Recently, I wrote about how Christ modeled the life of study for us that we can follow. We should take in God’s word and actively use it as Christ did. I want to dig in deeper to the idea of being like Jesus and what that means. Let’s look at another way that Christ has modeled for us to live. 

The first miracle, where he turned water into wine gives us a look into Christ’s nature. It was not yet his time to begin his ministry, but he was at the wedding. During that time, it would have been an embarrassment to the wedding host that they had run out of wine. Jesus cared about the host and the people. It seems like such a silly thing to even record, why does it matter that he bothers to turn water into wine? I think the reason why it’s recorded is because it shows something about Christ’s nature. He cared about something that mattered personally to someone. It wasn’t world changing, it wasn’t a significant or life altering need, it was wine for a wedding. Yet Jesus cared and he acted in response to the request that was made of him. He acted for a need that was insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but still he responded. You see Christ cares for the things that we care for, even the small stuff. There is not a need that is insignificant or unimportant to him when it matters to us. I don’t think we all understand that. Also, I don’t think everybody emulates Christ in that way, but we should. We should care for the needs of others, even for those that might be considered insignificant needs.

When it comes to the business of caring for the insignificant, it wasn’t just insignificant needs that Christ cared for. It was also people that others considered insignificant. He reached out to many outcasts. He touched and healed the lepers; they were outcast because they were deadly to the people around them.  They were dismissed as lost or good as dead in the eyes of others. Yet Christ reached out, touched them, and healed them. He did not even want credit, he told them just go and be well.  Jesus just wanted to meet their needs, the needs of these outcast lepers. 

Think about the people who followed Christ and who he reached out to. What about the prostitutes and the tax collectors who became valued members in his close-knit group? They were the pariahs of that day, yet Christ cared for them and demonstrated that care through acceptance and love. In this way he met a need that they didn’t even express with words. Not a need for material things or a need for healing of their body but he gave them acceptance. He was meeting the need of their heart. Can you imagine those who had not been viewed as important, were hated, were feeling unseen and not valued, and were rejected on the edges of accepted society yet they were the ones Jesus reached out to and touched. He accepted them. It’s amazing that by showing us this part of his character, he so fully demonstrates that we should not only care for the seemingly insignificant, unimportant needs of others, but we should also care for people who the world deems as insignificant or lost causes. We can clearly see thorough Christ life and ministry that he cares and values things and people that the world does not. 

It says in 1 John 3:17 to 18,” but if anyone has seen a brother in need and yet closes his heart against him? How does God abide in him? Little children, let us love not in Word or talk but in deed and in truth.” You see we need to emulate Christ and the nature with which he loved. His love always led to action. 

When he accepted, he reached out and touched and drew close. He cared not only about the life saving healings that people needed but he cared for insignificant things. Whether it was for wine to avoid embarrassment for a host, healing to restore productive life, acceptance to bring restoration and hope to the outcast, or salvation so freely given to us through Jesus’ sacrifice. Christ acted on other’s behalf selflessly.  He gave to others and gives to us what we could and cannot give to ourselves. People saw that Christ cared, they knew that he did not reject or run from their needs, but instead he met them and provided. This caused people to respond to him in droves. 

The truth is everyone has needs, and we serve a God who cares about those needs. He values us all and has promised to be the source of all we need. If we live as Christ, we will be open to care as Christ cared. We will offer acceptance to the outcast and the rejected. We will offer and share that the source of all they need is Christ. We will not see any need or person as insignificant, instead we will walk in God’s love and provide as we can. We can call on God to provide on behalf of those in need in prayer. 

We need to understand Christ walked in God’s power for God’s glory under God’s authority and we do the same as believers. Therefore, we can go forward in confidence as we give and go and pray that God will move and provide, it’s his work to do. Yet we must give him the opportunity by caring as Jesus did and being his hands and feet here on earth.

To sum it up, to live as Christ lived, we must walk in God’s love while recognizing and caring for the needs around us no matter how small.  By faith and in God’s authority we will be the hands and feet of Jesus to meet the needs of those around us in practical ways and where we can. We offer acceptance, loving the outcast and meeting people where they are without condemning them. We need to realize that no need is insignificant, and no person is either. Jesus was God’s hands and feet where he was when he was here, and he calls us to do the same till he comes again. You are now God’s hands and feet where you are. I challenge you my fellow believer to be like Jesus and love as he loved, to the least of these and in action.