The Kingdom of Heaven… A Place Where People Matter

When Jesus spoke about the Kingdom of Heaven, what was it that He was trying to teach us?

There are so many things we can & should learn from the teachings of Jesus & the stories He told, but so often these stories seemed to help us better understand one major idea:

How we treat people in the Kingdom of Heaven matters.

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Last week I came across this story from relevantmagazine.com:

“HBO’s John Oliver continues to be one of the most interesting provocateurs on TV. The Last Week Tonight host did a long, investigative segment on America’s controversial debt collection industry, and, just to demonstrate his point about how easy it is to try and collect old debt from unsuspecting people, he set a new TV record. Last night, he “gave away” nearly $15 million.

Back in April, the folks from Last Week Tonight set up a company called “Central Asset Recovery Professionals, or CARP, after the bottom-feeding fish.” From there, they did what countless companies across the country are currently doing. They purchased millions of dollars of old, unsettled medical debt for fractions of a penny on the dollar—nearly $15 million of debt for about $60,000. As Oliver explains, it was shockingly easy to purchase the personal information of nearly 9,000 people—including social security numbers.

But, unlike other companies in the debt collection industry, some of whom harass the debt holders in an effort to collect the long forgotten debts, Oliver did something extraordinary: He forgave it. He explained:

Why not forgive it? Because on one hand, it’s obviously the right thing to do. But much more importantly, we’d be staging the largest one-time giveaway in television show history.”

(Read more at http://www.relevantmagazine.com)

These 9,000 people, no one saw them as people. They were seen as numbers, not names. They were seen as dollars to be collected, not people who have a problem. Their stories were unknown & they were invisible.

But John Oliver SAW their need & forgave their debt, a debt they could never repay.  Sounds a little bit like the Kingdom of Heaven to me.

Have you ever known what it feels like to feel invisible?

Like no one sees you, no one knows your situation, your problems, your despair.

I’ll be honest, I love this story because I think whether John Oliver knew it or not, he was participating in that moment in making things on earth as they are in heaven. I know what he was going for. He was going for a lead story. He was going for ratings. But what he did was right. And when people do the right thing, even people who don’t personally know this Jesus that we know & love, we resonate with it because we know why what they did matters so much.

It’s more than the fact that it was the morally right thing to do.

It’s more than the fact that it’s how people should be treated who have been through such tremendous medical tragedy & turmoil.

It’s more than the fact that it’s being a good citizen or humanitarian.

It’s right because it reflects the image & nature of God in every one of us.

Jesus once told a story about the importance of SEEing people as people created by & loved by God. His story went like this…

19 Jesus said, “There was a certain rich man who was splendidly clothed in purple and fine linen and who lived each day in luxury. 20 At his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus who was covered with sores. 21 As Lazarus lay there longing for scraps from the rich man’s table, the dogs would come and lick his open sores.

22 “Finally, the poor man died and was carried by the angels to sit beside Abraham at the heavenly banquet. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and he went to the place of the dead. There, in torment, he saw Abraham in the far distance with Lazarus at his side.

24 “The rich man shouted, ‘Father Abraham, have some pity! Send Lazarus over here to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. I am in anguish in these flames.’

25 “But Abraham said to him, ‘Son, remember that during your lifetime you had everything you wanted, and Lazarus had nothing. So now he is here being comforted, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides, there is a great chasm separating us. No one can cross over to you from here, and no one can cross over to us from there.’  Luke 16.19-31

There’s more to the story, but here’s the one thing I want us to think about today…

People matter to God, & people should matter to us.

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Even though Lazarus had been at his doorstep, the Rich Man had never truly seen him. And this is the crux of the story, isn’t it? For Lazarus to be at his door step day in & day out & for the Rich Man to never SEE him, never take notice of Him, never take action on his behalf. This is the problem in the story.

I hate what happened in Orlando two weeks ago. It’s a tragedy we won’t soon forget. I hate the violence, the terror, the hurt, the pain – all of it. It’s the antithesis of what life is like in the Kingdom of Heaven. But I love what happened afterward. This story didn’t catch as many headlines. But several Chick-Fil-A restaurants, which are normally closed on Sunday’s, opened their doors. Their people came into work preparing biscuits, sandwiches, & tea. Then they loaded up all the food they had prepared & they took it to police officers, they took it to the blood donation centers, they took it to the streets & they responded to people who were in need.

You probably know that Chick-Fil-A has a bit of a Christian slant. They close their doors on Sunday’s to allow their employees a day off & the chance to go to church. They take a hit financially on that day because of their Christian principles & values. Yet they broke all the rules & responded with free food in the middle of a crisis because they saw people in need.

And we should do the same in our everyday lives, because…

People matter to God, & people should matter to us.

I believe this story about the Rich Man & Lazarus challenges us to SEE people like Chick-Fil-A saw people two weeks ago on Sunday after that tragic shooting. For us to SEE people like John Oliver saw 9,000 people in medical debt. To see people in despair & to respond to their need. To see people as people created in the image of God, not see people with any other set of lenses that may highlight their differences or give us permission to dismiss them.

In the Kingdom of Heaven, people matter. People matter. People matter.

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People matter more than possessions. People matter more than schedules. People matter more than politics. People matter more than anything. And even though we can divide ourselves into thousands of categories & we can debate over all our differences at the end of the day, people matter because people, all people, are created in the image of God, bear the image of God & are people of immeasurable worth.

May we SEE people they way Jesus sees people. As people created by & loved by God.

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