Jesus has AIDS.
This might come as a shock to you, but it’s true. Jesus has AIDS. You say, “Wait a minute! Jesus is the exalted son of the living God. He has defeated sin and death through His own death and suffering on the cross once and for all. Jesus isn't weak or dying or infected; He's triumphant and resurrected.
And you are absolutely right!
But although Jesus is in glory at the right hand of God, He is still suffering and one of the things He suffers from is AIDS. You say, “Waaaaat?”
Have we forgotten what Jesus said in Matthew 25?
34Then the King will say to the people on his right, “Come, my Father has given you his blessing. Receive the kingdom God has prepared for you since the world was made. 35 I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was alone and away from home, and you invited me into your house.36 I was without clothes, and you gave me something to wear. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me” – vv. 34-36 NCV
Now the time period in which this event occurs is still future. Jesus has all the nations standing before Him on earth at His second coming (vv. 31-32). However, before Jesus’ second coming, while the nations were busy doing their thing, Jesus said to them: “I am hungry, and thirsty, and without clothes, sick and in prison.”
We would sum it up like this: “Jesus is homeless. Jesus is sick. Jesus is a prisoner.”
Are you still confused? Are you still thinking, “Waaaaat?” Don’t be too hard on yourself because so were the nations that Jesus will be talking to. Here is what they said:
44 Then those people will answer, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or alone and away from home or without clothes or sick or in prison? When did we see these things and not help you?”
45 Then the King will answer, “I tell you the truth, anything you refused to do for even the least of my people here, you refused to do for me.”
Sounds a lot like your response, right? “What? We don’t remember ever seeing you as a prisoner. Or seeing you as someone who was sick. Or someone who was homeless and in need of food, water and clothes.”
Jesus’ response was: “It was Me living in my people – those who were known the least.”
Some of those within Jesus' church has AIDS. Some of them are languishing in hospitals right down the street from you. Some of them are orphaned by the disease in Africa. All of them are suffering with an intensity few of us can imagine.
Some of you may be angered by the statement I wrote above because you think somehow it denigrates Jesus. After all, AIDS is a shameful disease, that's most often spread through sexual promiscuity or illicit drug use.
You know what else can be denigrating? Being a prisoner. Jesus said, “I was in prison.” So does not having any food, water or clothing. And don’t forget, Jesus did say, “I WAS SICK.” He did not specify any type of sickness. It doesn’t matter – sick is sick. AIDS falls into the category of being sick. That’s why I have written, “Jesus has AIDS,” because “Jesus said Himself, “I was sick.”
Remember, we cannot merely see Jesus only in his Headship but we need to also see Him in his Body – those He identifies with by calling, "the least of these, my brothers" (Matt. 25:40). When we stand in judgment, we'll all stand accountable for how we recognized him in the trauma of those who don't seem to bear the glory of Christ at all right now. We ought to see Jesus now, by faith, in the sufferings of the crack baby, the meth addict, the AIDS orphan, the hospitalized prodigal who sees his ruin in the wires running from his veins. I wonder how many of us will hear the words from our Galilean Emperor, "I had AIDS and you weren't afraid to come near me."
And so, if we love Jesus, our churches should be more aware of the cries of the curse, including the curse of AIDS, than the culture around us. Our congregations should welcome the AIDS-infected, and we shouldn't be afraid to hug them as we would hug our Christ. Our congregations should be on the forefront of missions to AIDS-ravaged regions of the world. Our families should be willing to welcome those orphaned by this global epidemic.
Through it all, we should be insistent in the gospel proclamation. To those whose blood has become their own enemy, we should announce the blood they know not of, the blood of One who can cleanse them of all unrighteousness, just as it cleansed us (1 Jn. 1:7); the blood of One who is forever immune to sin and death and hell (Jn. 6:53-56).
Jesus loves the world, and the world has AIDS. Jesus identifies himself with the least of these, and many of them have AIDS. Jesus calls us to recognize him in the depths of suffering where often the suffering of AIDS resides.
I don’t know about your Jesus, but my Jesus, the Jesus of the Bible who lives in and through His people has AIDS.
