Jesus, dinner, & the poor

(This is a repost from Monday, June 9, 2008.)

"As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. So Jesus told him, 'What you are about to do, do quickly.' But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival, or to give something to the poor." (John 14:27-29)

You may have read this passage hundreds of times. Obviously, the main story in this passage is Jesus' last supper with his closest disciples, but I read this and was STRUCK with a thought.

Think about it, Jesus and the boys are sitting around eating dinner. Jesus tells Judas to hurry up and do his thing. The other guys weren't in on the prior conversation so they didn't know exactly what Jesus was telling Judas to go do... BUT they just assumed Jesus was telling Judas to buy some supplies OR go out and give something to help some poor people!

Man, I LOVE this!!! Here's what it tells me about Jesus. He was the kind of guy who would just stop in the middle of dinner & go out and give something to the poor! He must have done that before many times because that's just what his disciples assumed was happening.

Doesn't that sound crazy to us though!?! Imagine you're at your family's Thanksgiving dinner this year and the food smells awesome and the turkey has been carved. You take a few bites and then stand up and say "I'll see you guys later, I'ma run out and feed some poor people." Or imagine you're at your next lunch staff meeting and right in the middle of it the boss says "OK guys, let's go out and help the homeless guys downtown."

That's just the kind of guy Jesus was & I LOVE it. I wanna be like that. More concerned about the poor around me than my own comfort, or eating my dinner, or following dinner etiquette.

(Check out my next post and I'm gonna tell you about a friend of mine who is doing something along these lines. Jesus is pretty stoked about it too.)