The frost-bitten hands of Christ

What does it mean to live Unto Jesus in today's world?

I was in Toronto for a show. My brother-in-law got the tickets and raved about it. He was seeing it for about the 12th time, a conservative estimate.

Suddenly, Come from Away—the Canadian musical sensation about lavish hospitality to neighbours in their time of need— was more poignant then ever since the newly elected president shook the world with a single word: tariff.¹

I took the train to the big smoke during a storm. This was in the height of a snow dump that fell upon Toronto, when the embattled Mayor took lots of well-deserved criticism for not managing removal well. Intersections we barely passable. Streets were covered.

As we rushed down the street to the theatre, that’s when I saw a terrible moment of human desperation.

He was crawling across the busy street through traffic. Ruts of wet snow were higher than speed bumps. It was difficult to gain enough purchase to step over with boots. This man pulled himself over the icy ridges, his chest flat on the slush, head lower than the tires of the SUVs that drove by, spraying up brown snow. It was a terrible moment. His pants were below his waist as he dragged his legs behind him. His coat open. He fought through the drifts like a wounded soldier.

It was below zero, humid. Exposed skin gets cold fast. And here the man was, pulling himself toward the curb without gloves. By the time we got to the side of the road a Good Samaritan stopped to help. It was clear the man was in a drug-altered state. His hands so white with frostbite they didn’t work.

My brother-in-law got on the phone to call emergency services. The Good Samaritan started to talk to the man. And that’s when I remembered the gloves in my backpack. If you travel in Canada in a storm, you pack layers. And before I left the house, as a precaution, I decided to slip them in the pack, “just in case.”

As we tried to help the man, all of us feeling useless as the paramedics were on route, I slipped the gloves over his cold, moon-white hands. The man—his hands, his emaciated body—in a terrible state. Dignity, vitality gone.

Forgive me for going here so abruptly, but do you know what words came to my mind in the flurry of human misery? Unto Jesus.

It’s been a verse on my mind for months. At work I’ve been helping to bring a project to life with that very phrase, based on the words of Matthew 25:40:

Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.

Was this moment, that I’d rather not witness, was this misery, that I wish wasn’t in the world, the very type of moment we’d been talking about all these months as we planned a campaign?

How do we live “Unto Jesus” in today’s world?

Those words dropped like a bomb in me in that moment. As I awkwardly put on the warm gloves over his wet hands—hands that looked like dead branches—inflicting more pain to try to protect them from even more harm, was it like I was putting the gloves onto Jesus’ very own hands. Were these hands the frost-bitten hands of Christ?

Jesus isn’t a middle-aged, homeless man in a drug-altered state. I know that. But is that what the words of his verse really mean? Is any act of love or compassion that I show to someone in need an act unto Christ himself?

This has been the thesis, the premise of the campaign we created. It's one thing to abstractly discuss or reflect on the concept. Quite another to experience such a thing first hand.

Ever since I started working on the campaign, I’ve noticed moments of opportunity. Not all as dramatic, but real moments where an act of kindness or compassion is possible.

You know when you purchase a new brand—say a Nissan, after driving a Toyota for years. Suddenly, everywhere you go you see others driving the Rogue. They’re everywhere! Before you got your own, you’d never really noticed them before. That’s suddenly what’s been happening for me, but with Matthew 25.

There are so many moments unfolding where I can help others in little ways.

VIDEO ABOVE: Former WWE start Melina Roucka, joins forces with the popular duo One Common, Authentic church pastor Bobby Chandler, social media sensation Rashawn Copeland, and cookbook author Emily Hutchinson for the Unto Jesus.

The heart of this campaign is to invite people like you and me to see the opportunities in front of us. We created things like the video above (which features some cool people with big platforms) to make the case that acts of compassion in our own streets or across the world, matter.

The big question of our campaign is: What happens if we stop, allow ourselves to be interrupted, and use what’s in our hand to help people in small or big ways?

We want to find out.²

Authentic Church Pastor Bobby Chandler; TikTok star Hailey Julia; Cookbook author and baker Emily Hutchinson, Rashawn Copeland founder of Praymap.com; Food Network host and celebrity cook Aarti Sequeria in the UJ hat and with Compassion alumni Owen and Kiwi

Get inspired with some Unto Jesus stories

I want to personally invite you to check out the campaign. I’m genuinely excited about the content that we’ve created. If you’ve been following me on social, you may have seen some of my posts about the content we filmed in Nashville.

With a team of incredible people across North America, we’ve put together some great resources, including:

• a podcast series of nuanced conversations with notable Christian thinkers,

• social media activations,

• a YouVersion devotion,

• some stylish hats (that are real conversation starters, and you can win one)…

• and lots more!

Use what’s in your hand

This appeal, to use what’s in your hand, has been a theme of my life.

When I toured She Has A Name, that’s the common thread that wove so many of the experiences together as people asked, how do I address a giant of injustice as big as human trafficking?

The answer: You use what’s in your hand. (For me, it was a pen).

The same truth rings here. I’m surprised (though I shouldn’t be) and grateful, that the same truth applies here to the needs all around us.

What happened to that man?

When I saw the man desperately crawling through traffic and snow to the edge of the snow covered street to find shelter from the wind and cold, there wasn’t much I or my brother-in-law could do.

But he could call an ambulance. And I did have gloves to give. We don’t know how much they helped. But the point is, we did what we could.

Perhaps his hands were beyond the point of salvaging (I don’t really know how frostbite works). But, what happened to him?

Honestly, I don’t know.

The Good Samaritan was there to protect him from crawling back into traffic. The experts were there to provide real help. We went to see the play.

We may never know.

You better believe that every time after that moment, when I needed those gloves and didn’t have them, I thought of the man and prayed for him. His hands. His life. For other active human links to form in a great chain of compassion to somehow finally set the man free.

If—and this is a mystery—I’m invited to imagine that I placed those warm gloves on the frost-bitten hands of Christ. Then, perhaps, I can also hear Jesus say, “I receive this gift from you. I will take it from here.”

It’s a dangerously bold but wonderful mystery to consider.

Here’s to giving away more -40C rated gloves, hugs, coins in our pockets, cold cups of water to people in need.

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Do you have and Unto Jesus moment that you’ve experienced? A time when you were pushed out of your comfort zone to show some kindness, or, were on the receiving end of compassion you didn’t deserve?

I’d love to hear about it!

Please share it here to encourage another reader:

1. The story of islanders in Gander, Newfoundland who welcomed people from around the world, and primarily Americans, after jumbo jets were grounded on the horrible day of 9/11 seemed like an important story with lessons to take to heart. We saw the show as tariffs became a catch word and as Trudeau grappled with what to do (which, as it turns out, was to resign).

2. We know part of the answer, because Compassion has seen the lives of millions of children living in extreme poverty transformed because people like you and me did an Unto-Jesus kind of thing and helped them in a simple way.