There is
a question Jesus asked that has never stopped being relevant. He asked it in
different ways throughout His ministry, but the heart of it was always the
same. Who are you paying attention to? Who are you walking past? Who have you
decided does not matter enough to stop for?
The answer to that question reveals more about the
condition of a person's heart than almost anything else.
Matthew 25:40 contains words that should make
every believer sit down and think carefully. Jesus says whatever you did for
one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. Not
something similar to what you did for Him. Not a symbolic gesture in His
direction. He says when you reach down to the one the world has passed over,
you are reaching toward Him. When you ignore that same person, you are walking
past Him.
That is not a small statement. That is a complete
restructuring of how we are supposed to see the world around us.
Who are the least among us? The poor come to mind
immediately. The homeless man on the corner that people cross the street to
avoid. The single mother working two jobs who still cannot make rent. The child
growing up in a home where nobody is fighting for them. The elderly person
sitting in a care facility waiting for a visitor who never comes. The prisoner
who made a terrible mistake and has been written off by everyone who once loved
them.
But there is another group that belongs in this
conversation. A group that cannot advocate for themselves, cannot vote, cannot
write letters, cannot speak up in courtrooms or boardrooms or churches. A group
that depends entirely on the humans around them to decide whether their lives
have value.
Our animals.
God made them. That is the starting point and it
should be enough. Genesis 1 records God creating every living creature and
calling it good before He ever created man. He did not call them useful. He did
not call them resources. He called them good. That word carries weight. It
means they have value in His eyes independent of what they do for us.
Proverbs 12:10 says a righteous man cares for
the needs of his animal. The original Hebrew word used there for cares goes
deeper than feeding and shelter. It carries the meaning of knowing,
understanding, paying attention to. God wired something into the character of a
righteous person that makes them attentive to the creatures He placed in their
care.
Have you ever looked into the eyes of an animal
that has been mistreated and seen something there that moved you? That is not
sentimentality. That is your conscience responding to an injustice against
something God made and loves.
The suffering of animals in this world is
staggering. Animals abandoned on roadsides when they become inconvenient.
Animals kept in conditions that no living creature should endure. Animals used
for entertainment or profit with no regard for the pain it causes them. Animals
that were once loved and then surrendered to shelters where they wait in
confusion, not understanding where their person went or why they have not come
back.
These are not small things to God. He is the God
who told Noah to bring every kind of creature into the ark. He is the God who
said in Psalm 50:10 and 11 that every animal of the forest is His and the
cattle on a thousand hills. He knows every sparrow that falls according to
Matthew 10:29. Not one of them is forgotten before Him.
If God keeps count of sparrows, what does that say
about how He feels when His creatures are mistreated by the very people He
charged with caring for them?
Genesis 2:15 says God put man in the garden to
tend and keep it. The word keep there means to guard, to protect, to watch
over. Dominion over creation was never a license for cruelty. It was a call to
stewardship. It was God entrusting the care of something He loved to the hands
of the people He made in His image.
We have not always carried that trust well.
But the call has not changed. Every person who
opens their home to a rescue animal is answering that call. Every person who
chooses kindness toward a creature that cannot say thank you is reflecting the
character of a God who notices. Every act of compassion toward the least among
us, whether that least is a person or a creature, is an act of worship.
What would it look like if the church took this
seriously? Not as a side issue or a soft concern for people who love animals a
little too much, but as a genuine expression of the kingdom of God? What if
caring for vulnerable creatures was understood as part of the same calling that
drives us to feed the hungry and clothe the poor?
Because it is. It comes from the same source. It
flows from the same God who looked at everything He made and said it was good.
Luke 10 gives us the story of the Good Samaritan. A
man was left on the road, beaten and ignored by people who had reasons to stop
and chose not to. The Samaritan stopped. He did not calculate whether the man
deserved his help. He did not weigh the cost against the inconvenience. He saw
someone who needed help and he gave it.
That is the standard. Not who deserves it. Not who
can repay it. Not who society has decided has value. But who needs it. Who is
suffering. Who has been left on the road.
Look around you. The least among us are everywhere.
In shelters and streets and silence. On four legs and two. Waiting for someone
to notice. Waiting for someone to stop.
Will you stop?
To God be all the glory for every heart He has softened toward the vulnerable. For every person He has positioned to make a difference in the life of someone the world overlooked. For every animal that found safety because one person decided that what God made was worth protecting.
See them. Serve them. Love them well.
That is what it means to follow Jesus.
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