INDIFFERENCE TOWARD THE POOR Lars Wilhelmsson. Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by...? (Lamentations 1:12)

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1 1 INDIFFERENCE TOWARD THE POOR Lars Wilhelmsson Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by...? (Lamentations 1:12) That was the question sadly posed by Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, to the people after the once glorious city of Jerusalem had been sacked and captured in the year 586 B.C. These people went on with their lives as thought nothing had happened! This lament has been lifted from the Old Testament and applied to the spectacle of a suffering Christ on His Cross. It has become a haunting question through the ages. No doubt there were those who passed by the cross of Christ with nonchalant unconcern. Some may have stopped to stare at the crucifixion with that vacant expression that we wear on our faces when we watch a gang of workmen tearing down on old building. They found it diverting for a few moments but they had no sense of involvement in it and therefore no sense of grief, sorrow or guilt. Others didn t even bother to stop. Why should they? It was just another crucifixion, and crucifixions were common in first century Palestine. You could watch one any day of the week. These were not necessarily bad people who conspired with the priests or assisted the executioners or joined the jeering mob. They did not directly crucify Jesus. They were just indifferent people who saw Him suffer, saw Him die, and shrugged their shoulders and probably yawned, It s none of our business. said, It is not only our reaction toward Jesus, but also toward His people, that matters. Jesus I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.... whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me (Mt 25:40,45). Jesus so identifies with His people, that what we do to them we do to Him and what we fail to do for them, we fail to do for Him. GLOBAL POVERTY Is it nothing to us, all of us who pass by the poor people of the world, 24,000 of whom die daily because of health related diseases, most of which can be cured? Is it morally acceptable that of the 6.6 billion people in the world, 852 million people almost one-sixth of the world s population live in poverty and face an unending struggle to obtain food, clothing and shelter for survival? How long can we say it s none of our business that one billion people globally who are forced to subsist on less than a dollar a day, that 2 billion people are hungry, and that three billion people live on less than two dollars per day?

2 2 How long will we pass by the 13% of the world s population who live at the precipice of starvation and 15 million of the world s population who starve each year? National Poverty How long will we say it s none of our business that 36 million people in our nation live below the poverty line with 4 million families being hungry to the point where members of the household are skipping meals? Can we turn the other way to more than 15.7 million (20%) children live in poverty (33% of black children) and 30 thousand die of hunger and health related disease each year which are preventable (like the lack of clean drinking water)? How long will we pass by the 14 million families which have critical housing needs as affordable housing disappears, rents and housing prices soar and homelessness keeps rising especially for families in urban areas? 1 Henry George has described poverty this way: Poverty is the open-mouthed, relentless hell which yawns beneath civilized society. Is involuntary, preventable poverty just regrettable, unfortunate, or is it something morally worse? Is there moral significance to poverty? Why are we told to help the poor more than 250 times in the Bible? To approach the poor without financial help not only lacks wisdom, but is heartless of people who claim to follow the One who went about doing good (Ac 10:38) as He ministered to all the needs of people. The poor and disenfranchised are not disembodied spirits who only need food for their spirits; they are human beings who also need food for their bodies. We are surrounded by families that are hemorrhaging economically. To stand and offer a prayer without an attempt to stop the bleeding defies Christian love (Jas 3:14-17). Samuel Johnson claims: A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization. Similarly, World Vision, states: Any religion that professes to be concerned with the souls of people and is not concerned with the slums that damn them and the economic conditions that strangle them is a dry-as-dust religion.

3 3 It seems we find it difficult to understand the plight of the poor unless we witness it firsthand. This is why personal involvement is so crucial. It is not enough to write a check in the comfort of our home or church. We need to get our hands dirty. We need to see for ourselves the suffering of others. Then we will better understand the seriousness of poverty in our own country and in the world and how to more genuinely respond to it. At the same time we as Christians are called upon to be committed to what is true and important although not immediately seen. Faith, after all, is the conviction of things unseen (Heb 11:1). Since we are rarely exposed to first or even secondhand experience with poverty, injustice and devastating suffering we are to remember what we know. THE PRISONERS Often prisoners are left out. Many of us are so preoccupied with our safety that we have little, if any, compassion for those caught for their evil deeds. That is 2 million strong in our prison system. Yet, as Christians, we are told: Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering (Heb 13:3). The mistreated may refer to prisoners or others persecuted for their faith. THE PERSECUTED How much do we pray for the persecuted church? Did you know that more Christians are dying for their faith today than ever before in the history of the church? But it is easy to be insulated from the suffering of these brothers and sisters. The writer to the Hebrew Christians exhorted them to Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions (Heb 10:32-34). The biblical paradigm is clear: If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it (1 Co 12:26).

4 4 When people suffer, all of us are affected as we remember the plight of those suffering (Gal 2:10; Col 4:18). Since this is not our natural inclination, we are called to make a conscious effort to remember those who suffer abuse and oppression in our world. We are to remember them as if we ourselves were suffering (Heb 13:3). THE UNBORN Have we not ignored the most innocent and vulnerable people in our world the unborn? Have we not treated, what Swiss Theologian Karl Barth called, the greatest modern sin, as though It s none of our business? God says, Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter (Pr 24:11). If a group of humans is being led away to death who ought not to be staggering toward slaughter, the people who fear God in the vicinity are morally obligated to try to rescue them. Some kind of intervention is commanded from us when we become aware of neighbors being killed. It was George Bernard Shaw who said, The worst sin toward our fellow man is not to hate them, but to be indifferent toward them. We have all heard of incidents of people suffering with crowds just standing by to watch. And the question keeps being asked, How can people be so heartless? How can people be so cold? Caring costs something, whereas it s easy to shrug the shoulders. That explains much of the apathy and indifference of our age. Martin Luther King, in his battle against racism, lamented: I fear the silence of the churches more than the shouts of the angry multitudes. (Emphasis added) Martin Niemoller, a German pastor and victim of a Nazi concentration camp, stated: In Germany, they first came for the Communists, and I didn t speak up because I wasn t a Communist; then they came for the Jews, and I didn t speak up because I wasn t a Jew. They came for the Trade Unionists, and I didn t speak up because I wasn t a Trade Unionist. They came for the Catholics, and I didn t speak up because I was a Protestant. They came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up.

5 5 When they came for the unborn, who was left to speak up? Forty-five million and counting have not been spoken for since the ominous Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973 that legalized abortion. SATAN S DEVICES C. S. Lewis, in his book, Screwtape Letters, tells about the devil briefing his nephew, Wormwood, a demon, on the techniques of tempting people. He tells him that the goal is not wickedness but indifference, not persuading good people to do evil, but persuading them to do nothing at all. The important thing, Satan says to his nephew, is to keep your patient comfortable. He tells him not to let anything upset him or disturb him. If he becomes the least bit concerned with anything vitally important, get him thinking what he plans to eat for lunch; warn him not to worry about anything that might upset his digestion. The devil sums up his advice to his nephew this way: I, the Devil, will always see to it that there are bad people. Your job, my dear Wormwood, is to provide me with people who do not care. Wormwood has done his job well! F. B. Meyer has stated: I believe that if there is one thing which pierces the Savior s heart with unutterable grief it is not the world s iniquity but the church s indifference. History teaches that, while we pay a price for caring, we pay a bigger price for not caring. Martin Luther King reminded us of that truth when he said, We may have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic actions and words of the bad people but also for the appalling silence and apathy of the good people. (Emphasis added) Dante said, The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who remain neutral in a time of great moral crisis. GOD CARES! In stark contrast to the apathy of people toward the plight of the suffering people of the world, we are drawn to a symbol that tells us emphatically that God cares the symbol of the cross. That is the great word spoken to proud and selfish people in the age of the shrug. Christmas speaks of God caring enough to empty Himself of the power and majesty of the Godhead and come down where we are and let our apathy and indifference do their worst to Him.

6 6 God loved the world! Including the world of the unborn! Can we be indifferent to that? Can we shrug our shoulders at the selfless act? Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? G. A. Studdert Kennedy expresses this point poignantly with the following poem: When Jesus came to Golgotha they hanged Him on a tree, They drove great nails through hands and feet, and made a Calvary; They crowned Him with a crown of thorns, red were His wounds and deep, For those were crude and cruel days, the human flesh was cheap. When Jesus came to Birmingham, they simply passed Him by, They never hurt a hair of Him, they only let Him die; For men had grown more tender, and they would not give Him pain. They only just passed down the street, and left Him in the rain. Still Jesus cried, Forgive them, for they know not what they do, And still it rained the winter rain that drenched Him through and through; The crowds went home and left the streets without a soul to see, And Jesus crouched against a wall and cried for Calvary. The crude and physical agony of the cross was nothing compared to the indifference of the crowd on Main Street as they passed by. NOTES 1 Poverty stats: (7/15/2009), 1.

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