“The Fine Print”, by Michael Schrader
WE NEED TO BE PREPARED
(Written 25 November 1998. Published in the Neighborhood Journal. Posted 18 August 2009.)
If you saw Jesus stranded on the side of the highway, would
you stop to help him? Of course you
would! Or would you?
Several weeks ago, I was driving down the interstate by
Malvern on a rainy and nasty night, when I saw a Suburban parked on the shoulder
with its hazard lights on. I stopped,
peered in the window, and, seeing nobody inside, got back in my vehicle and
started driving down the shoulder to get back on the highway, when suddenly a
man with an umbrella appeared in front of me--the driver of the Suburban, I
assumed. He told me that he had run out
of gas, and was going to walk to the nearest filling station (which was about
four miles down the road). What he said
next really shocked me.
"Why did you stop?", he
asked. "Nobody else did. They all just drove right on by."
"Because I'm supposed to," I replied. "I'm a Christian, and that's what Jesus
says we are supposed to do."
"Aren't most of these other people Christians,
too?"
In the twenty minutes it took to get gas and get back to his
vehicle, we had a very deep theological conversation about God and humanity and
what it means to be a believer. He told
me that he had once been a Christian and had close ties to Judaism, too. Before we got back to his vehicle, he told me
not to lose hope, that there are good people out there, and that, in the end,
the good will prevail.
I thought about that stranger all the way back home that
night, and, obviously, still think about that encounter. Was it just a stranded motorist? This may sound crazy, but I don't think
so. For starters, in the five minutes it
took for me to take him to the gas station, the heavy rains had completely
stopped. I'm not just talking about tapering, I'm talking about completely stopping. Well, that happens in
Okay then, tell me how someone who is standing in the rain
can be completely dry? It was raining
hard; I got drenched in the minute it took for me to peer into the windows of
the Suburban. This stranger was in the rain
for much longer than I, but was completely dry.
Did I mention that his umbrella was folded when I spotted him?
The oddest thing, though, is that the Suburban I saw when I
picked the stranger up was not the same Suburban I dropped him off at. Same location, similar
vehicles, but slightly different.
Different colors, different headlight configuration. Yet he had a key. And yes, there was only one vehicle in the
beginning; I did not miss one.
Was this just another ordinary person? The scientific mind could rationalize all of
the things I saw; I cannot. I do know
this--when Jesus appeared to the disciples walking down the road after the
Resurrection they did not recognize him.
Throughout the New Testament, Jesus alludes to the fact that when he returns,
he will return incognito. He preaches that whatever you do to the least person,
you do to Him, and if He is incognito, that person could be Him.
If Jesus was to return today, would we recognize Him? He could be that stranded motorist on the
side of the highway; He could be that poor Hispanic man who is ostracized from
the community because he can't speak English; He could be that teenager
flipping burgers at McDonald's; He could be the motorist you just gave a nasty
hand gesture to on the highway; He could be a she. We really don't know who He will return as.
As Jesus says, we must be on our guard for when He comes
again, for we don't know when He is coming back. Or as whom. It's better to be safe than sorry.
So tell me, would you help Him if He is stranded on the side
of the highway?
Back to “The Fine Print” Index
