阅读经文 

俄罗斯作家列夫·托尔斯泰写了一个关于鞋匠马丁的故事。

某个黄昏，马丁听到主对他说话，主告诉马丁祂将会在翌日到访他的鞋店。马丁满怀希望在等待，那天的时光慢慢溜走了，他焦虑地观望着和等待着。在等待主到来时，他留意到一个在寒冷中瑟瑟发抖的老兵，他便邀请老兵进来喝茶。不久，又有一个生活艰苦的年青母亲走过，马丁为她赤脚的小孩做了一双温暖的靴子，又送她一些零钱来买食物。他又为一个被人发现偷了一个苹果的穷苦男孩辩护。

那天结束时，马丁很失望，因为他仍然未曾见到主。这时有声音对他说：“马丁，你认不出是我吗？”跟着他便见到那个老兵、那个母亲和那个男孩子。马丁明白了：透过这一天里他曾遇到和帮助过的人，耶稣已经在他面前显现了。

托尔斯泰写这个故事的灵感，来自于他在马太福音二十五章读到的信息。在这里，我们看到神完全认同了贫穷的人，乃至到了一个地步，即任何作在他们身上的善行，也被视为作在神自己身上了。当我们记着每一个人都是神的儿女、都有神的形像时，我们也能够在我们遇到的人的面孔中和生命中认出耶稣来。

The Russian author Leo Tolstoy wrote a story about Martin the cobbler.

One evening Martin hears the Lord speak to him, saying that he will come to Martin’s shop the next day. Martin is filled with expectation, and as the day goes by, he watches and waits anxiously. While he is waiting for the Lord, he notices an old soldier suffering from the cold and invites him in to share a cup of tea. Soon a struggling young mother comes by, and he fits her shoeless child with a warm pair of boots and gives her some coins for food. He defends a poor young boy caught trying to steal an apple.

By the day’s end, he is disappointed that he has not yet met the Lord. But then a voice comes to him, saying, “Martin, did you not recognize me?” And then he sees the soldier and the mother and boy, and Martin understands: Jesus has appeared to him through the encounters with people he has helped throughout the day.

Tolstoy’s story is inspired by his reading of Matthew 25. Here we learn that God identifies with the poor so completely that an act of kindness done to them is considered by God to be an act of kindness done to him. When we remember that each person is a child of God bearing God’s image, we too will recognize Jesus in the faces and lives of the people we meet.