Jesus Moves In... And Takes Over

 

“Jesus” moved into our house last October. My wife Cindy and I are empty nesters. We live in the older section of

Cary with lots of tall loblolly pines around our 1968 splitlevel. Like most people in middle class America, we lived quiet lives until Jesus turned our lives upside down

 

We both were on edge with “Jesus” in the house – not that we ever felt threatened — we didn’t, and, even if we had, we were bigger than he was. We could have taken him down, if it had ever come to it, and there were times we wanted it to.

 

In some ways, “Jesus” was a good house guest. I enjoyed talking to him and learning about his homeland. He was polite, and tried to be considerate of Cindy’s concern about being alone in the house with a stranger. Since I am out a lot at night for meetings, he often waited till 8 or 9 p.m. before returning home.

 

But “Jesus’ ” presence was trying, too. Our water bill went through the roof! We could only imagine what he was doing with the water running so long in the bathroom. So much water flew around, that the paint started peeling off the walls.

 

He also didn’t seem to mind inconveniencing us. He seemed unconcerned that Cindy fixed dinner at 9:30 p.m. on one of his first nights with us. “Jesus” also seemed to expect us to drop everything to run him to the bus stop or to take him on some other errand.

 

Cindy and I increasingly felt a strain that finally spilled over into hard words between us. With the tension we felt, we imagined he would want to leave. But “Jesus” did not want to leave. He liked our house. He didn’t want to learn a new bus schedule and a new home routine. “Jesus” dragged his feet when a church member volunteered to take him for a week. He asked his prospective host if she was sure she wanted to have him there. “Jesus” canceled a

dinner appointment with her, because, he said, it was cold and raining. This led to hard words between him and me.  After four weeks with us, another St. Michael’s family took him.

 

I had met "Jesus" a couple of months before. The 29-year-old man had fled China because of police persecution for his work with a democratic rights campaign. Like many, he came to the Research Triangle because of its reputation as a good place to live. In need of help, he had called St. Michael’s. I decided to help, because I thought it was what Christ would want. Matthew 25:3 says that whenever you welcome a stranger, you welcome Jesus.

 

It would be a mistake to deny the Chinese asylum-seeker’s flesh and blood humanity. I never thought he was Jesus in human guise. He is a real person with his own strengths and weaknesses. But it would also be a mistake to deny that Jesus was in some way in him.

 

Living in a consumer society there is a temptation to sugarcoat the Gospel, to focus on the benefits of our faith and to ignore the cost. Our faith strengthens our lives in countless ways, one of which is having a sense of meaning in life. St. Michael’s members who worked with the Chinese refugee made a real difference in his life. But the Gospel also challenges us. Jesus does not say love the neighbor you like. He simply says to love your neighbor. At times that is hard, very hard. I struggled with wanting to assist the young man and wanting to throw him out. I was confronted over and over again with how far from Christ I am.

 

The federal government granted the young man asylum at the end of December. He is living in an apartment at a church in Chapel Hill and applying to college. I stay in touch with him through occasional emails and phone calls, and help him as I can.

 

As I have thought about my experience, I think it mirrors the Eucharist. Every Sunday we encounter Jesus — the Word — in the scriptures and sermon.  Realizing our shortcomings in the light of the Gospel, we then confess our sins to God and receive the absolution, the assurance of God’s forgiveness. In truth all of us fall short of the mark of Christ.

 

Ultimately, we can only walk in the way of Jesus to the extent we do through the love of the Father, the grace of Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit.