BULLETIN ARTICLE
21 July 2019
I WAS SICK
We serve a great God who loves justice, delights in it, demands it, and executes it for the sick, poor and needy. He leads us with it, promises it to us and ultimately judges us with it. He is the “God of Justice” and requires us to “act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).
Created in a garden, we were made aliens in an unfriendly world by the wound of sin (Gen 1-3). The first man born outside the garden, Cain, began the cycle of violence (murder of his brother Abel) and as a result, he became a restless wanderer upon the earth (Gen 4:12), outside the garden and the presence of God. Yet, at the same moment, a gracious God marked Cain to save his life (Gen 4:16), the first instance of the right of protection.
The Church’s Mandate
The Church has a biblical mandate to embrace, pursue and model justice. Christian love isn’t just about Christian evangelism but also finds concrete expression of justice in the midst of sociopolitical realities of life. Our Christian evangelism has social consequences and our social involvement similarly has Christian evangelistic consequences.
The root causes of humanitarian needs are found in racism, cultural conflict, poverty, competition for resources, ideology & religion, profiteering leaders and failures of the sinful human heart. Increasingly, Christian ministries involved in humanitarian responses are wondering how humanitarian responses are addressing these root causes. Are we at risk of being the ladles in the world’s soup kitchens?
Among the many codes of law in the ancient Near East, only the Bible contains specific legal protection for foreigners. Exodus 23:9 gets to the heart of the matter: “Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.” God’s people were to remember where they came from, how they had lived and what God had done to rescue them from slavery in Egypt. The standard by which God’s people were to treat their own poor was the proper and compassionate treatment of foreigners.
Caring for the Foreigners and Refugees
The biblical story of Ruth, a Moabite widow who takes refuge in Israel, illustrates God’s heart toward foreigners and refugees. Jesus too was a child refugee, taken by his parents to Egypt, to escape the politically motivated slaughter of innocent children in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:13-15).
Jesus builds on this tradition when he refers to welcoming strangers: “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.” (Matthew 25:35-36). Let us heartily welcome the strangers, foreigners and oppressed in Singapore as guests with open hearts, whom God has sent into our midst. We serve God best by serving people especially the sick, poor and needy.
