God Condescends with Food

What do we share in common with the Muslim concept of God? God is the eternal transcendent Being. He is the unchanging sovereign. I nodded my head to Soliman in agreement on Wednesday night at a homeless shelter in the middle of Athens. God is One, God is Great. Yes He is.

Our team this week served at a homeless shelter in the middle of Athens Wednesday night. It is a ministry done in the old fashion style of gathering men and women from the streets, preaching at them, and then feeding them with a warm meal. Whether we agree with this approach to the oppressed we had the opportunity to serve Jesus with other Christians filled with compassion for those hit hardest. Our team was able put bread before those who had not eaten in days. We were able to share our story with them concerning a loving God, and sing to them Amazing Grace. Even more, we were able to sit with them and hear their story.

This is where Soliman comes back into our story. I sat down next to a man and asked him if he spoke English. He said yes in a rapid style. He also spoke Greek and Arabic. He was from Iraq and Iran. He is a builder of homes. He told me he came to Athens 12 years ago to build for the Greeks. I asked him what went wrong? He replied, “I finished the job, and no one needed me again.” This is the cruelty of the Greek recession. This is the cruelty of sin. We talked more. He told me how much he wanted to come to America. I pointed to Christi and son Carter and said we loved his new country. I asked if I could share a piece of bread with him and he and I talked and ate bread. In that moment, we shared our common value as image bearers of God. We were two men separated by drastically different cultures, languages, and wealth, but united by need, united by bread. I inquired of God. He repeated over and over, God is Great, and One. Soliman clearly was Muslim. We finished our bread and I gave him a hug. God is love … I told him and I love Jesus as God. I was soon called to another task. Our conversation ended there.

Where does the Muslim concept of God and the Christian part ways? Our Great God also condescends to us. He is great. He did not need to Create, but He did. He did not need to endure this race, this broken and hungry world, but He has. In fact, He became hungry, poor, and lonely. He ate bread as an equal, even though He was not our equal. For He had designed our inward most being and plotted the very course of our lives! He is the eternal God who condescends to us in pain and searing loss. He not only gives us His bread, but eats with us.

Pray for Soliman. That he might know that Jesus is Great and from that Greatness bled and died to fill him and make him great. Soli deo gloria!