I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.
—Matthew 25:35
Abdullah II became king of Jordan in 1999. He occasionally prowled the country in disguise, popping into government offices and hospitals to see how his people were being treated.
Spooked by where he might turn up next, civil servants, hospital employees, and police started treating everyone with courtesy and compassion.
We will be judged, Jesus warned, by how we treated him when he was hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick, or imprisoned.
If we ask him when we saw him like that, he will answer that he came disguised in the clothes of people like that. What you did for them, he will say, you did for me (Mt 25:34–45).
How should we treat people? Exactly like we would treat Jesus.
Treat people as if they
were Jesus in disguise.