Unto One of the Least of These, Matthew 25:40 Wall Art

Water poured by the roadside

On a dry, sunlit hillside, a man sits on the ground against a low wall of stacked stone. He wears a cream head wrap, a ragged tunic and a worn brown cloak, and his walking stick lies across the dirt beside a tied cloth bundle, everything he is carrying. He holds up a wooden bowl with both hands and looks up with an expression of surprise.

Jesus stands over him in a cream robe, slate-blue cloak and rust mantle, tilting a clay jug so that a thin stream of water runs into the bowl. His head is bowed toward the man, not toward us. Olive trees and two slim cypresses sit on the rise behind them. Brown script runs over their heads: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these”, and Matthew 25:40.

Who are “the least of these”?

The line comes from Jesus' description of the last judgment, where the Son of Man separates the nations as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. To those on his right the King says that he was hungry and they fed him, a stranger and they took him in, sick and in prison and they visited him. Among the list: “I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink.” Puzzled, they ask when they ever did this, and the answer is the whole verse in the King James Version: “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

What is surprising is that neither group knew. The righteous did not help because they recognized Christ; they helped because someone was thirsty. The painting gently reverses the parable, showing Jesus as the one who gives, as if to show the pattern we are asked to copy.

Catholic teaching draws six of its seven corporal works of mercy from this passage, and food banks, shelters and prison ministries of every denomination cite it constantly. It is one of the Gospel texts most often read on the feast of Christ the King, at the end of the church year.

For a church, a pastor or a volunteer

This print belongs where service happens: a church fellowship hall, a pastor's study, the office of a charity or the kitchen of a family that hosts neighbors often. It is a thoughtful thank-you to a volunteer, a nurse or a teacher who spends every day on people others overlook.