Once upon a
time, there lived a restaurant owner in the small town of Lexington, Virginia,
by the name of Stephanie Wilkerson. Feeling morally superior to those people
who walked by her establishment, she posted the following quote from the
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King in her building’s window: “Love is the only
force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.” An admirable sentiment,
to be sure, but one that the owner does not seem to have understood, much less
practiced.
You see, there came a weekend when four people came to her restaurant to eat a meal. They made no extraordinary requests. They walked in without fanfare or disruptive gestures. Apparently, they simply wanted to eat a meal. However, one of their company was an Enemy – yes, that’s right, a person (a white female, by the way) whose political views were different from those of the owner.
The waiters were the first to notice the presence of their hated Enemy, and they called the owner, who happened not to have been present when the Enemy entered her establishment. The owner, full of moral outrage that the Enemy would dare present her ugly, hated face in Lexington – much less at her own exalted (and morally superior) establishment – not only saw to it that her Enemy was chastised for her involvement in political engagement that struck a nerve with Ms. Wilkerson, but that her Enemy was summarily expelled. Furthermore, the righteous owner made sure that other residents of Lexington were fully informed of this political outrage; she gathered a rent-a-mob together in the street, and harassed and ridiculed the half of the Enemy’s party who had dared seek a meal in another establishment across the street. Satisfied with her righteousness and moral superiority, the owner blithely returned to her building, proudly walking by the sign with the quote from Martin Luther King.
It was truly unfortunate that she did not understand the meaning of King’s statement. She could have avoided closing down her restaurant only a few days later – putting the very waiters who had objected to the Enemy’s presence out of work (unless, in her righteousness, she had paid them anyway – who knows?).
Let us, dear friends, go back into the distant past, to a mountainside in the ancient land of Israel. Let us imagine – it’s not that hard to do, since the illustrious Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King could do it – that we are witnessing the miracle of the feeding of the four thousand (Matthew 15:32-39 and Mark 8:1-9). One does not have to be a Bible scholar to connect the devotion that Martin Luther King showed with the King of kings, Jesus Christ. One does not have to be a Bible scholar to know that the two Gospels reporting this singular event claim (with every right to do so) that Jesus Himself performed this miracle. Please notice, dear friends, the following points:
Jesus did not attach any political requirements to the consuming of the bread He provided. For all we know, there were Temple leaders, Pharisees, Sadducees – even a Roman soldier or two – in the audience. Nowhere in either Gospel account are we told of any political sifting or litmus test, or any other form of discrimination. If you were near Jesus, you got fed.
In verse 3 of the 8th chapter of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus Himself pointed out, “If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a long distance.” I have no idea where the Enemy in our 21st-century story lives, but I’m pretty sure she and her entourage came into the restaurant hungry. And they were turned away. I wonder what Jesus would have done.
Jesus required His disciples to serve the people (verses 6 and 7). Imagine: those high-and-mighty (not!) colleagues of the King of kings were instructed by their Master to hand out bread and fish (no questions asked) to every kind of person who was around Jesus – dirty people, angry people, loud children, bratty teenagers, political enemies, even ordinary, God-fearing people!! Maybe some of the waiters at the Red Hen could take a lesson in servanthood from Jesus’ disciples.
Jesus could have elected to leave the bread scraps that were left over to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. (After all, aren’t they “God’s creatures,” too?) Instead, He ordered His disciples to clean up the picnic area by themselves: “They [the people] ate and were filled. Then they [the disciples] collected seven large baskets of leftover pieces” (verse 8). Gosh, I sure hope Ms. Wilkerson knows all about clean-up procedures; I have a feeling she will be involved in a LOT of it, once the restaurant reopens!
Finally, I just want to ask this question: If Jesus showed up at the Red Hen restaurant, would Ms. Wilkerson even have recognized, much less served Him? I think I know Martin Luther King’s own opinion.
You see, there came a weekend when four people came to her restaurant to eat a meal. They made no extraordinary requests. They walked in without fanfare or disruptive gestures. Apparently, they simply wanted to eat a meal. However, one of their company was an Enemy – yes, that’s right, a person (a white female, by the way) whose political views were different from those of the owner.
The waiters were the first to notice the presence of their hated Enemy, and they called the owner, who happened not to have been present when the Enemy entered her establishment. The owner, full of moral outrage that the Enemy would dare present her ugly, hated face in Lexington – much less at her own exalted (and morally superior) establishment – not only saw to it that her Enemy was chastised for her involvement in political engagement that struck a nerve with Ms. Wilkerson, but that her Enemy was summarily expelled. Furthermore, the righteous owner made sure that other residents of Lexington were fully informed of this political outrage; she gathered a rent-a-mob together in the street, and harassed and ridiculed the half of the Enemy’s party who had dared seek a meal in another establishment across the street. Satisfied with her righteousness and moral superiority, the owner blithely returned to her building, proudly walking by the sign with the quote from Martin Luther King.
It was truly unfortunate that she did not understand the meaning of King’s statement. She could have avoided closing down her restaurant only a few days later – putting the very waiters who had objected to the Enemy’s presence out of work (unless, in her righteousness, she had paid them anyway – who knows?).
Let us, dear friends, go back into the distant past, to a mountainside in the ancient land of Israel. Let us imagine – it’s not that hard to do, since the illustrious Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King could do it – that we are witnessing the miracle of the feeding of the four thousand (Matthew 15:32-39 and Mark 8:1-9). One does not have to be a Bible scholar to connect the devotion that Martin Luther King showed with the King of kings, Jesus Christ. One does not have to be a Bible scholar to know that the two Gospels reporting this singular event claim (with every right to do so) that Jesus Himself performed this miracle. Please notice, dear friends, the following points:
Jesus did not attach any political requirements to the consuming of the bread He provided. For all we know, there were Temple leaders, Pharisees, Sadducees – even a Roman soldier or two – in the audience. Nowhere in either Gospel account are we told of any political sifting or litmus test, or any other form of discrimination. If you were near Jesus, you got fed.
In verse 3 of the 8th chapter of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus Himself pointed out, “If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a long distance.” I have no idea where the Enemy in our 21st-century story lives, but I’m pretty sure she and her entourage came into the restaurant hungry. And they were turned away. I wonder what Jesus would have done.
Jesus required His disciples to serve the people (verses 6 and 7). Imagine: those high-and-mighty (not!) colleagues of the King of kings were instructed by their Master to hand out bread and fish (no questions asked) to every kind of person who was around Jesus – dirty people, angry people, loud children, bratty teenagers, political enemies, even ordinary, God-fearing people!! Maybe some of the waiters at the Red Hen could take a lesson in servanthood from Jesus’ disciples.
Jesus could have elected to leave the bread scraps that were left over to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. (After all, aren’t they “God’s creatures,” too?) Instead, He ordered His disciples to clean up the picnic area by themselves: “They [the people] ate and were filled. Then they [the disciples] collected seven large baskets of leftover pieces” (verse 8). Gosh, I sure hope Ms. Wilkerson knows all about clean-up procedures; I have a feeling she will be involved in a LOT of it, once the restaurant reopens!
Finally, I just want to ask this question: If Jesus showed up at the Red Hen restaurant, would Ms. Wilkerson even have recognized, much less served Him? I think I know Martin Luther King’s own opinion.
How ironic that the waiter who initiated the incident involving Sarah Sanders ends up out of work; no paycheck, no tips, since his actions also ended up causing the Red Hen to close.
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