You Don’t Have to Prove That You Matter to God

The demand for strict work requirements to avoid being kicked off of Medicaid and food assistance programs is immoral and unChristian.  It is built on the false philosophy, recently articulated by Dr. Mehmet Oz, that you need to “prove that you matter” by working.  To God, every person matters.

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On June 4, 2025, Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said something that should shock the moral sense of the nation.  He was advocating for the bill passed by the House of Representatives that would impose Medicaid cuts. To defend cutting people off of Medicaid, he explained that people who want Medicaid healthcare coverage should go out and get a job and “prove that you matter” (this article from The Hill provides additional quotes and a link to the actual interview where he said this, at 5:10 in the interview).

The same bill would impose severe work requirements for receiving food assistance.

The Bible tells us that every person matters

When God created humans, he made us in his image and likeness (Gen. 1:26-27).  In Genesis, God looks at his creation and calls it “very good” (Gen. 1:31).  He doesn’t say that his creation is only good if humans meet work requirements.  He doesn’t say they need to prove they matter.

When the psalmist says that God knitted him together in his mother’s womb, and praises God because he is “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:13-14), he doesn’t say that he is only wonderfully made if he can prove that he matters by working.

Jesus tells us to consider the birds, that they do not sow or reap or gather into barns, yet God feeds them.  He adds, “Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matthew 5:26, NIV).  He did not say, “Are you not much more valuable than they if you work?”  In fact, he explicitly says that the birds do not do the work of sowing and reaping, yet God feeds them anyway.

The Christian truth is that every human being is of infinite worth and “matters,” not because they work, but simply because they exist.  Many Christians emphasize this point when they are talking about abortion and euthanasia.  Why do they not see it when they talk about healthcare and food?

I don’t know which is worse: that a government leader said that people should prove they matter, or that the Christians who support him have not asked him to repudiate this ungodly view of human beings.  Why has there not been a horrified outcry against the idea that you have to “prove that you matter” before you are worthy to receive healthcare and food?

Medicaid cuts? Medicaid and SNAP are lifelines that help Americans survive

Medicaid is our nation’s primary health program for low-income and disabled people.  The non-partisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has analyzed the bill passed by the House.  Their analysis shows that the measure would block Medicaid eligibility for many people “who can’t document meeting rigid work requirements or show they qualify for an exemption.”  The bill includes a similar restriction for the food assistance program known as SNAP (formerly, food stamps), “cutting SNAP benefits for children whose parents don’t meet rigid work requirements.”

Millions of people on Medicaid are struggling with disabilities that make it nearly impossible for them to fit into a workforce system that assumes that you can show up to work every day regardless of your health status.  Many of them would welcome part-time employment if the job was flexible enough to adapt to their challenging medical needs, if their working hours could work around their medical appointments, if on the days that their illness overwhelms them they could take a day off without risking their job.

But that’s not how our workforce system is designed.  Contrary to the teachings of Catholic popes and Protestant leaders for the past 100+ years, we have a system where people are expected to serve the economy, rather than the other way around.  People are expected to fit the needs of the economy, regardless of the human impact.

To simply tell someone to get a job to “prove that you matter“ is heartless, unChristian, and immoral.  It’s also antithetical to God’s call to love one another.  If you take health care way from a person with an illness or disability, so that they lose access to the doctors and medicines that keep them alive, you will hasten their death, not shame them into working.

Furthermore, millions of people on Medicaid are caring for a disabled child or taking care of a frail parent or relative.  To force them into jobs that are inappropriate for their situations will put the lives of children and the elderly at risk.

The harsh handling of food assistance is equally heartless.  If someone is barely getting through each day, they aren’t going to become more able to focus on work if you make them hungry.  As any teacher can tell you, a hungry person is less focused, less capable, and less effective, not more.

Jesus never judged whether people “mattered” before he healed or fed them

When Jesus fed the 5,000 (Mark 6:34-44) and the 4,000 (Matthew 15:32-39), he did not tell the disciples to only give bread and fish to the people who had a job.

When he healed the leper and the paralytic (Luke 5:12-25) and raised the widow’s son (Luke 7:11-17), he didn’t ask first how many hours of work they were putting in.

Imagine if Jesus had adopted this ungodly idea that people should prove they matter.  When the woman with the “issue of blood” (hemorrhages) touched the tassel on his cloak (Luke 8:43-48), suppose he had turned and asked, “Woman, how many hours do you work each week?”

Fortunately, you don’t matter to Jesus because you work.  You matter because he made you and loves you.  Can’t we follow his example?

Imagine if the apostles had adopted the “prove that you matter” philosophy

The early church had to deal with a problem that some widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food (Acts 6:1-7).  Suppose that, instead of creating a more effective food assistance program (which is what they did), they instead followed the “prove that you matter” philosophy.  Suppose their solution to the problem had been to ask each widow how many hours she was working each week, so that they could formally disenroll those who were not working enough.

What kind of witness would that have been?

Is that the kind of people we are?

In Acts 3:1-10, Peter and John came across a disabled man who was begging (Acts 3:1-10) because his society didn’t have an effective food assistance program.  They said to him: We don’t have any money, but we will give you what we have: In the name of Jesus, be healed.

I don’t have the ability to heal people.  God has not given me that gift.  But he has given me a heart, to care for people with disabilities, people with inadequate incomes, people who are struggling.  If I can’t heal them directly, the least I can do is share some of the money God has given me by funding programs that provide healthcare to them.  That’s what Medicaid is: a program created and funded by people who don’t have miraculous healing powers but want to provide healthcare to their fellow citizens who can’t obtain healthcare on their own.

Yet today, Christians are leading the charge to kick people out of the program.  Peter and John had no money but gave healing.  These Christians have money but give no healing.

The “prove that you matter” philosophy is profoundly unChristian

The philosophy that people should prove that they matter before receiving healthcare and food assistance fails the test of “What would Jesus do?  It ignores the fact that every person is made in the image of God and is worthy of care.  It destroys the witness of Christians in the eyes of non-Christians, who are likely to say: If this is what your faith is about – depriving people of healthcare and food – I want nothing to do with your faith.

This philosophy is not Christian.  It is not moral.  It is not what Jesus would do.  It is not how God thinks about you.  To God, every person matters.  You don’t have to prove that you matter.  Jesus already did that.  He died for all of us because all people matter.

Our public policies should communicate the same principle.