Does Jesus identify with me?

Ezekiel 34:16 (NIV) I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.

Matthew 25:40 (NRSV) And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’

Does Jesus identify with me? He clearly identifies himself with the hungry, the thirsty, the strangers, the naked, the sick, those in prison. He lists all those people as his family. But does he identify with me? Am I a member of his family? Am I one of those people that he would stand by and say I am like this. In Matthew and Ezekiel he clearly identifies with the poor and the forgotten in society. However, I’m not necessarily one of those people. I don’t really identify with those people. There are different from me, and I feel awkward around them. How can the King of Kings be one of them?

That is the question, yet from the very beginning, Jesus (God with us), identifies with the humble of the world. He entered this world in a stable; in a feed trough for animals with the only visitors initially were shepherds. He entered this world in the lower class and he left this world alone, dying on the cross.

Isn’t that the problem for most of us. It is not that Jesus doesn’t identify with us, it is that we don’t identify with Jesus. We don’t get what Jesus is all about. When we start seeing how Jesus sees the world, we start entering into his will and identify with the people that he does. We can look at the homeless, the hungry and hear their stories and realize they are not that different from us. Really the only difference is a thin line of grace. The sin of my arrogance is to believe that I have what I have because of myself and not because of the grace of God. Yet, even with God’s graciousness he identifies with the have-nots. It is not that we are different than the poor and the down-trodden; the problem is that we are different than Jesus.

Lord, help me to have your eyes, so I can see the world that you do. Help me to have the eyes of your heart, so that my heart may break for this world like yours does. Help me to use my hands and feet so I can serve the world that you serve. Help me to identify with you and your family.