Breaking Bread

There was a knock on the door. He was relaxing in a comfy chair after wild partying the night before, he considered not even getting up. The knock became louder and he decided to get up and see what the big deal was about. When he opened the door he was pulled into the hallway of the apartment complex. The group of five men standing in front of him wanted to know where they could find the roommate. When he was unable to answer them, they beat him, bruising his body, bloodying his face and head, and leaving him alone in the hallway wondering how he had got to this point in his life…

Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:21-26

She woke up early in the morning; again she was in a stranger’s bed and does not really know how nor does she really want to know. This is the 3^rd night this week and she is concerned. It has been a couple months since her last period, which is sometimes a usually occurrence, but this time she has been feeling weak, sick, and tired. She leaves the man’s bed and begins to walk, later finding a 24 hour drug store. The girl has no money; she has been on the street for the last two years. She steals the test and heads to the restroom. She is alone, she is lost, and she is in pain…

When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.” Luke 7:36-39

He walks to school knowing what he is about to do is wrong. He stole the gun from his father’s night stand and he is ready to kill the boy who has been teasing him since he came out. He doesn’t understand why people won’t except that he is just different, he likes men. He has it all planned out, when he arrives he will go to the bathroom and check the gun to make sure he loaded it correctly. The bully always sits at the cool kid table in the morning, picking on, mocking, and torturing those who he believes is weak. No one will even care that this guy is gone, the kid tells himself. Gun drawn, head down, and scared because when the trigger is pulled the lives of a few people change really quick. Entering the cafeteria, he pulls the trigger and…

Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Mark 2:13-17

I could share these stories all day. A couple of them are fabricated but are reality to many people on this planet. The first is an actual account of events as I remember it, waking up with a concussion. Why tell these stories and share these verses? It is about meeting people where they are at, just as Jesus did. He did not come to heal those who are not sick. Sad part is we are all sick, even if we neglect to admit it. Jesus broke bread and invited the sinners, the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the murders, and the sick to come and eat with him. He built relationships that allowed him to share the Good News and people believed him.

How do we share the Good News today? Many Christians that I have seen today want to convert you, they want you to say the prayer and alleluia, you are saved. Jesus wants a relationship with you, with them. It has been said that the biggest cause of Atheism in the world today is Christians. Why? Because instead of building a relationship with the gay guy in class, we shun him, tell him he is going to hell and that he needs this guy named Jesus. Where is the love? Instead of holding the young girl, whose father beat her daily, and giving her hope, we tell her that her promiscuous ways are gross, she is not valuing herself and she needs Jesus or she is going to hell. Where is the love? We look at the party guy, doing and selling drugs, constantly in fights, living out a life that is full of worldly desires and breaking every commandment. He needs hope, a future, a father who loves him, a mother who accepts him, and a community that is willing to stand behind him. Instead he is told his ways are evil, if he doesn’t except Jesus and do all the things we tell him to he is going to hell, and for now we shun him. Where is the love?

Jesus did not discriminate. He let you come eat with him, He became your friend, He expressed His love, and then He explained how to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. He met people where they were, in dirty apartment complexes full of drugs and sin. He met people in alleyways in the dark and showed them light. He met people on their way to school, in a bathroom, in cafeterias, in brothels, during wars, and anyplace he could find the sick. Jesus met them where they were and showed them love. People do not care how much you know about the bible until they know how much you care about them. We lose people for God when we attack them, but in moments of weakness our love, a love provided from God who is love, saves.