Jesus teaches that those who fed the hungry, welcomed strangers, clothed the naked, and visited prisoners were actually serving…Him. He says in Matthew 25:40, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me."
This very moment:
- Iranian converts to Christianity face 15 years in prison for refusing to revert back to Islam—an offense registered as “treason”
- Widows in Iraq are trying to raise their young children after their husbands were martyred
- Believers in Afghanistan are enduring extreme persecution from the Taliban and meeting in clandestine churches in their homes
- When Jesus spoke these words—“the least of my brothers,” He was talking about them.
In the Islamic world, these Christians are called كَافِر — Kafir. The word means unclean. The ones society has deemed worthless, “the least of these.”
But Jesus... Jesus calls them family.
When He spoke of "the least of these," Jesus wasn't just speaking in parables. He knew about our time, this moment, our brothers and sisters who sit chained for His name in prison cells...who face persecution that many of us can hardly begin to wrap our minds around.
He was seeing the faces of those we shelter in our safe houses. He was feeling the trembling hands of those we feed and minister to in our refuge centers. He was walking with our Field Ministers as they risk everything—everything—to serve His family.
This Christmas, His words pierce through millennia, forcing us to ask ourselves:
- When His family is imprisoned, will you visit them?
- When they're running for their lives, will you hide them?
- When they're starving because they lost their livelihoods for choosing Christ, will you feed them?
In the West, where we worship freely, it's easy to feel disconnected from our brothers and sisters who risk everything for Jesus. They may not be in our local churches, but they are our family—the ones Jesus called "the least of these." How do we visit them, hide them, feed them? The answer is beautifully simple:
We can pray, and we can give.