(A clipping from my files… from an old Expository Times. Author unknown).

It is clear that what Jesus welcomed in the poor was not their poverty but their humility; and what he condemned in the rich was not their riches, but their pride.

There was a poor man who cursed him as he died beside him on the cross. There was a rich man who humbly went and begged his body from the Roman Governor.

We are told that ‘he came unto his own’, and ‘his own’ included the whole human race, for this was the Son of Man coming to his family. ‘His own’ included poor and rich, young and old, intelligent and simple, black and yellow and brown and white – everybody. But ‘his own would not receive him’. There was a resistance when Christ came – a resistance unto blood.’