Jesus was a panhandler
* April 18th, 2010 4:26 pm CT
Last Tuesday the Memphis City Council voted to enact a new ordinance that would restrict panhandling in areas of downtown. This proposal was offered by the Center City Commission.
The Mid-South Peace and Justice Committee and other homeless advocates who protested this ordinance urged the acceptance of a Resolution offered by Councilman Joe Brown that would actually attempt to address the “root causes” of panhandling with the goal of solving the problem.
Advocates for the homeless, stressed that this ordinance targets the poor, especially those with profound addiction problems and mental illness.
Many protesting the Ordinance wore T-Shirts proclaiming “Jesus was a Panhandler.”
For many, the concept of Jesus being a panhandler is farfetched. Yet ask, “How did Jesus support himself during those years he was doing ministry?”
One can find in Luke 8:1-3 the following:
“After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod's household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.” (NIV)
Okay, Jesus didn’t have a job, but he and the disciples who lived on the streets, supported themselves from handouts from the “women…out of their own means.”
Isn’t that what many homeless do, live on the streets and somehow support themselves with handouts from [men and] “women…out of their own means?”
The point being made by these advocates for the homeless is since there were already laws on the book prohibiting panhandling; addressing the problem of panhandling takes more than enacting more laws. Treatment and assistance is the solution, at less expense to the city than locking someone up for being poor and needy.
The city’s elite and privileged residents and businesses of downtown won their quest to be rid of the “unsightly.” But as we are reminded, “You will have the poor with you every day for the rest of your lives…" Mt. 26:11
Isn’t it time to address that problem?
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