Be A Bit Sheepiish

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. "If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden; like a spring whose waters never fail. — Isaiah 58:6-11

Ronald J. Sider, in his powerful book Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger sums up the teaching of Scripture on this subject by saying,

“God's Word teaches a very hard, disturbing truth. Those who neglect the poor and the oppressed are really not God's people at all—no matter how frequently they practice their religious rituals nor how orthodox are their creeds and confessions.”

THE EARLY CHURCH

The earliest generations of Christians took the whole message of the Bible and especially Jesus’ teaching in this parable seriously. They really believed Jesus meant it when he said they were to have a special care for the most vulnerable and marginalised people around them.

They gained such reputation for care and compassion that the Roman Emperor, Julian the Apostate, made this complaint about the Christians he despised but couldn’t help admiring because of their care for “the least of these” in his Empire. He complained of the Christians that “the impious Galileans [Christians] support not only their own poor but ours as well, all men see that our people lack aid from us..”

A good example of what Julian was talking about occured when a terrible plague hit the Roman Empire during the reign of the Emperor Maximinius II (303-313 AD). Eusebius, the earliest Christian historian, describes how the Christians responded to those affected by the plague “Then did the evidences of the universal zeal and piety of the Christians become manifest to all the heathen. For they alone in the midst of such ills showed their sympathy and humanity by their deeds. Every day some continued caring for the sick and burying the dead, for these multitudes had no one to care for them, others collected in one place those who were afflicted by famine, throughout the entire city and gave bread to them all”

This care and concern didn’t end with the early church. It’s always been there sometimes more clearly than others.