“I was a stranger and you took me in…”

One of the things that is often difficult to figure out about Jesus is His humanity.  It is difficult imagine putting ourselves in place of the disciples and seeing Jesus get tired from long hours of healing or teaching ministry, or frustrated at the sinful surroundings, especially at the superficial belief the masses had in him.  Did he struggle internally when he knew that he would not gain many followers while alive on the earth?  How did he wash his clothes?  Did he spend (much) time fixing his hair?  We just don’t know.

This very human condition is what we consider today – being a stranger.  In Matthew 25 we find a description of the final judgment before the Christ’s Kingdom begins.  “All the nations [are] gathered before him” as king, verse 31 says.  He separates the sheep from the goats, the sheep being on his right hand, the goats on the left.  The sheep helped Jesus by helping “the least of these brothers of mine” when they were hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, imprisoned and a stranger.  But he says that it is as if all these things had happened to him!  That is how closely he identifies with his people.

“These brothers of mine” in this text are the Jews.  Individuals within the “nations” who take care of God’s people, the Jews, inherit “the kingdom prepared for you…” (v. 34).  Thus we see the Lord keeping the promise he made to Abraham:  “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse…” (Genesis 12:3).  We also see this Jewish connection in Ephesians 2:11-12:  “Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles [nations] by birth…remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.”  The word foreigners here is the same word strangers in Matthew.  All non-Jews are born outside the family of Israel; thus they are foreign to the Jewish family; they are members of the “out-group.”  However, this speaks of Gentiles being the stranger, not Christ.

But if we think about it, Christ too was a literal stranger while he lived on the earth.  John 17:5 records Jesus praying to the Father, “…glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”  It is normal for Jesus to dwell in and radiate glory.  It is strange for him not to.  It is normal for Jesus to dwell in completely holy surroundings.  It is strange for him not to.  It is normal for Jesus to experience peace in his relationship with the Father.  It is strange (to say the least) for him to call out from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).  This earthly environment was indeed a strange place for our Lord to enter and live in.  It was not normal to him.  Thus he was a stranger in our earthly home that unhappily seems natural and normal to us.  Being in our natural realm this Stranger “learned obedience from what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8).  Therefore we know he “has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet was without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).  “Yet without sin…”  Strange, very strange to us.

One final thing makes Jesus a stranger.  Even in heaven above he retains his glorified body, continuing to display the pierced markings in his hands, feet and side.  Why a disfigured body in heaven?  The wounds remind us of the price it took to gain our access into heaven and begin and maintain our relationship with him.  He calls us to maintain the fellowship by imitating him – being strangers in this world while “our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20).

Jesus became the Stranger, moving from what was normal for him to what was abnormal.  His mission was to change us from being estranged from Israel and God to being members of God’s family and “strangers in the world” (1 Peter 2:11).  Our salvation is a very strange thing indeed.  Does your life reflect the Stranger living in you?