New Thoughts (11/21/09-11/23/09)
As one of the footnotes in the NET mentioned, it is indeed tempting to seek some connection between these events and the seventy elders that accompanied Moses to the mountaintop, who also saw the throne of God (Exe 24:1-11). Yet, any attempt to discern a connection between these two things would be tenuous and forced, having little upon which to base the claim other than the number 70. And, a survey of the several translations indicates that even this number is subject to debate, perhaps being 72. So, let us leave that aside as a distraction and move into those things which are of note in the passage.
I’ll start with an observation on Matthew’s statement. Jesus felt compassion for the crowds He encountered, and that compassion consistently moved Him to take action. In the last part of this study, I pointed out that Compassion moved Jesus to teach. Teaching the truth of God was indeed an expression of compassion. But, it doesn’t stop there. Teaching is not enough in itself, although acts of mercy apart from Truth are equally insufficient.
Jesus, the NCV puts it, felt sorry for them because they were hurting and helpless. This compassion for the people was accompanied by a deep frustration towards the leadership provided by the Pharisees and the Sadducees. These supposed shepherds over the nation of Israel had taught a false religion to their charges. It was for this reason, as much as any other, that the people were hurting and helpless. They had not been taught about God. They had been taught about tradition. They had not been taught about forgiveness. They had been taught about the constant work, work, work of remaining righteous.
Well, let’s be clear about this: remaining righteous is work, but it’s not work done in the strength of a man, or on the strength of tradition. It’s work done in the power of the True God, or it’s a work left undone however hard we’ve labored.
This work-based approach to righteousness had left the people hurting and helpless. They had injured themselves trying to do things on their own. They had sensed the futility of it, but knew no other way, so they kept trying and they kept trying, and all the while their strength grew weaker and their sins greater. For, in all their efforts, faith had been left to the side. Now came Jesus, one who taught with an authority unseen in the scribes, the Pharisees, the heads of their synagogues. The message He brought was unchanged from the ancient faith, and yet it was new. Suddenly, the point of these things was coming clear. Suddenly, the purpose of God was being revealed, and that purpose was not to sternly punish every least failing in His people. That purpose was to heal them, to rescue them, to lead them.
All these shepherds they had had, and yet, not one of them led the people. They pushed. They cajoled. They ridiculed. But, they did not lead. Now, there was a leader. Now, there was One who said, “follow Me.” What a difference this made! And, this One who called them to follow took time to teach them. He explained God to them in ways that made clear what no other had ever explained. He not only told them what God was about. He showed them! His teaching, that great expression of compassion, was not left to manage on its own. His teaching was accompanied by deed. Compassion expressed in word, and word proven by deed. This was the thing that truly set Him apart.
This is the thing, as well, which will set apart all those who truly follow Him. They will know us as His disciples, Jesus taught, if we have love for one another (Jn 13:35). We know love by His example. He laid down His life for us, and we ought to do the same for the brethren (1Jn 3:16). This need for love to take action is well expressed by James when he writes, “If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and you say to them, ‘Go in peace. Be warm and filled,’ yet you do not provide for their need, what use is that” (Jas 2:15-16)? Compassion must act. That action will teach, but that action will also do. Word accompanied by deed: That is the full demonstration of compassion.
Turning to Luke’s account, that same balance is displayed in different terms. Here, it is between prayer and action. “You see the need,” Jesus says, “pray God that He might send workers to minister to that need. But, go yourselves! Get to work.” It’s not enough to pray that God would do something about this, that or the other, and then lie back waiting for somebody to come pick up the duty. You care? The concern is on your heart? Well, then, indeed you ought to pray, but be very certain to listen for the answering command. It is possible, of course, that in spite of all that concern and prayer, Jesus will instruct you to sit tight. But, the greater likelihood would seem to be that He is going to be sending you. Pray, and pray deeply. But, then, go! Get to it.
I am again taken back to that marvelous footnote from Nehemiah, that speaks to the lesson we are to take from the example of those who rebuilt Jerusalem’s walls. These people understood that apart from God’s intervention, things were so stacked against them that they could never succeed. They also understood that the walls weren’t going to build themselves. So, as the footnote states it, ‘they prayed as if they could never work and then they worked as if they had never prayed.’ This is the balance of the Christian life at its simplest. This is the tension we are called to live in. It is not to suggest that prayer is in vain, or that we do so out of habit but with a sense of futility. Not at all! That prayer must yet be the prayer of a faithful man or it is futile indeed! But, to suppose it enough to hide away in one’s prayer closet and never actually get involved? That’s just wrong.
Yet, there is a balance to maintain here. We are called to action, yes, but not arbitrary action. Not action without leadership. That way lies the desert of dead works. That way lies a return to the condition of the hurting and the helpless. To labor apart from God’s direction is to labor in vain. It is to wear oneself out, injure oneself unnecessarily, and accomplish nothing for all our efforts. Dead works. Valueless, profitless; they serve neither self nor kingdom.
We can get into that place, thinking we have prayed, yet never having stopped to listen to God. Our prayers may, perhaps, have become very one-sided things, wherein we are more than happy to unload our burdens on God, to tell Him our pains and our plans, yet we never stop to hear what He might have to say in response. We’re not interested in solutions, just in making our own complaints known.
Oh, there is much in what I have been saying here that I need to pause and ponder. I cannot just let it roll past on this screen. Yet, I think that must be a pondering for the morrow, if it is indeed more than preparation for the meeting today. Today, we meet to discuss the leadership of ministry to men, and how discipleship interweaves itself with that effort. I confess, my first reaction to this has been to bemoan yet more time taken from my week. Perhaps this lesson comes as correction, or perhaps I need to consider whether this new effort is but a program like others, another vain work. Let me leave it there, and seek not to prejudge, until I have heard both from pastor and from my God.
[11/22/09] Well, I must confess it interesting that Nehemiah should come up in yesterday’s meeting. I must also confess that my own perspective at present is too negative to properly take the measure of that meeting. Until I can see it as more than another time sink, I do not know that I can properly assess whether it is going to be a move or just a program. I confess that being all caught up in labels and mottos and such doesn’t bode well from my perspective. Nor does the return of the quarterly breakfast, or a two day conference where we can be talked at. But, maybe it’s just me? These new ideas just feel like the old ideas repackaged, but with no real change. If that’s it, then I’ll pass, thanks.
I want, however, to return to this call to action that I see in the passage before me, because that is the key factor, regardless of what’s happening in the more official channels. Pray for laborers, and then get on with it yourself. Where you see the urgent need, address it with the same urgency. There was a time when I felt that sense of urgency about men’s ministry, but not lately. It’s not that the urgency isn’t there, for things haven’t changed. It’s simply that I don’t feel it. In many ways, I could say I just don’t feel. That would be an overstatement, of course, but it’s the feeling, if you’ll pardon the obvious contradiction in that statement.
I need to get back to that point of, “Look around you! The fields are white for harvest!” That’s the reality. That’s ever the reality, it seems. But, it also seems like it’s somebody else’s job. I’m not fashioned for this go confront the unbelief business. I have enough difficulty with poorly informed believers and their odd conceptions of what faith is all about. I prefer the teaching of those with a decent foundation and ears to hear. But, it seems God is forever putting me in touch with a completely different crowd, one that leaves me edgy and borderline intolerant.
Honestly, if there is an urgency, it’s certainly there in these folks who think themselves so spiritually advanced and yet have such a terrible misconception of God. Or is it me? Am I the one whose views of God are so terribly askew? I don’t think so, but then, I wouldn’t, would I? And, if I am correct in my understanding of Him, then the very fact that He keeps putting these folks before my face ought to be telling me something, shouldn’t it? Here is your field, now get to work. But, Lord! This isn’t the sort of work I was expecting to be doing. Of course it isn’t, but it’s the work to which you are being appointed. Now, would you get to it, please?
Perhaps it is this which lies at the root of my attitude of late. The work I am doing is not, it seems, the work I would be doing. The family I have is not the family I would have. All seems to be disappointment and dull duty. Everything seems to have reduced to things I am doing because I must, because I am constrained to do so. Nothing is in that category of things I do because I love to. It’s all work, no play. Dull. And, in those moments when time allows a bit of self, self is too tired to be bothered. Sigh. Would that church life remained the exception, the joyful part, the part of choice, but it no longer feels that way. I serve where I am needed. I do what needs doing, but little of it has that sense of being a thing I do for love any more. Ah, but I am not to be led about by feelings.
Lord, I could go on. I could continue to lay forth the disunity between thought and feeling, between duty and joy; but You know. You know, and You have the answer. If the answer remains, “You go,” then I pray You would aid me in removing this resentment, this sense of empty works. For, if I am indeed heeding Your call, then the works are not empty, only the feelings. If, however, I have once more allowed myself to commit to works that are not of Your leading, then by all means, open my eyes that I may cut them off. Show me what it is I ought to be doing instead, and work upon my heart that I might gladly turn myself to that duty. Let that be the core of this prayer, Jesus! Whatever that work You have for me, let my heart be glad to get to it.
As I think about that matter of teaching, of proclaiming the Truth of God’s kingdom, I am (or should be) heartened to hear what is made clear in these instructions from Jesus: The worker is responsible for the message, not its reception. We don’t change the message to make it acceptable. We don’t tune ourselves to society so as not to offend. We don’t present each crowd with the God it had in mind. We present God. We present Truth. We speak reality. We offer peace, and peace not with ourselves but with God. We offer reconciliation with the Creator of all. If it is accepted by those who hear, well and good. Peace be with them, and all its myriad benefits. If not, if God is rejected, it is no condemnation upon us. We have done as we ought. We have represented Him as best we can, but they want no part of Him. So be it. They shall have no part of Him, nor we the least part of them.
You know, the rejection that Jesus counsels in that regard is most thorough. The severity of it comes across best, I think, from the translation provided by the Message: “The only thing we got from you is the dirt on our feet, and we're giving it back.” Ouch! Yet, isn’t that of a piece with the covenants God establishes. “Thus may you do to Me if I do not comply with these terms.” Those pieces of rent flesh by which the covenant was sealed stood as representative of the punishment due to that one who violates the covenant. So it is with this instruction. Those who reject the messenger have rejected the Sender. They refuse to take anything from Him. His messengers, therefore, are to treat these unbelievers in like fashion, taking nothing from them, not even the dust of their streets. Thoroughgoing rejection to match their own, that is the command.
It is not the fault of the messenger. It is not an insufficiency in the message. It is certainly not a flaw in God who authored the message. The fault lies wholly and completely with those who reject the message. You see, as we are sent to labor, we are not given a guarantee of results, certainly not in every case, perhaps not in most cases. But, that is not to change us. That is not to be our concern. We are not told to track the number of those who believe as a result of our efforts to minister. If anything, we should learn from Scripture that God rarely even permits such a census of our effectiveness. Our effectiveness is not to be measured by numbers, but by character. Have we held to the Truth? Have we spoken faithfully of this One we serve? Have we delivered the message? If we can answer this in the affirmative, then we have fulfilled our mission. The fruitfulness of that mission lies in the hands of the Father.
[11/23/09] One matter that is clear in Jesus’ instruction is the urgency. Don’t lose time. That’s the whole thrust of Luke 10:4. It’s not a time to make preparations. It’s not a time to worry and debate over what to bring and what not to bring. It’s time to go. Neither does the situation allow for the usual niceties. It’s not a call to be rude, but the mission is too critical to allow for the usual greetings one would give to those one meets on the way.
I’m not sure it really makes sense, but I am put in mind of those spies sent into the land when Israel first reached its borders. There was an urgency to the matter. They needed to get in, see the situation and get out. There, too, it was a time when preparations were not to be made, and certainly no greeting would be offered to any chance encounter. Indeed, chance encounter was to be avoided at all cost! In some ways our own efforts parallel this picture. When we are sent to present the Gospel to a particular person or group, we ought to feel the urgency of that mission. We ought to allow no other ministry opportunity to distract us from the one we have been sent on. Otherwise, the effectiveness of our effort is dissipated and we may well find that we arrive at our assignment too late to do any good.
How helpful would it be, for example, if the fire department, having received an alarm, determined that they had best do a full inventory of their equipment before heading out? How well thought of would they be if they stopped for coffee with the guys from the police department on the way? What would be left of the structure that was burning by the time they got there? Fortunately, those who work at such tasks are single minded in their purpose, and fully aware of the urgency of their mission. They will not hesitate and they will not be distracted. Would that we could manage the same spirit towards our own assignments!
This is of a piece with what pastor was preaching yesterday, about focusing on the one thing. We can become less effective in ministry because we are not focused on our one ministry, but rather, getting busy in many and sundry. I could get into the technical aspects of those things that go on behind the scenes in order to bring forth the modern sermon, but take it to a more spiritual place. If the worship leader is preaching instead of leading worship, there’s a weakening of the effect. If the preacher fails to bring forth the Word of God, but rather decides to sing an aria, he is not in his purpose, but horning in on another’s.
These are ways to lose time. These are workers failing to heed instruction, and as such, they will tend to do more harm than good. The situation is urgent, but not so urgent that the chain of authority ought to be ignored. Faith believing must trust the One at the helm to organize his workers for best advantage. If, then, He has assigned this one to preach and that one to maintain the facilities, let each be pleased to serve as assigned, and leave all other assignments to those so designated.
I really love what pastor has been saying about the Mary and Martha syndrome. Let each cease from complaining of the other, for both are necessary to the ministry. Indeed, let them learn from each other. What a marvelous point was made when he noted that we do not have to choose between being one or the other. We can be both. One can be about the work of ministry like a Martha while still maintaining the necessary focus on hearing the heart of Christ like a Mary. Indeed, we must attain to that point, I think. Pray, then go. Isn’t that what has been said here. See the need, pray for it to be addressed, then do your part.
So, then, Jesus chose others to send out. Do you see the significance of that? I think it is very important that Scripture should make this point. The twelve had already been sent (Lk 9:1-5), and they had been sent with authority to do as Jesus did, casting out demons and healing diseases. Further, they had been sent with the same message: that the kingdom of God was near. A further look at the circumstances of their being sent shows that they were sent with much the same instruction as these. Better still, look at that in mirror image. These seventy were sent with the same instructions and the same authority as the twelve.
Why is this important? Well, for one thing, it should do away with the idea of there being some sort of ministerial elite force. The twelve, they who would be known as the Apostles, were indeed special, but they were not the elite force in this sense. They were not alone in their power or authority over sin. That is the common power and authority of those who work for Christ Jesus. They would have their uniqueness, they would have their exclusive roles to play in establishing the Church, but this was not it. This is not it.
We are all given to walk in the authority of Christ. We are all granted to have power over demons and disease. It is our heritage as children of the living God. Yet, we are leery of using that which is ours by right. For one, we are uncomfortable with this idea of demons. That’s so medieval! Modern folk don’t hold to such ideas. Of course, that hardly counts as invalidating the ideas, but it’s the way we think at some level. We can deal with talking angels and demons in the church or amongst our likeminded friends, but in public? I think not! But, the authority is there for us, if we will but lay hold of it. The authority is there for us, so long as we use our authority as authorized, so long as we are doing what our Lord has called us to do.
Somehow, I think that’s why Jesus sent them in pairs. Where two are holding authority together, one can correct the other should he get off track. It’s not that it takes two to put these enemies to flight. One with God is enough. It’s not that we are going into such dangerous territory that we will need that other one with us to watch our backs. That’s a fine thing, it’s true, but it’s more that we need watching ourselves. We still retain more than enough of our own sinful nature to corrupt the things God entrusts to us if we are not careful of ourselves. We are granted to touch on great things, and it’s sadly easy for us to turn those great things to poor purpose.
One needn’t look very far for examples. How many ministries have been damaged by leaders who were more concerned with personal profit and prestige than with doing the work of God? This is hardly something new and unique in our age. It has ever been the case that those, even the best of those who come to God’s service are at risk for abusing the service entrusted to them. Purity of purpose is the exception in man. It is not impossible, but it is exceptional. Were it not so, we would not find Scripture admonishing us to remain in fellowship one with another. It’s not just about the emotional benefits. It’s about keeping one another in line. Admonish one another. Exhort one another. Encourage one another. Correct one another. We will all need it at some point – most of us at many points. We will all find ourselves in position to offer it at some point, and when that time comes, let us be ready. Let us be instant in this active expression of love and compassion.
One last point I want to make as regards this being sent out. Much later, in Luke 22:35, Jesus would ask those He had sent, “When I sent you out without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack for anything?” Those asked could honestly reply, “No. We had all we needed.” This matter of being on assignment, then, is a unique opportunity to experience the provision of God in full. If we insist on being fully prepared in every way before we ever start in serving Him, we miss that opportunity. Recall with me that faith is a matter of being convinced by the arguments. This provision that God grants us to experience is part of the argument for faith. I told you to go, and go swiftly. You went with nothing, no means of taking care of your own needs, yet you wanted for nothing. This is the power of God’s Provision. This is the promise to those who work in His purpose.
It is not the motivation for working in His purpose. That work must ever be motivated by love for Him and His purpose. But, it is the promise. If we will be faithful to do as He directs and to do so without hesitation, we need not be anxious for the ways and means. God will provide. The Lord, Paul writes, instructs those who proclaim the Gospel to get their living from doing so (1Co 9:14). He also instructs those who receive that good news to provide the living. Nowhere, however, does He instruct His workers to become wealthy off the Gospel. Nowhere does He promote a limousine lifestyle for His coworkers. He was satisfied by humble means throughout His own ministry. What cause have we to expect more? We represent the kingdom, but more importantly, we serve the kingdom. We are servants. Let us then serve faithfully, whether in proclaiming or in providing or in whatever capacity or Lord and Kind requires. And let us never do so as mere hirelings, but always as family. Let us always do so knowing that God will Provide and what He provides will be not only enough, but will be Good.
