Homeless JesusНамуна

An acquaintance of mine who I had often seen at a coffee shop approached me about making a painting. With a personal ministry to the homeless, she is also an artist and I wondered why she wouldn't make a painting herself. But artists have different strengths and weaknesses and she wanted me to do it.

What she had in mind was Jesus and a few of the apostles walking among a group of homeless people. I listened, immediately considering the complexities of such a painting, and wondered what her plans were for it if she had it. I also wondered if she'd thought anything about cost. Actually, she had no plans and there was no money. She just thought it was a great idea.

Proposals like this are not uncommon for me, a Christian painter, and I can have mixed feelings about them. As I listened I heard her heart and my initial skepticism began to soften. But I had a new thought: Instead of having Jesus walking among the homeless, why not have Jesus sitting among them, homeless himself? He said as much about his situation, “the foxes have holes and the birds have nests yet the Son of Man has no permanent place for even a pillow.”

It is something to wonder at. In Jesus' ministry on earth, ever traveling, rarely resting, he had no permanent home. Even the animals do better than that. Why not, then, “the Son of Man”?

That was his self-title, and one used in the Old Testament pointing toward his coming. Perceptive hearers would have recognized it. He was the Son of God come to earth, born of a woman, joining humanity and thus, son of man.

It was as if God was in disguise, walking among us, yet not having even the normal comforts—like a regular place to sleep. But it's the way it was; he came for everybody, and he identified with everybody—even the homeless.

I made the painting for my friend and, though a picture conveys a thousand words, just in case, I put the words of Jesus right on the painting.

Jesus came and made his home among us, even among those who have no home.