Pause and recognize need

My family has an often-quoted saying that you’ve probably heard or even used yourself.  Whenever someone can’t find something and then it is suddenly found right next to (or in front of) them, they’re reprimanded with the statement “If it was a snake it would have bit you”.  The point of the phrase is pretty straight-forward: if what you were looking for was dangerous, you’d be dead by now…so why didn’t you see it when you looked right at it?

Sometimes, it’s the milk in the fridge.  Other times, I can’t find my wallet.  I can’t tell you how many times my boys would walk through the house “looking” for their shoes, but for some reason they were not looking for them at floor level, the most likely place for shoes to be – and they would walk right by them.

It's amazing the things we miss that are right in front of us, if we’re actually looking for them.  Jesus’ disciples were not immune to this failing, either.  For our example, we’re dropping into a scene that is pretty normal for Jesus’ ministry:

Matthew 9:35
Jesus continued going around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness.

Jesus took His disciples everywhere, throughout all the towns and villages in order to tell the Jewish people that the long-prophesized Kingdom of Israel was available to their generation because Jesus is the promised Messiah.  Although Jesus was doing all the Messiah-type things (teaching, preaching, and healing every disease and every sickness), Matthew’s account gives us some specific detail about Jesus’ mindset as He interacted with the people:

Matthew 9:36-37
When He saw the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd.  Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few.”

Let’s pause right here.  Jesus wasn’t just administering His office of Messiah.  He wasn’t simply going through the motions, above all the “little people” and expecting the masses to follow because He held a title.  When Jesus looked at the crowds, He saw them.  Jesus saw their distress and recognized their dejected countenance.  Seeing this across the crowds, Jesus felt compassion for them.

This is a rather important observation.  For Jesus to recognize the pain and suffering of the people, He would need to be looking at them on an individual basis.  Recognizing this level of need isn’t something you can do with a quick-survey glance across a sea of faces.  He knew that Israel’s leaders had failed them.  Both the political rulers and the religious leaders had left the people to fend for themselves…and so they were like sheep without a shepherd, left to wander about on their own with no guidance, no assistance, and no protection.

Then He said to His disciples, “If it was a snake, it would have bit you”.  Ok, not quite…but pretty close.  Jesus told His disciples that there are plenty of people who desperately need to hear good news, but there are too few who know this and are willing to work to bring this good news to these distressed and dejected people. 

So what did Jesus tell His disciples to do?

Matthew 9:38
“Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”

When was the last time you prayed that God would encourage and strengthen believers to tell others about the good news that our sin-debt is forgiven and we can have eternal life if we believe in Jesus for it?  There are so many in our society that long to be “seen” as Jesus saw the crowds.  They need to know that their pain, suffering, questions, struggles, and fears are recognized by someone who has compassion on them.  Even today, Jesus’ statement is still true: The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few.

Praying for us to recognize need and for other believers to recognize need is an important step – but not the only step.  Honestly, prayer is just the first step.  We find Jesus giving the second step a few verses later:

Matthew 10:5
Jesus sent out these twelve after giving them instructions

After praying that God’s people would participate in God’s mission – we need to get to work in the areas that God has sent us. 

Let’s be real practical and intentional with this:

To effectively see people and see their needs like Jesus did, we need to slow down.  We can’t help someone with a flat tire if we’re flying down the left lane of the interstate.  Similarly, we won’t be able to recognize those who are ready to hear some good news if we’re consumed with the busyness of our own lives. 

Pray about it.  Slow down enough to see people where they are.  Have compassion.  Share the good news.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Don't be a Jedi

I was recently watching a cartoon Star Wars episode where two sisters were describing a major event in their lives that involved the Jedi.  The Jedi were chasing a runaway fugitive, and during the chase, the fugitive damaged a ship to help his escape.  One of the Jedi used the force to redirect the ship away from the gathering of people it was about to crash down on, as you often see Jedi characters do.  When you initially saw this scene, it appeared that the Jedi had saved many people.  And while they did save the crowd of people, as the sisters continued, we found out the rest of the story.  The new crash location of the damaged ship ended up being their family’s home.  The crash killed the sisters’ parents – leaving them orphans.  After the battle, the Jedi approached the sisters and told them “I’m sorry, I had to make a choice.  But don’t worry, the force will be with you.”  And then the Jedi left, never to return.  After going through an unexpected tragedy and then being left completely alone by everyone responsible, you can imagine what the sisters thought of Jedi…

I know, I know…it’s just a cartoon.  But I was immediately struck with the thought, “How often do us Christians say something like that, and then leave people to themselves?” 

Or, more specifically, How often do we say things like that to other Christians?

When you believe in Jesus for eternal life, you are immediately adopted into God’s family.  Regardless of your biological family background, you now have a Heavenly Father who loves you perfectly.  He looks out for you and knows what is best for you.  In addition, you suddenly have more brothers and sisters then you ever thought possible…but biological age often doesn’t match a person’s spiritual maturity.  Depending on your age when you believe in Jesus, don’t be surprised if you find Christians who are physically older than you, but still acting like spiritual babies.  It is also possible to have a spiritual mother or father that is physically younger than you.

I point out these differences within God’s family so we have a little context to what we’re about to read from the book of James.  Often misunderstood as a letter describing the actions of a “true Christian”, it is, in fact, a letter pointing out what a mature Christian does in contrast to an immature Christian.  Although it is a letter from Jesus’ younger brother to the early church of believers, its structure and feel is much like the wisdom literature of the Old Testament.  James heavily focuses on practical application in a believer’s life.

James wants his readers to intentionally live out their faith in Jesus.  He desires to see them treat each other the way that Jesus treats us.  At about the halfway point of the letter, he says this:

James 2:15-16
If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it?

In situations like this – from a practical standpoint – our words are useless.  Did your brother’s need change?  Do you still have the ability to help your sister?

Before James asked this question, just a few paragraphs back, he was scolding his readers about favoring the rich believers over the poor believers.  He exhorted them to follow the royal law: Love your neighbor as yourself.  Next, he poses the above question as a practical application of his teaching.  However, with the following verse, he cuts deep and to the point.  For those who only say niceties, to those who could do much more than only offer “thoughts and prayers” to their fellow believer in need, James says:

James 2:17
In the same way faith, if it doesn’t have works, is dead by itself.

Ouch. 

But the truth can be painful sometimes.  When we encounter painful truth, don’t ignore it…instead, we need to learn from it.

Some have taught that “faith without works is dead” means that person wasn’t a “true Christian” to begin with.  However, acting immaturely doesn’t mean you aren’t saved from eternal condemnation.  What it does mean is that you’re a lousy sibling to a brother or sister in need.  Throughout his letter, James constantly refers to his readers as believers and family.  He’s not saying that their immature behavior means they’re not really family.  “Dead” in this passage does not equal “corpse”.  Based on the context, we find that James is emphasizing the usefulness or profitability of faith in action.  So instead of a “dead body” assumption, try this analogy:

We love our cars.  We love the freedom they give us to travel quickly, accomplish tasks, help others, or to just enjoy a drive.  However, without fuel, that car is useless.  For all intents and purposes, it’s dead.  Without fuel, it’s still a car…but it cannot fulfill its designed purpose.  However, if you add gas back to the car, it becomes “alive” again.

Similarly, our faith – in order to be useful and profitable – needs to have action.  Just like the car needs gas.  And that’s what James is really getting at here:

If you see a brother or sister in need of help and you have the capacity to help them, don’t just say Christian-sounding words that do not change their situation.  Buy them groceries.  Lend them your car.  Cut their grass.  Buy them coffee and listen to their story.  Mentor their kids.  Hire them.  Use your connections to others who can help them in ways you can’t. 

Don’t be like the Jedi from the cartoon I watched – don’t give a nice little platitude about “God will be with you” and then walk away.  These are fellow members of God’s family.  So let’s act like family and help each other.

You’ll be amazed at what God does when your faith is alive through our actions.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Unexpectedly interrupted, and it was good

I have plans.  You have plans.  We all have plans – for how we start our mornings, how we expect the day to generally progress, how we will spend time this coming weekend, how we will spend our money, and on and on and on.  We’re more protective of some of our plans than others…and we certainly don’t like it when our plans are interrupted.  But how many times have our plans been derailed, and we look back and say “Wow, I didn’t expect that good thing to happen.”

That is exactly what is about to happen to Jesus’ disciples. 

After the Samaritan woman accepted Jesus’ free-gift offer of living water and eternal life, she ran back into town to tell others that the Messiah had finally arrived.  Here’s what happened next:

John 4:39-42
Now many Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of what the woman said when she testified, “He told me everything I ever did.”  So when the Samaritans came to Him, they asked Him to stay with them, and He stayed there two days.  Many more believed because of what He said.  And they told the woman. “We no longer believe because of what you said, since we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior of the world.”

A two day stay was not part of the original travel itinerary.  They were traveling from Judea in the south to Galilee in the north, for most of the disciples, Galilee was home.  I’m sure they were looking forward to seeing family and friends.  When Jesus saw the Samaritans’ need for Him and their desire to hear more, He opted to change the disciples’ travel plans.  And look at what took place as a result: many more believed in Him because of what He said.

Those that heard Him speak over those two days either hadn’t heard the woman’s invitation to meet Jesus at the well, or they were too skeptical to join her and the others when they went back to meet Jesus at the well.  Jesus staying longer gave extra time for even more people to encounter Him.

Think of it, though, from the disciples’ perspective.  They stayed two more (totally unplanned and unscheduled) days with the Samaritans.  The disciples likely didn’t want to be there at all.  Samaritans were outsiders and sometimes enemies to Jewish society.  On their current journey, they were about halfway home.  How did their interactions go when they bought food in the town?  Were they rude?  Stuck up?  Condescending?  If so, what was it like when the shopkeepers arrived later with the woman to hear from Jesus?

There are lots of ways that we could apply our observations from this small section, but let me share a personal one:

A few months back, I was working on the outline for this study of John 4.  It was during my initial flight home from a 10 day work trip.  I was ready to get back to the USA, and I had planned to use at least the first leg of my journey to hammer out as much as I could for this study’s blog posts.  I did not know anyone around me and most were not Americans.  I thought it was the perfect time to shut out the world and do some focused work.  However, soon after takeoff, my plans were interrupted.  The woman next to me must have read some of what I was transferring from my notes to the Bible verses in my laptop’s outline text – she apologized for disturbing me and asked if I was a pastor.  I told her that I am a teacher and gave her a card for this blog.  She was very thankful and told me that growing closer to God was one of her goals for the year and that she’s always amazed at people that can teach from the Bible.  She quickly apologized again and said that she didn’t want to interrupt my work. 

Did I have some work to do?  Absolutely…a lot of work, in fact.  It was Wednesday, I did not have Thursday’s post complete.  I was up against a deadline to have the next day’s post ready for you, my regular readers.  However, taking care of her was more important in that moment.  She went on to tell me that she was flying home to brother’s funeral.  We talked about God and how He can handle our outbursts and frustrations when we don’t understand what’s happening in life.  We talked about our families and parenting boys into young men.  I encouraged her to reach out to me via the blog/website if she has any questions – I hope that she does.  But if I don’t hear from her again in this life (and as of this posting, I haven’t), we’ll have some catching up to do in eternity. 

Her needs at that moment were spiritual food for me, our conversation encouraged me to keep going…but talking with her certainly wasn’t on my To-Do list for the day.  However, Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well and His unexpected two day stay in Samaria shows us how important it is for us to flexible with our schedules – so we can do God’s work in the harvest fields when the opportunity arises.

Keep Pressing,
Ken