Matthew 25 is a parable that describes and defines how we see people. In this one parable Jesus illustrates the contrast between a lifestyle of compassionate welcome and a lifestyle of uncaring self-concern.
One of the additional losses but necessary consequences of our current situation is that wearing masks obscures faces. For public health reasons, care and consideration of others, and the common good, a face covering in public closed spaces is, in my view, a moral duty and an act of responsible care. But face coverings have a major impact on social interaction - they cover faces. That is, they hide or obscure facial expressions of welcome, smiling, recognition, uncertainty, and much else. They make recognition, interpretation and communication more difficult.
The face is an outward expression of the inner person, and often seeing a facial expression enables us to interpret, communicate and interact with those amongst whom we live and move and have our being. Abraham Joshua Heschel (pictured) wrote with profound understanding about the importance of seeing and interpreting the face. To him the human face is a miracle of meaning, a mirror of the self, a road map of your life, or as Heschel put it, "an incarnation of uniqueness".
As one whose own face was known internationally and was remarkably expressive, he affirmed of all human beings, "no face is a commonplace".
Which brings us back to Matthew 25. Christ's extraordinary words are well known; "Insofar as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did it to me."
Did what? When?
"Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."
If someone is hungry, thirsty, lonely, destitute, sick, in any and every kind of need, what makes it worse is if it is unnoticed, if no one cares, helps or recognises their need. Jesus is illustrating the welcoming mindset of the Kingdom of God, welcome as a worldview, compassion as a lifestyle, care for others as an habituated disposition. And that comes from seeing faces, recognising our shared humanity in every face, and from welcoming the presence of each 'other'. That in turn means caring for the humanity of every 'other' whose face we see, and whose life we encounter as we go about the daily routines of every day.
Welcome is to look at someone’s face and know, here is a God-loved person, one for whom Christ died. Welcome isn’t being in someone’s face; it is to accept, receive and rejoice in a person’s presence, uniqueness and value. “Welcome others as Christ welcomed you…” Welcome means seeing in the face of each person the Christ who was the Eternal Word become flesh. In Jesus, we see God with a human face, and in each person we encounter one who is created in the image of God.
In that powerful and often astringent book, Life Together, Bonhoeffer wrote of prayer for others as a way of recovering an attitude of welcome to those we'd rather weren't around, or at least not around us!
"I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me. His face, that hitherto may have been strange and intolerable to me, is transformed in intercession into the countenance of a brother for whom Christ died, the face of a forgiven sinner."
I've always been intrigued by the way Bonhoeffer writes this. He clearly understands the importance of facial recognition, seeing Christ in the other person, and also seeing the infinite value of each human being as one for whom Christ died. That puts Jesus' words into even clearer focus - "Insofar as you did it for one of these, you did it for me." Brian Wren's hymn, 'When Christ was lifted from the earth', describes the generous, inclusive and welcoming love of Christ that his followers are called to embody:
1 When Christ was lifted from the earth,
his arms stretched out above
through every culture, every birth,
to draw an answering love.
2 Still east and west his love extends
and always, near or far,
he calls and claims us as his friends
and loves us as we are.
3 Where generation, class, or race
divide us to our shame,
he sees not labels but a face,
a person, and a name.
4 Thus freely loved, though fully known,
may I in Christ be free
to welcome and accept his own
as Christ accepted me.
There is an inescapable logic in Christians as people of welcome. If you love Christ it’s because you are loved by Christ; we love because he first loved us. We are called to "see not labels but a face, a person and a name. AS those loved by God ourselves, we know that the face of every person is unique and no commonplace, the face of one for whom Christ died. And each time we meet someone, the Lord puts a question to us. In the face of this person I am now encountering, do I see the face of one for whom Christ died, and whom God loves? And will I "welcome and accept his own, as Christ accepted me".
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