Jesus was disabled,Too

And He took that role on purpose.Born as a helpless infant, completely dependent upon a couple of small-town teenagers, in the filthiest of places. Raised in a dusty, dirty world, soiling his hands with manual labor and feeling the scorch of the hot desert sun. Knowing hunger and thirst aJnd pain and sickness and sadness and betrayal.And then on his final day, beaten cruelly, his body so disfigured that he was unrecognizable, his strength was stolen to the point that another had to finish the task of carrying His cross up the hill. Simon of Cyrene helped to bear Jesus’ burden.Just as Jesus was about to bear the burdens of all mankind. No wonder He was so kind to those who were hurting. No wonder He noticed the ones who were so often unseen and unloved. No wonder He showed no fear in reaching out to touch the unclean, the diseased, the lame. Isaiah says that He has borne our sorrows, that He is a man well-acquainted with suffering and grief. To take on human skin with all its frailty, could there be anything more disabling for the Eternal God? Maybe this is what He was thinking of when He told the parable of the Sheep and the Goats. “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Matthew 25: 32-40 Jesus goes on to tell those on His left that in rejecting the marginalized among them, the poor, the hungry, the naked — they have rejected Him. The way we act toward the disabled, the poor, the different, the disadvantaged, the marginalized –does not go unnoticed. We may claim that we didn’t see, didn’t know, didn’t understand. We may protest that we didn’t have the resources or the knowledge or the funds to reach out to the ones who needed our help. But in the end, when we deny those in need, when we deny the suffering and the bruised and the downtrodden and the depressed–we deny Jesus Himself. The beautiful, willfully dis-abled God man. Lord, help us to see. May we see the cross for what it truly represents: the Eternal, Almighty, infinite God who chose disability that we lowly humans might walk ably in abundance of life.