Jesus Our Advocate

In September 2013, I had a family of Yazidi refugees in my morning class. One day the husband showed me a letter he had received from the rental company about him being five months behind on rent and that his family would be evicted. A woman from the company came each month and collected cash for the rent. She wasn’t a smart criminal because she gave him a receipt each time. My student showed me the letter and the receipts and told me he did not understand why he got the letter. It took me all of a few seconds to know what was going on.

I told him after class we would go to the police station a few blocks away. That scared him because where he came from in Iraq, he had no rights. I assured him it would be okay and that I would go with him. After class we went, I explained to the police officer why we were there and we showed him the receipts and letter. The police investigated, the woman was arrested, and my friend received an apology letter from the rental company.

There have been many times that I have advocated for my refugee and immigrants friends over the years.

Jesus Our Advocate

1 John 2:1 says:

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

We have an advocate with God the Father. Jesus advocates for us. If we sin, he speaks on our behalf. If we struggle in life, he speaks for us. He is always advocating saying- “This one is mine.” Case closed.

Let’s consider who we might be able to advocate for in this life. For me it is refugees and immigrants. There are many who need advocates, foster children, young people who have aged out of foster care, elderly neighbors, the disadvantaged, single moms etc.

Thank you for reading. God Bless.