The Least of These: Veterans
The Least of These: Veterans.
“For I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you made Me your guest, I needed clothes and you covered Me, I was sick and you took care of Me, I was in prison and you visited Me… I am telling you the absolute truth, so take this to heart! Whenever you did these things for one of the least of these brethren of Mine, you did them for Me!” (Jesus’ complete parable of the Sheep and the Goats is found in Matthew 25:31-46).
[this article is in process, so it is currently unfinished. Thanks for not reading it quite yet]
Extreme Empathy? Christ so closely identifies with those who suffer in the world that He somehow attaches Himself to each sufferer and literally ‘feels their pain.’ He even thinks of the sufferer as “brethren,” (v. 40) of being in the same family as Him. Jesus has welcomed every needy person in the world into His presence, and He has invited Himself into their presence as well. Jesus is present with the least important, the overlooked, the neglected in a spiritually meaningful way. Jesus knows what it’s like to suffer, He is familiar with poverty, rejection and loneliness, He is well-acquainted with grief and shame. The Lord is saying in this parable that He is personally present with that person in the midst of his suffering. When we care for the needy, therefore, we end up caring for Christ as well. When it comes to those who are forgotten or devalued, Jesus weaves together His identity with theirs. When we are serving the hungry in a soup kitchen, we are also filling the plate of a hungry Jesus. When you dress the wounds of a soldier on a battlefield, we are welcoming Jesus into the foxhole with you. When we visit a prisoner in his jail cell, we’ll find that Jesus occupies the same cell, and of course the top bunk belongs to Him. If we offer a spare room to someone who needs a bed for the night, we are welcoming Jesus as a guest as well. If we offer the shirt off our back to a half-naked man on the street corner, be aware that we are clothing Jesus in His “distressing disguise.” (Mother Teresa). The miserable have captured the heart of Jesus to the extent that He joins them in their misery. He is a presence in their poverty. Jesus so closely identifies with the needy that when we care for the needy, we care for Him who is standing right there in solidarity. In a sense, Jesus seems to love hiding in the needy. So somehow here’s a gospel mystery… Each believer is hidden inside Christ, while at the same time Christ is hidden in us when we suffer (Col. 3:3). Are we hiding inside each other? The reality is that when we ignore the needy, we are ignoring Jesus as well, to our peril.
A Brother in Turmoil. Why would Jesus consider our veterans in America to be living examples of the Least of These? Why would He invite the vet into the sacred fellowship of suffering, and identify with them so closely? Maybe it’s because Jesus knows what they’re going through…Vets are often misunderstood by those who haven’t worn combat boots; they are often overlooked and ignored without being appreciated in any way; vets are not exactly welcomed into civilian life with open arms and understanding hearts; just like Jesus, they often feel out of place, dislocated, an outsider thrown back into a world of insiders, and they suffer from profound feelings of isolation as a result; vets are often rejected for what they are not and accepted under false pretenses. Yes, Jesus stands in such close solidarity with veterans that He stands with them as they are in turmoil, and He yearns for their inner healing for all they’ve gone through. Jesus knows intimately what it means to be suffering in private with hidden wounds in ways that people can’t recognize. So Jesus is so close to the vets as they suffer that when we demonstrate love and care for them, we are caring for Jesus right along with them. Jesus takes it personally when they suffer and when they are loved.
Bon Jovi – Unbroken (Lyric Video)
Difficult Adjustments. It’s no secret that a veteran often has a difficult time adjusting to civilian life. They are expected to magically find their place in this whole different world back home. They are expected to seamlessly discover a whole new identity without a rank, a meaningful way to contribute to society and function with a firm purpose in a world that has dramatically changed since the last time they were home. They were well-trained in a very specific skill set, and sometimes don’t have an easy time translating those military skills to civilian job opportunities. Vets are expected to find a new persona when they like the one they’ve had. They are expected to locate the same camaraderie that formed a deep bond of friendships in the service, to find the same single-minded community that existed to help each other survive and accomplish their goals.
Montgomery Gentry – Didn’t I (Video) – YouTube
PTSD. Vets have painful memories from combat when asked to do something that doesn’t necessarily come naturally… to kill a fellow human being in order to survive. These memories are unwelcome and don’t want to be relived, and result in anger, shame, fear, anxiety, confusion and terror. For many vets, there is unrelenting stress that is burned into their psyche. About 25% of veterans suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which brings nightmares, flashbacks, severe anxiety, and an inability to sleep or even relax. Other mental health conditions are not uncommon as well, such a depression and a variety of anxiety disorders that create a cycle of hopelessness.
Joe Bachman – A Soldier’s Memoir (PTSD Song) [OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO]
TBI. Much recent study has been done regarding traumatic brain injuries that vets have sustained during military service. Repeated TBIs or concussions are a major cause of disability, mental health complications, and neurological disorders outside military settings. From 2000-2019, over 400,000 vets sustained a traumatic brain injury, and over 185,000 vets received a TBI diagnosis at a VA facility. More than 15% of veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have experienced a TBI. Overall, around 67% of veterans have experienced at least one TBI, from mild to severe.
John Prine – “Sam Stone” – Live from Sessions at West 54th – YouTube
Substance Abuse. These anxieties and unfortunate disorders specific to veterans often tempt the vets to seek self-medication through alcohol and illegal drugs. Naturally, these coping attempts come at a cost and bring along many troubles that only add to the vet’s problems :
- Suicide: Vets are at a 57% higher risk of suicide than non-veterans. In 2022, there were 6,400 suicides, an average of 17 suicides every day. The recent statistics in 2024 are worse, with an average of 20-22 daily suicides.
- Homelessness: As of 2025, there were a reported 32,800 homeless vets, and this is vastly underreported. Vets are 50% more likely to become homeless than non-vets. And 75% of the homeless vets had a substance abuse disorder, with a drug overdose mortality rate 10 times higher than non-homeless vets.
- Substance Abuse: Because of the all-too-common mental health problems as well as the chronic physical pain from combat experience, self-medication has resulted in 900,000 vets who abuse alcohol, 300,000 who abuse illegal drugs, and over 80,000 who abuse both. Between 2010-2019, there were over 42,000 OD deaths among vets, but thankfully that number has recently decreased. Nonetheless, the VA reports that 11% of veterans seen at a VA facility meet the criteria for a substance abuse disorder.
- Divorce: Due to all these overwhelming effects of military service that many veterans have endured, vets are 62% more likely to experience divorce than non-veterans.
Darryl Worley: I Just Came Back From A War
Services for Veterans and Families. There is a national Veterans Crisis Hotline set up with 24/7 assistance available, and the number is simply 988-1. And because of the dramatic needs of so many veterans who have returned to civilian life, a vet can contact any number of agencies and organizations that exist to help vets survive and flourish, some of them being: VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars); Volunteers of America; American Red Cross; Wounded Warrior Project; Military OneSource (in the Department of Defense); DAV (Disabled American Veterans). The Tunnel to Towers nonprofit is establishing Veterans Villages across the country, providing permanent or temporary housing for vets and families that includes a comprehensive service center in the Village that provides financial advising, mental health and counseling attention, employment coordinators, family support for spouses and children, mortgage assistance, educational specialists, and even assistance in negotiating all the VA benefits.
The VA. The VA (Department of Veterans Affairs) is meant to be a primary source of assistance in all things related to the needs of veterans: their 24/7 Hotline is 800-698-2411; their Health Benefits Hotline is 877-222-8387; their National Call Center for Homeless Veterans is 877-424-3838. A veteran in any kind of need should contact their local VA facility for everything from mental health treatment to medical services to various benefits.
Veterans who are having a difficult time adjusting to civilian life have Jesus right there with them. When we serve and care for these vets, Jesus counts it as demonstrating love for Him. Besides practical help, perhaps we can follow the pattern that Jesus used in coming to minister to all of us on earth, He became incarnate. Maybe the best we can do for needy vets to is to flesh out compassion, to become a physical presence, incarnating God’s love, establishing friendships with them.