Arriving at a church meeting early, I stood talking with those who had also arrived early. Someone who needed a pen asked if anyone had one.
One person took a Bic out of their pocket and gave it to them. The person who had the pen wondered how the pen happened to be in that pocket. I remember she said, "I was helping Billy Smith with maths and I’ve taken his pen away with me. No matter, he won’t miss it, he’s from a lower-class family and will never amount to anything anyway".
I have thought about that comment many times over the years. What was it like when Jesus walked this earth. Would he make such a comment?
The gospels don’t tell us much about the historical time of Jesus but all indications tell us it wasn’t good.
Central to Jerusalem was the temple, the centre of all that was religious. It’s said the temple was paved in gold and draped in fine materials. In it dwelt the Ark of the Covenant. Priests dressed in elaborate robes. Forgiveness could only be given by a priest and made with the right sacrifice bought with the temple money.
The Temple class were what today we would described as the temple oligarchy.
On the other side of this were the ordinary people living in abject poverty. It has been said that 80% of Jerusalem’s population were homeless.
Through all this a baby was born in a lowly stable at Bethlehem. His name was Jesus. Jesus grew up in the face of all the poverty and wealth of his day. The gospels say little about Jesus until he started his ministry at the age of 30. Between the ages of 12-30 were his years of looking, listening and thinking, informing what his ministry was to be.
At the age of 30, as a Jew who loved and believed in his people no matter their position in life, or place in society, he knew what he had to do. He entered a ministry of love, hope, healing, forgiving, feeding and much more. Crowds followed him to hear his message.
What about today, 2000 years later? The world today is not too different from Jesus’ day. Homelessness, poverty, unemployment and loss of purpose in life, and on the other hand extreme wealth. It all blends in with the story of Jesus.
Every night on television we hear that more money is needed for housing, healthcare, education, mental health. Need, they tell us, is outstripping the available money. So we keep waiting andhoping.
Maybe there is another way, for example, as Jesus did the sharing of love. It works often in small ways.
A woman I spoke to one day had had major surgery and she wanted to thank me for the small part I had played in her healing. I had walked passed her room in the ward each day and spoke to her. Healing can take place just in saying "Hello, how are you?".
As a young boy I saw my mother and a small group of women standing on a street corner. They were crying and embracing a woman at the centre. The woman had just lost her son in a polio epidemic that was going around at the time. Their reaction to the woman’s grief was motivated by love.
The late author Bryce Courtenay told a story of his son talking to a friend about their fathers.
His friend said: "My dad owns a big house with land, he owns cars and boats and takes me for rides in his aeroplane."
What’s my son going to say, thought Bryce.
His son said four words: "My dad loves me." Even a young boy valued his father’s love over what is ephemeral.
As love grows we change how we view those less fortunate, and who need our care.
It makes a difference to how we see our environment, the oceans, forests, rivers and much more.
As Andrew LIoyd Webber wrote in his musical Aspects of Love, ‘‘Love changes everything’’.
— The Rev Ron Gilder is a retired Dunedin Presbyterian minister.
