Perhaps some who have perused this blog in the past will recall that my favorite passages in the Bible are those describing the prophecy of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25:31-46. These verses underscore how we display our vertical love for God – and describe the manifestation of the horizontal love we have for others.

But a brief phrase in verse 36 has puzzled me.

³⁴Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: ³⁵for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; ³⁶I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’

I have heretofore considered this a reference to those persecuted in service to Christ. But two things have shifted my thinking. One is the selfless work of a friend in prison ministry. My friend, a former ward of the state himself, turned his life around – and now works graciously to effect the same change in his former mates. He is a living, breathing testimony to the fact that the incarcerated are, like the rest of us, God’s children and made in His image.

The other influence is the wisdom of a former professional acquaintance turned songwriter/performer.

Tom Mohr describes his song The Prisoner this way:

“We tend to think of prisoners as ‘the other’– the discarded ones. But Jesus calls us to visit the prisoner. What if we were to discover that the difference between prisoners and us is less than we once thought? What if we were to realize we all fall short, we all sin, and we all need God’s grace? This song is about that.”

I encourage you to give this song a listen. It is among the most beautiful and impactful I have ever heard.