This picture of Christ depicts him walking in solidarity with the masses of migrants, refugees, and “illegals.” Never will you see the Christ in an ICE uniform nor in a uniform of any kind. You will never see Jesus with a flag. He will never have any kind of weapon in His hand. He will wear no purse nor have a charge card. He walks as who He was, is and always will be; The Son of Man has no place to lay His head. He is with the marginalized, the poor, the non-status quo. He walks with the hurting, the afraid, those who are fleeing violence. He is hungry, cold, thirsty and tired even though He is the author of all Creation.
Jesus is a minority, dark-skinned human who does not speak English and has never read the King James Version of the Bible. Jesus doesn’t come answering questions, but rather comes questioning all our answers. He comes as God and as God He gives Himself to His World that He will never forsake nor abandon. He comes with no interest in gain, no desire to win, not needing anything and yet needing all that we can provide. He comes not to judge and divide nor to separate nor conquer. He comes to give, and give some more and give some more and some more. He asks us for nothing. He gives to us all things and tells us to share and care and extend His loving essence to everyone and anyone, but especially to those who do not look like us, or talk like us, or who even know us.
The Christ of God comes and is the One who keeps on coming. Jesus does not know hoe to leave us alone. He never gives up and is constantly hounding us and seeking every possible moment of our living to love on us. That is what our God does best! God sits with us naked in a mud puddle and cries along with us and knows our agony, our hunger and our disease and chooses us. He chooses us!
On this Monday here in the United States we are living in the time right after the announced and sanctioned mass arrests for deportation. I have not heard any numbers or statistics from over the weekend as to the number of humans that were captured and taken into custody. A huge part of me is not wanting to know. I have the luxury, the sinful, evil, I-will-be held accountable luxury of postponing any knowledge of this further disintegration of our country. Soon enough we will hear what was done to our Jesus and the number of times he was put into handcuffs and taken away as family members, and little children, huddled together cry from the trauma and terror of it all that just does not seem to ever end for Jesus. O how He must long for a safe place, a free place, a caring place to live.
“They have taken our Lord and I don’t know where they have put Him.”