SCRIPTURE: Acts 26:9-15
“Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied.” (Acts 26:15)
Jesus is at the right hand of God, ruling creation from outside of time and space.
Yet Jesus is present with us, and all creation, through His Spirit in the world.
And Jesus is with especially close to those who suffer, or are persecuted.
Paul may think he is after Christians, but he is targeting Jesus Himself.
“For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’” (Matthew 25:42-45)
Whatever we do (or do not do) for ‘the least of these’, we do (or do not do) for Jesus.
This is a book title I’ve never forgotten: ‘If that were Christ, would you give him your blanket?’
This thought would change how we treat ANYONE and EVERYONE.
Paul did not know he was persecuting God’s Messiah, but now that he knows…

“Mother Theresa was asked, ‘How can you keep serving the poor, the sick, and the dying with such vigor? What’s the secret? How do you do it?’ Her answer, ‘Whenever I meet someone in need,” she said, “it’s really Jesus in his most distressing disguise. Jesus in the child abandoned by the road. Jesus in the beggar hoping for a meal. Jesus in the leper whose limbs have turned to dust. It’s him I help—him alone.'”

How would I treat __________ (fill in the blank with a person you struggle with) if they were Jesus?
To me they are Jesus, Jesus in disguise, His most distressing disguise.
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
Lord, just as Paul was ignorant of Your presence in others, I am too. Help me to develop eyes to see You in those around me, whatever disguise they may have on.