But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. [John 10:2-3 (ESV)]
Brent Askari’s play, The Refugees, begins with an unusual premise. Because of a violent civil war in the United States, an upscale American family become refugees in a Middle Eastern country. When the family’s Arab social worker referred to the American refugees as “you people,” the once suburban housewife’s expression spoke volumes. In her previous Connecticut life, anyone who wasn’t white and upper middle class had been “those people” but the tables have turned and the roles reversed. Instead of being the ones with the money and advantages, her family and others like them are “those people:” a minority, seeking asylum in a new country, unfamiliar with the customs, and unable to read, write, or speak the language. Wearing clothes they once would have sent to Goodwill, they need government assistance to survive. Her once high-priced lawyer husband is now a stock boy whose boss takes advantage of his immigrant status. This family and other American refugees are as unwelcome in the unnamed Arab country as are the refugees at our border.
“Those people” is a term frequently used to draw a distinction between people like ourselves and others. Whether that difference is color, nationality, disability, sexual preference, ethnicity, sex, religion, age, politics, or social standing, that phrase usually indicates some kind of bias or discrimination, be it racism, ageism, sexism, anti-Semitism, chauvinism, xenophobia, homophobia, or some other phobia or ism. When saying “those people” or “you people,” the speaker usually is ascribing a particular quality (usually negative) to an entire group. “Those people” and “you people” doesn’t see individual faces and stories; it sees stereotypes and generalizations.
In Jesus’ day, “those people” in Palestine were beggars, lepers, tax collectors, prostitutes, the unclean, Gentiles, and Samaritans. Even Galileans, like Jesus, were “those people” to Judeans! With a reputation as trouble makers, they were disdained because of their mixed ancestry and considered uneducated because of their accent. Being one of “those people,” Jesus knew ethnic prejudice first hand.
For Jesus, however, there were no “those people.” Rather than a Samaritan woman of questionable morals, He saw a woman thirsty for His living water. Rather than a pagan Syrophoenician woman, He saw a loving mother with faith in Him. Rather than a noisy blind beggar or unclean lepers, Jesus heard people begging for God’s mercy and, instead of a collaborating publican, He saw a man desperate enough to climb a tree just to see Him. The Pharisees only saw a sinful woman, but Jesus saw a woman in need of forgiveness who showed her love for Him with her tears. Jesus didn’t see a self-righteous legalistic Pharisee when Nicodemus visited in the dead of night; He saw a man in search of the truth.
In fact, Jesus knowingly sought out “those people.” He deliberately went through Samaria when most Jews avoided it like the plague and He is the one who defied convention and started the conversation with the woman at the well. He’d gone deep into a pagan territory with a long history of opposition to Israel when He encountered the Syrophoenician woman. He openly dined with Matthew, his publican friends, and other sinners and Jesus is the one who invited Himself to dinner at the home of Zacchaeus. The Lord sailed clear across the Sea of Galilee to the Gentile region of the Gadarenes just to heal the demon-possessed! We may not know all the names of those touched by Jesus, but He did! As the Good Shepherd, He knew their names.
There were no “those people” to the Lord—every one of them was one of God’s children. It shouldn’t take becoming one of “you people” to make us understand that “those people” are people just like us—people in need of God’s love.
Years ago, I often cared for my granddaughter while also watching my son’s dog. The grand in her highchair would push her food around the tray while trying to feed herself. Since fine motor skills are lacking in toddlers, a fair amount of whatever she was eating ended up on the floor. Whatever my grand didn’t get in her mouth became a feast for the dog waiting patiently beneath her for the bits and pieces that fell. When she was a bit older, I think she deliberately dropped a few tidbits for her canine friend.
When considering Solomon’s excess and riches, I recalled comedian George Carlin’s “Stuff” routine. First performed for Comic Relief in 1986, Carlin made fun of our obsession with having stuff. Along with being the King of Israel, Solomon was the King of Stuff. Denying himself nothing, along with his elaborate throne of gold and ivory, he displayed 500 ornamental gold shields on the walls of his palace. Rather than silver, all the king’s goblets and eating utensils were made of pure gold. He had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horseman.
God gifted Solomon with great wisdom and people from every nation journeyed to Solomon’s court to hear his wisdom. Although 1 Kings 3 tells us that Solomon wisely determined the identity of the real mother in a dispute between two women who claimed to have given birth to the same infant [3:16-28], one wise answer hardly seems newsworthy enough to make him famous beyond Israel’s borders. Even the king’s prolific writings and vast knowledge of botany and zoology don’t fully explain his renown. In a world without mass media, what caused his reputation to travel some 1,400 miles to Sheba (modern Yemen)? Sheba’s queen was so interested in meeting the king that she and her entourage made a journey which, including her stay in Judah and the return trip, took two to three years. What about Solomon caused her to travel so far to assess the king’s wisdom and wealth for herself?
My son has a beautiful pomegranate tree in his yard but, when he first purchased the property, he didn’t know what it was. Although showy red flowers eventually appeared, it wasn’t until the flowers developed into deep-red globe-shaped fruit that he knew it was a pomegranate. The tree was recognized by its fruit and it is by our fruit that Christ’s followers are recognized.
As Christ’s followers, we are saved through our faith and God’s grace. God takes us soiled sinners just as we are because there is no way we could be good enough to earn salvation. Nevertheless, just because God welcomes His immoral, angry, impatient, bad-tempered, anxious, sinful, and selfish children doesn’t mean He wants us to stay that way. When Jesus saved the woman caught in adultery, He told her to, “Go and sin no more” and, when we are saved, He tells us the same thing!
Devotions of the Heart 