Nobody's perfect.....

You're not a nobody. Nobody is.

 

 

I remember a test I took in college. It had loads of deep theological questions on it (most of which I got wrong, I'm sure) but the last one - the last one I got right.

 

It was a simple question - what is the name of the lady who cleans your room?

 

I spoke to her every morning, her name was Siân.

 

Not many people got that question right, I found that very sad. Despite all we had leant during the year about the value of all people; no matter that we had studied families from the Khasi Hills of India and the slums of South America. We knew the names of these people and their children and yet not the name of the woman who cleaned our room.

 

That taught us all a valuable lesson - nobody is a nobody.

 

Jesus had shown this many times; lepers, prostitutes, publicans, sinners, the down and outs of his day had all felt the love of Jesus in his presence at the tables or in their lives.

 

My favourite story of this kind is of a man called Zac.

 

Zac was short (I can relate to that), disliked and very rich (that bit I can't relate too). He was a tax collector and was quite used to cheating people. One day he had heard that Jesus was coming to his town and seeing that Jesus was a huge celebrity he wanted to go and see him. Being short he climbed a tree and watched this pop star walking past but instead of walking past the J-man stopped under the tree and looked up. "Zac" he said, "Come on down, I'm coming to tea at your place."

 

How could this be? Zac was a nobody and yet the man wanted tea at his home. All the "religious" types grumbled that Jesus was going to eat with this tax collector, one who was lower than the lowest.

 

Zac turned to Jesus and told him that if he had defrauded anyone he would give it back and four times more and half of everything he had he would give to the poor. Jesus looked at him, then spoke to the crowd, "Remember, this man is also accepted by God, for he too is a son of Abraham. For I have to come to search for just such as him."

 

Moral of the story - no-one is valueless. God loves everyone - even short tax collectors. How do we not see this every time we open the Gospels???

 

So next time you're in a food court and someone clears your table remember they are a real person; that person behind the milk bar counter - person; bin man - person; hotel cleaner - (guess what? Yep) person. Those pesky asylum seekers - people; the homeless guy on Elizabeth Street - person.

 

I think you are getting the idea - there are no nobodies.

 

Jesus shows us, the Bible tells us and we really know, deep down - all are equal in the eyes of God.

 

So why not in our eyes?