"....A certain blind man sat by the road begging....So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be brought to Him....Zacchaeus, make hast and come down, for today I must stay at your house." (From Luke 18 & 19)
Our text speaks of a lonely, blind beggar, followed by the lonely, rich government official. One was a "down-and-outer," the other, an "up-and-outer." Both were "outers," people with whom their culture had little to do. Then came Jesus. He literally stopped everything for both the poor man and the rich man. This is unlike many Christian "ministries" today. If you took a survey of congregations' outreach, you would find an almost unbelievable neglect of the educated and the rich. Why? For one reason, you can patronize and feel superior to the poor and uneducated. You cannot have such attitudes toward the rich and educated. You can intimidate the one, but are usually intimidated by the other.
If Jesus Christ reigns in a person, a church, even a government, then there is no favoritism, no neglect or punishment of the one to do something for the other. Governments which target the rich with heavy taxes believe that the best way to help the poor is to rob and penalize the rich. This is "class warfare," the heart of classic communism, not the heart of the Gospel.
You and I are called to be different. In Jesus, we can feel just at home with the poor and uneducated as with the rich and educated, because we don't look at the outward man. We look at the inward man. We realize that both need forgiveness of sins, deliverance from the coming Judgment and the fires of Hell, and that "no man comes to the Father but by Me." So, look for them today, the uneducated and the educated, the poor and the rich, and, "do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen"------ no favoritism, no "compassion" and boldness with one, yet prejudice and fear with the other, just Jesus in you manifesting Jesus to them.
Father, in Jesus' Name, deliver me from the reasoning and eyes of man to the reasoning and eyes of You. Amen.
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