Week 39—Tuesday John 7:45-46
Week 39—TUESDAY
“WHEN I SAW THOSE PLAGUE-STAINED HANDS,
I SAW THE MEANING OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH”
We are looking at seeing the Universal-in-the-Particular. Before independence, I was speaking in an Indian State, and the Hindu Prime Minister was the chairman. He said in his remarks,
“I could not help but contrast this meeting tonight with the meetings I attended as a boy. There we used to heckle the missionaries and throw rotten fruit at them. But here this great audience sits in pin-drop silence listening to the Christian message. What has made the difference? Perhaps this: Nearby is the great Miraj mission hospital where Indian and foreign doctors tend to poor and rich, night and day. Nearby is a leper colony where they work on the sores of lepers and heal them. Then a little further is an outcast village where these outcasts are washed body, mind, and spirit and given back to India as honored and respected citizens. I had to go to inspect a plague-stricken town, which had no inhabitants; all had fled to the fields. Going through the deserted town I saw a lady missionary coming out of a house with her hands extended. She came up to me and said, ‘I’m sorry I can’t shake hands with you, for my hands are plague-stained.’ When I saw those plague-stained hands, I saw the meaning of the Christian faith.”
Through the particular—the plague-stained hands—he saw the Universal. It is the only possible way it can be seen. To talk about the Universal in universal language is to end in meaningless words. You see the Universal-in-the-Particular or you don’t see it.
During the days when India was struggling for her independence, I was on the train, and the toilet in the bathroom was filthy. So when the train stopped at a station, I got out, borrowed a sweeper’s broom, came back, and cleaned it. Some Brahmans in the train asked me in astonishment, “Who are you?” When I told them I had stayed with Mahatma Gandhi in his Ashram, they said, “Now we understand.” Through that little incident they saw the Universal. They wanted to see more.
O Lord and Savior, we see in your lowly acts the highest meanings of life. We study one of your Words and find a universe. We listen to a sentence and we hear the whole meaning of existence. When we see you—we see! Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: My smallest act can reveal the greatest meanings.