Walking Across EgyptRated PG-13(Square Dog Pictures, 1999)Scene begins at 01:33:50Length: 00:01:00Compassion, Mercy, Perseverance
Matthew 25:34-40, James 2:5-8
Set-up: In the movie Walking Across Egypt, a widow named Mattie (Ellen Burstyn) is moved by her pastor’s message to care for “the least of these.” She reaches out to a 16-year-old boy, Wesley (Jonathan Taylor Thomas), whose parents abandoned him as a baby and who is serving time for stealing a car.
After Mattie visits Wesley at the youth correctional center a couple of times, he breaks out of the center and goes to her house. Thinking he is on leave, she allows him to stay with her. Ultimately, Wesley is apprehended and returned to the center.
As Mattie’s compassion for the orphan grows, her adult children, Robert and Elaine, are angered. They insist Mattie stop caring for him.
Scene (show or tell): Elaine argues, “He’s an escaped convict. You could be charged with aiding and abetting a criminal.”
Mattie snaps, “He’s not a criminal, Elaine.”
Robert disagrees. “He’s a thief, Mama. He’s a juvenile delinquent.”
Mattie says, “Robert, nobody ever loved him.”
Robert replies, “If they did, he probably stole their car.”
When Mattie begins to say, “The Bible says—” Elaine interjects, “We know what the Bible says. The Bible is full of wonderful stories, Mama. It is a monument to humanity, but that’s all it is—it’s just a story book.”
“The good Lord says that we must help the least of these thy brethren,” Mattie says. “That boy is one of the least of these.”
“I’ll say!” Robert growls.
“You have already done plenty for him. You have done more than most would. Doesn’t the Bible say when to stop?” Elaine asks.
Mattie replies emphatically: “No.”
Conclusion: Jesus said care for the least of these. He never said stop. Jesus cares for us despite our lowly condition. And, thankfully, he never stops. Can we do any less?
Submitted by Van Morris, Mt. Washington, Kentucky.
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A Self-Made Man
The CEO of a Fortune 500 company pulled into a service station to get gas. He went inside to pay, and when he came out he noticed his wife engaged in a deep discussion with the service station attendant. It turned out that she knew him. In fact back in high school before she met her eventual husband, she used to date this man.
The CEO got in the car, and the two drove in silence. He was feeling pretty good about himself when he finally spoke: “I bet I know what you were thinking. I bet you were thinking you’re glad you married me, a Fortune 500 CEO, and not him, a service station attendant.”
“No, I was thinking if I’d married him, he’d be a Fortune 500 CEO and you’d be a service station attendant.”
Source: John Ortberg in Love Beyond Reason (Zondervan, 1998).
Humility, Marriage, Pride. Proverbs 16:18; 1 Peter 5:6.Now He’s a Basket Case
A man shared with his friends that he and his wife were going through empty-nest syndrome. He said the worst part about it was that once the children leave, some wives treat their husbands like children.
For example, he said, “When we go to the grocery store and I reach for cereal, she slaps my hand and says, ‘We don’t need that this week.’ Then I reach for ice cream, and she slaps my hand, saying, ‘We don’t need that this week.’ I reach for the potato chips, and again she slaps my hand and says, ‘We don’t need that this week.’
“I finally get so frustrated I hop out of the shopping cart and go to the car!”
Submitted by Van Morris, Mt. Washington, Kentucky.
Family, Marriage, Respect. Colossians 3:18-19Copyright © 2003 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
