In the lessons he left for us, Jesus uses a word that becomes a cornerstone of what he wanted us to know. While he most likely said it in Aramaic, we have nothing of the Aramaic, only the Greek gospel of Matthew, where the word is recorded as “eschatos,” which we recorded in English as “the least of these.”
Using it, Jesus tells us that if we want to serve him, we must serve the weakest people in our society, our “eschatos.” That becomes something of a challenge. Most people want to have a portion of society that is untouchable and unworthy, but Jesus says “no” they are the same as him.
I’ve always been keenly interested in this idea of “the least of these.” There have been times when I risked getting in quite a bit of trouble standing up for them long before I’d given much thought to what Jesus said. To me, it was natural.
In today’s society, I see a lot of people who wish to expel or isolate the eschatos among us. The trans, the immigrant, women with unplanned pregnancies, the married gay, the disabled, and more, there are people who wish to make them untouchable.
When Jesus was alive, the eschatos were the leper. Jesus ate with them, he sat with them, he spoke with them, and he healed them—the least of these.
I can’t make anyone live the way Jesus said we should. I can’t even judge them when they don’t, not in a way that means anything anyway. I try to live that way, though. That’s all I can do. That’s all I can ask.