HOW DO WE SERVE OTHERS?

By Pacharo Felix Munthali
We wake up everyday. We pray to the Lord. We praise him, so do we ask for forgiveness. For we were born the sinners; we sin in body, mind, spirit etc. For the book of Mark 7 v. 21 confirms that, "from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders." For that we ask for forgiveness. A new day is born; new activities are on the menu. We live a very Holy life. "Oh God!" we praise Him, for we know at least Ten Commandments of the Lord are not violated. If we had wronged him, we have repented.
Then this other day, we find ourselves seeing a group of individuals. On basis of their dressing even before they speak to us, we label them sinners. We deem them wicked; for the heaven or paradise has nothing in offing for them. We look at such individuals as spiritually outcasts. We tell each other, we must not associate with them - for so doing, will tatter our image.
In the book of Luke, Jesus Christ allowed the prostitute come to Him. The Pharisees disapproved this. The woman was seen as a sinner, "why is Jesus, Our Lord allowing the sinner wash [ing] His feet." They looked at the woman as a very wicked. She didn't deserve to touch the body of Jesus Christ.
When Jesus Christ said he was going to have dinner in the house of Zaccheus some people murmured. How come is Jesus doing this? He can't go to the house of the sinner. But when that happened, Zaccheus gave part of his worthy to the pour. The man changed.
Jesus Christ was unique. He had the tendency of getting involved with those that people pre-judged that they are the sinners. These were those that people thought that had sinned a lot, as such, they did not have any chance of getting to the heaven or paradise, according to the perception of the Pharisees.
Jesus our Lord was, and is still a loving father. He does not throw out the sinners, especially those deemed as sinners by the people. He calls on them; he joins them. For how can one understand their problem by just ignoring them? For how can one bring salvation on them by pre-judging and pre-determining their destiny? If we feel that they are sinners, letting them rot in their stinking sink of sins is not a solution. We need to help them.
Jesus Christ before departing in the book of Mark (16 v. 15) He said to them, "go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature," this is what as holy Christians it is needed to be done.
It becomes very sad seeing people, especially those that see themselves holy interacting with their holy counterpart only. How can people be served if we are not helping them? If as those that have the gospel we are not coming to them [those we see as sinners] to have their path illuminated, how can such people have the salvation?
As Christians you can try to practice the entire given commandment, but when you let your neighbour be sinning then you are not helping matters. Jesus ate and lived with the sinners. "This man receives sinners and eats with them," the Pharisees complained (Luke 15 v. 2) of Jesus Christ. As Christians we can change the world by interacting with them. But how many times do we do that?