations in this text is not speaking on the humanitarian ethic of good works, but rather upon how the nations, or the people, have treated Jesus' followers. That may be the case with the early Christians who were traveling from village to village, spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ. If we read Paul's letters to the Corinthians, especially 1 Corinthians 4:9-13, and 2 Corinthians 11:23-29, we see the early mission field where itinerating preachers faced hostility of the world, including Paul himself, as he says in 1Corinthians 4:9-13:

"To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless, and we grow weary from the work of our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we speak kindly. We have become like the rubbish of the world, the dregs of all things, to this very day."

In our world where Christians live amongst people of many religions: Jews, Hindi, Buddhists, Muslims; I would read this passage from Matthew 25 with some expanded applications. We rub shoulders, manage our daily tasks, and cooperate on a global scale, with the people of other religions. We have to admit that Christianity alone cannot save this world from its manifold dangers of environmental emergencies, economic disasters, and political conflicts.

Christians, particularly in North America, are relatively well off in comparison with other people in Third World countries. And many, who are hungry, thirsty, and naked, are mostly of other religious backgrounds. Multi-national enterprises have been invading their territories with the power of mammon, destroying their indigenous culture and life-styles in the name of Gold, not of God. Now is the time when Jesus and his followers should help the nations; the nations will judge the genuine Jesus and his followers.

Sungsoo Hans Hahn

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