I have marked the words “ordinary” and “insignificant” because it is clear from the records that this is not how Jesus regarded such people. Again and again he gave them his attention. He listened to them. He helped them. Mind you, my category of powerless and low-status people is problematic. Jesus was not a social activist who cared only for the downtrodden. He did not avoid the wealthy and influential. 

How We Deal with ‘Ordinary’ People Says a Lot About Us:

I am an ordinary guy. And you might be an ordinary guy or gal. There is nothing all that special about us and we just go about our daily routines. The world does not know about us and very few folks care about us. But in this fallen world, there is special honour and attention paid to all sorts of VIPs: the rulers, the movers and shakers, the elites, the Hollywood set, the rockstars, the top athletes, the glamorous, the rich and famous, and so on.

Thankfully we Christians know that God has a very different view of things. He sees us all as being special and worthy of attention. That is because we are all made in his image and we are all deserving of being treated with respect and dignity.

God is fully aware of each and every one of us and he treats us as unique and special individuals, and not some amorphous social mass. Indeed, he created us all as different and unique individuals, so he does not treat us as those coming off a cookie-cutter assembly line.

Reading through Scripture we see how often not just God, but great men and women of God, were willing to mix and have close relationships with ‘ordinary’ people. They had no problems in hob-nobbling with the hoi polloi. They went out of their way to be with those who were not recognised or cared about by the world.

The prophets of old were like that. Jesus was like that. The early disciples were like that. And we believers are to be like that as well. While we might be thrilled to meet and greet a Hollywood celeb, or a tennis champion, or a member of the Royal family, we should be just as eager to treat all we come across as being special and worthy of our time and attention.

Elisha, the widow, and no ordinary people

There are different ways in which I can go on to discuss all this. Let me do so by means of one familiar biblical story and some commentary. And allow me a brief preface to this. I am a big fan of biblical commentaries, and I have especially loved the more academic and scholarly critical commentaries. I have many hundreds of these, and will keep getting them.

But over recent years I have come to quite like good expository commentaries. The many sermons of Martyn Lloyd-Jones turned into book form come to mind here of course. And two sets of these sorts of commentaries I have praised before: the Preaching the Word series (Crossway), and the Reformed Expository Commentary series (P&R). See a write-up here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2020/12/03/on-expository-commentaries/

In that former series are 2 volumes on 1 and 2 Samuel by John Woodhouse. But here I want to focus on his two volumes on 1 and 2 Kings. His volume on 1 Kings appeared in 2018. The 22 chapters of that biblical book are covered in 800 pages by Woodhouse. I have used his commentary often, as in this piece: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2022/04/13/difficult-bible-passages-1-kings-31/

And his new volume on 2 Kings has just come out this year. Again, 800 pages are used to cover the 25 chapters of 2 Kings. As I was reading through his new commentary, I was quite impressed about what he said when he was discussing the life of the prophet Elisha.

So here I will quote from what he says about Elisha’s encounter with the troubled widow in 2 Kings 4:1-7. The story is this:

Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.” And Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me; what have you in the house?” And she said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.” Then he said, “Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few. Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all these vessels. And when one is full, set it aside.” So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured they brought the vessels to her. When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.”

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