What to do with Beggars?

Consider this situation. You are on your lunch break walking downtown. Along the way to your favorite lunch spot, a person in unkempt clothes who is apparently long overdue for a shower approaches you. You perceive right away what they want, and your mind goes into defense mode. They ask, "Could you spare some money to help me and my family?" You are tempted to simply ignore the person and keep walking, but you don't want to be cold or unkind. So, you fiddle around in your pockets with sweaty hands and scrounge up a couple of dollars and some change. You awkwardly extend the offering and resume your walk, only now with an uneasy feeling in your stomach and a number of nagging questions, "Should I have given that person more money?...should I have given him anything?...what if they use it for drugs?...what should I do in a situation like that?"

Ever been there? Maybe you're like me and you've been there many times. If so, you probably came up with questions like those above. Have you taken the time to answer them? Do you know how to respond to needy people? Timothy Keller, senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, gives us some guidance in Ministries of Mercy: The Call of the Jericho Road.

First, if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you have an obligation to extend mercy to underserving people. He has shown mercy to us by giving us forgiveness and eternal life through His death and resurrection. If we have received such treatment from God, we ought to do the same. But you might ask if that means we should help people who probably deserve the mess they're in. Should we put conditions on whom we help? After all, if I give them help, won't I just be perpetuating their laziness, bad habits, and/or addictions? Keller answers wisely:

God's mercy comes to us without conditions, but does not proceed without
cooperation. So too our aid must begin freely, regardless of the
recipient's merits. But our mercy must increasingly demand change or it is
not really love.

So, on the one hand, we should show mercy to people freely and without conditions at first. This doesn't mean we have to give over our wallet or buy the person his or her favorite alcohol or addictive drug. Wisdom and discernment are called for. But that doesn't mean we should withold our help, since showing mercy is by very definition helping those who don't deserve it. On the other hand, we must eventually withdraw aid if there is no positive reponse in the person we're trying to help. Keller calls this "letting mercy limit mercy." Our goal should be to restore the whole person, not just immeditate physical needs. If the person will not let us into their life to deal with issues like bad habits, addictions, and personal sin then our material aid will only be abetting their unrighteous lifestyle and rebellion against God.

I recommend reading Keller's book, which goes into much more than I've related. But I also recommend we go back to Scriptures like the Gospel of John chapter 5, where we read of Jesus healing--guess who--an undeserving lame man. Jesus apparently doesn't even wait for pleas from the beggar, but almost immediately heals the man on the spot. We have ample reason to think this man was not only undeserving, but ungrateful. Jesus' second (and unplanned) contact with the man is to say, "See, you are well! Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." Jesus freely gives the sinner help and mercy, but he doesn't leave it there, calling for a deeper change in the man's heart. This is not an isolated example, as Matthew, Mark, and Luke can also attest. It would do us good to search our hearts as we search the Scriptures to see if they match. If we've thought about the implications of God's mercy on us, as well as the advice of Keller and the Scriptures, are we ready to apply it?

I hope the next time we meet a needy person on our lunch break we'll be on the offensive instead of the defensive.