Feb 27 - "Looking For Jesus"

Mark 2: 13-22

"And as He sat at dinner in Levi's house, many tax collectors and sinner were also sitting with Jesus and His disciples - for there were many who followed him. When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to His disciples, 'Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners?'. When Jesus heard this, He said to them, 'Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners.'"
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Over the past 6 months or so, I have come to know a very interesting and wonderful guy. His name is Alphonso Bailey. He leads and organization called Down But Not Out (check out his story at http://www.downbutnotout.org/) which minsters to men who are in prison. I have had a few opportunities to watch "Fonz" at work. He is truly amazing and at every instance, touches the hearts of the men to whom he is speaking and often brings them to know God and accept Jesus as their Savior.

When I first met Fonz, I spoke to him about the call I was feeling to become involved in Prison Ministry. My biggest fear at the time was not the fact that I may be putting myself at risk, going into prisons and correctional facilities, but that I would be sitting or praying with a man and have him say, "What do you know about the troubles in my life? How can you sit here and relate to me!?!? What is your reason for trying to bring Jesus into this prison?!?"

Fonz was able to calm my fears and tell me that in almost every situation, these men would look to me and the other men involved in this ministry as examples. They would wonder how we were able to avoid trouble, when temptation for malfeasance seemed to continually abound.

When I asked Fonz about what drives him to bring the Word of God and the love of Jesus into these prison situations, he had an amazing answer. He said, "Jesus told His disciples that he was thankful they had fed Him, clothed Him, visited Him in prison. When the disciples asked, 'Lord, when did we feed you, clothe you or visit you in prison?', Jesus replied with, 'When you did this to the least of these, you did this to Me.''

Fonz then said, "Scott, I don't go in there bringing Jesus, I go in there looking for Him.".

Wow!

This approach brought a whole new perspective, not only to the work I was trying to do in heeding this call, but caused me to look at parts of Jesus' ministry in a very different way. I have to imagine that when Jesus sat with tax collectors and sinners, when He spoke with prostitutes or Pharisees, He was not only looking to heal them, but he must have been looking for reflections of Himself and God in each of these people.

Jesus is in every single one of us. Yes...even in those, to put it bluntly, who hate, who assault, who destroy, who kill. When we open our eyes and recognize that there is a kernel of Jesus deep inside every person, we must recognize and accept that how we treat every person, is how we are treating Jesus.

So, look for Jesus. Look for Him in every person you meet, no matter how mildly annoying or terrifyingly evil they may seem to be. Look for Jesus and when you find Him, you will also be found.