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“...and the last shall be first”
January 16 was an extremely cold day by Nashville, Tennessee standards. The thermometer was showing 3 degrees when I got up that morning. I had a 10:00 AM appointment to visit a man in the Davidson County Jail. The temperature had risen to 11 degrees when I arrived to look for a parking place near the jail. The nearest I was able to find was an underground garage some three blocks away.
One of the larger problems for a 68 year old man with emphysema it the ability to walk any distance without becoming extremely winded. Even though the walk to the jail was a slight downward slope, by the time I arrived I was breathing extremely hard. A guard just inside the entrance offered me a chair and the opportunity to catch my breath before going up two flights of stairs to the visitation area. I completed a very nice two hour visit with a man I had been working with for a number of months who was in jail for a technical violation of his parole from prison. When I left the jail both of us were feeling much better as a result of the time we spent together.
When I left the jail around noon, the temperature had risen to 14 degrees. My immediate problem was the three block walk uphill which I knew would be about all I could possibly do with the emphysema. After about two blocks I was audibly gasping for breath. After another half block, my heart was pounding and my pace had slowed to about a fourth of my normal walking speed. The area through which I was walking was what had been the old courthouse square and there were a number of benches along the walkway. However, the benches were metal and, with the temperature at 14 degrees, did not appear very inviting. I decided to keep walking as best I could, at some points struggling just to put one foot in front of the other.
I was not alone on my walk. A number of attorneys in expensive suits, nice warm overcoats and gloves, carrying their briefcases, were leaving the courthouse going back to their cars and offices. About a dozen of these walked past me, both men and women, and I am sure they had important matters on their minds. However, even though my problem was very obvious, not a single one of them slowed down or showed any concern whatsoever. I was approximately 50 yards from the elevator which would take me down to my car when I passed a bench on which a man was sitting.
His clothes were old and dirty and the overcoat he was wrapped in was well worn. Next to him was a bag which may well have contained the total of his worldly goods. He was unshaven and looking very haggard as he sat trembling on the cold bench. I would imagine he was homeless and there was no telling where he had spent the previous night. He was the kind of person most of us have seen on the streets of our cities, usually asking for a handout. I have no idea the events of a lifetime or the poor choices he had made which resulted in his being on that bench in the cold,. I am also sure he was as much to blame for his situation as anyone else.
As I passed him continuing toward the parking garage I was a little startled when he spoke to me. It was not the fact that he spoke because many men in his condition often ask strangers for money. What startled me was what he said. “Mister” he said, “Do you need some help?” In fact, I was so startled by the kind offer coming from this man that I simply smiled and said, “Thank you, I’ll be alright.” When I finally reached my car, got the motor running and began generating a little heat I spent a few minutes catching my breath. As I sat there my mind returned to the tattered man shivering on the metal bench.
In that moment I remembered Jesus and his contempt for the scribes and Pharisees who were the lawyers and religious leaders of His day. That simple act of kindness gave me a greater appreciation of why Jesus chose to spend his time with the lame, the halt, the downtrodden and outcast of society.. He must have felt the same compassion and appreciation for their humble attitudes that I felt as I reconstructed the event in my mind.
I will never know his name or whether he ever found a place to get out of the cold. I will never know what the future holds for him or where and how he will finally wind up. What I do know is that at that moment the better angels of human nature were clearly on display. As I think back I wish I could find him. I wish I could show him the appreciation he deserves. I wish I could take him somewhere, buy him a meal or give him a few dollars. That will never be possible. What I do know is that as I crawled into my warm bed that night I said a special prayer for him and thanked God for men with hearts like his.
I can’t help but believe in my heart of hearts that this was exactly the type of individual Jesus had in mind when He said,
“And they will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God, and behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” (Luke 13:29-30)
“...truly I say to you that tax gatherers and harlots will get
into the kingdom of God before you.” (Matt. 21:31)
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