I’ve heard the phrases “meet people where they are” and “just walk with people” thousands of times.
I won’t for a second deny how important it is to walk with people in pastoral work or whatever work it may be. I often get confused with individuals who think that “meeting people where they are” or “just walking with people” is the ultimate goal. Instead, it’s just the beginning.
Christianity demands that we walk somewhere. We have a destination.
Throughout the Gospels, Jesus meets people where they are and walks with them. There is no doubt about this; it jumps off of every page. Yet, He always walks somewhere with people. He never encounters someone with no further destination in mind. Jesus always meets people where they are to bring them somewhere else.
For example, Jesus meets the woman at the well exactly where she is, yet there is a destination in mind. As they converse, she refers to Jesus as a Jew, then sir, then prophet, then Messiah. Jesus met the woman at the well exactly where she had been, but he left her in a completely different place. She may have never taken a step during the conversation, but she journeyed from seeing an ordinary man to encountering the Lord. That’s the point - Jesus is the destination. He is where humanity and divinity embrace.
Jesus walks with people, but it’s always walking somewhere. Consider the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). Jesus also says to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). Jesus says to the repentant thief, “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Jesus demands conversion, transformation, and eyes focused on a destination.
During the first week of Lent, I always enjoy reading the homily from Saint Asterius of Amasea. He reflects on the meaning of the word “shepherd” when Jesus says that the good shepherd leaves the ninety-nine to find the one lost sheep. Asterius says, “When one of them [sheep] was separated from the flock and lost its way, that shepherd did not remain with the sheep who kept together at pasture. No, he went off to look for the stray. He crossed many valleys and thickets, he climbed great towering mountains, he spent much time and labor in wandering through solitary places until at last he found his sheep.”
How true this must be before we “meet people where they are” and “walk with people”? It takes a tremendous amount of effort.
Asterius continues, “When he [the shepherd] found the sheep, he did not chastise it; he did not use rough blows to drive it back, but gently placed it on his own shoulders and carried it back to the flock.” Notice what the good shepherd did: not only did the shepherd meet the sheep where it was and simply walk with it, but, more importantly, the shepherd led the sheep in a different direction (back to the flock).
Asterius then mentions the profound joy experienced by the good shepherd, “He took greater joy in this one sheep, lost and found, than in all the others.”
Again, I’m all for “meeting people where they are” and “just walking with people,” but it cannot stop there. Christianity demands so much more. It requires a destination, a goal. It demands Paul's mentality, “Run so as to win the race” (1 Corinthians 9:24). It demands people to be brought back into the fold.
It demands that we seek first the Kingdom of God together. We are walking with someone somewhere…toward Heaven. To put it clearly, that might mean we need people to turn us around because we might be heading in the wrong direction.
+ Fr. Ben Daghir