Richard Grantham

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Matthew 25:31-46 [Good News version]

When the Son of Man comes as King and all the angels with him, he will sit on his royal throne, and the people of all the nations will be gathered before him. Then he will divide them into two groups, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the righteous people on his right and the others on his left. Then the King will say to the people on his right, 'Come, you that are blessed by my Father! Come and possess the kingdom which has been prepared for you ever since the creation of the world. I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me a drink; I was a stranger and you received me in your homes, naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me, in prison and you visited me.' The righteous will then answer him, 'When, Lord, did we ever see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we ever see you a stranger and welcome you in our homes, or naked and clothe you? When did we ever see you sick or in prison, and visit you?' The King will reply, 'I tell you, whenever you did this for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did it for me!'
Then he will say to those on his left, 'Away from me, you that are under God’s curse! Away to the eternal fire which has been prepared for the Devil and his angels! I was hungry but you would not feed me, thirsty but you would not give me a drink; I was a stranger but you would not welcome me in your homes, naked but you would not clothe me; I was sick and in prison but you would not take care of me.' Then they will answer him, 'When, Lord, did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and would not help you?' The King will reply, 'I tell you, whenever you refused to help one of these least important ones, you refused to help me.' These, then, will be sent off to eternal punishment, but the righteous will go to eternal life.

It had to happen.

I'd cycled for almost a year so I reckoned I possessed the knowhow to try it in the wet for once. On the weekend I left my honey's house for home on my usual route. During the initially feeble shower I took it slowly, for there was no hurry. It was an uneventful ride even when it began to rain seriously, so I gained confidence. But then my luck changed.

Braking while I turned left down a slope, I hydroplaned over the wet street when my bike skidded on slippery purple flowers lying everywhere (having fallen from a nearby tree). Somehow or other I rocketed over my handlebars, the bitumen rudely rushing up to meet me. I skinned my palms, elbows, side, knees and mouth, struck my shoulder and chipped a tooth.

I lay there feeling lousy, groaning like hell, striving not to swear since there was a very young child with an umbrella outside the house opposite me. She hurried indoors, ushering out... yet another umbrella-wielding young lady to see the hopeless, ignominious loser on the street. How sweet. :)

However, my poor fortune was reversed soon thereafter with the appearance of the ladies' father, who thoughtfully invited me into his house where I could wash my filthy wounds. He spoke genially in an unusual Eastern European accent and turned out to work in the biology department of my university.

He then bound my deeper wounds, offered me a shower, and to cap it off drove me to my house - saying it was purely what anyone else would do. Without his help, I seriously don't know how my ride would have ended.

Dr Jiri Stiller, you are my hero. Thank you so much for taking the message of Matthew Twenty-Five to heart, and choosing to treat this unholy fool as though he were someone important.

 

 

 

 

 

...though it was only later that I realised he'd helped a guy with long hair, a beard, holes in his hands and a wounded side. ;)

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Updated: May 10, 2016


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