What is the Good News When You’re Poor?

Jesus preached the Good News. (The word Gospel is actually Greek for Good News.) Some of us find Good News in God’s forgiveness of sin. Or, in the promise of eternal life. But for the poor, Good News has to mean even more. Telling a single mother her afterlife is guaranteed when she doesn’t have enough food to feed her children today, really isn’t good news for her…at least not all of it. If l I tell you Jesus can take away your sins but not your hunger, again, that’s not Good News.

​When you're poor, what sets Jesus apart is that he cared about bodies. He healed bodies; he defied powers that would harm bodies; he multiplied loaves of bread and fed bodies. Nobel Peace Prize winner Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu said, “I preach the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is concerned for the whole person. … Because the good news to a hungry person is bread.” When we feed children in the name of Jesus during the COVID pandemic and beyond, we’re showing them God cares as much about them in THIS life as He does the NEXT. We’re showing their parents that God loves their children, body and soul. In South Africa, the Gospel that will save you SOMEDAY has been preached far and wide and hasn’t done much. After 15 years here, we know a Gospel served on a plate is much more likely to be digested in the soul.

"Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon." Is. 58:10