BIG QUESTION: Who are my people, and how do we act?
Who are my people? For the followers of Jesus, our people are Jesus’ people. But who are Jesus’ people?
Matthew 4 - 5
Jesus went up on the mountain and His ragtag community of disciples followed. Matthew, the gospel writer, is not-so-subtly comparing Jesus with Moses, who was their single greatest spiritual figure, both as a priest and a prophet.
Jesus says that we all are the salt and the light and the city on the hill. He is building a community of disciples to flavor this world, to shine into the darkness, to be the beacon of hope to a world that is weary from empire. Jesus is revealing to His disciples and all who would listen, that they (that we) are the ones that will display and spread the Kingdom of God to the world!
Jesus is calling to Himself a people and liberating a community out of captivity, out of slavery, just like God did with Moses.
As God’s people, as Jesus’ people, we’ve always been invited into the same story: Once a captive and enslaved people called out of empire to be His treasured possession (you are the salt of the earth), His kingdom of priests (you are the light to the world), His holy nation (you are a city on a hill that cannot be hidden). Jesus is declaring to us our true identity. Jesus is inviting and re-authoring us into a better, more beautiful story, and He’s displaying to us how He designed us to live together in this world.
Who are Jesus’ people? Those who are down and out, mistreated and grieving, the powerless,
the forgotten and invisible, the scattered, the poor and hungry, the persecuted and oppressed. Who then, are my people? Jesus says these are our people.
