A Different Kind of Engagement
Engage in What Matters Most
The church, as the body of Christ, is called to engage in what matters most because of Jesus.
I love what C.S. Lewis once said, “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world, were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world, that they have become so ineffective in this one.”
What if we decided to be effective in this world in the here & now for Jesus Christ?!
[Tweet “What if we decided to be effective in this world in the here & now for Jesus Christ?! “]No Way to Move the Mountain
Sarah Bessey is a blogger, an author & a speaker. She’s also heavily engaged in ministry in Haiti. You probably know that over the last few years Haiti has been devastated by natural disasters. Sarah belongs to an organization that helps children in Haiti. Sarah tells the story about they had been given a piece of land by the government to build a school for children. The only problem is that the property they were given was covered by a mountain of rocks.
When Sarah & her team arrived in Haiti & went to the land to scope out where they would build the school, they were discouraged when they found the condition of the land. They actually went home thinking there was no way they would be able to build a school in that place because they had no way to move the mountain of debris.
I think this is so often precisely our problem. Sometimes the needs seem overwhelming. It seems impossible. There is so much need in our community, in our state, our country & our world. And we have never been more aware than we are today of all the needs around us.
Honestly, it looks like a mountain that cannot be moved. Where do we begin? Where do we start? What can we do? The mountain of need before us is paralyzing. It seems like mission impossible. And because we don’t know what to do or where to begin, so often we do nothing.
And yet the love of Jesus compels us to do something, engage in the needs around us, use our time, our talents & our resources to participate in making things on earth as they are in heaven.
[Tweet “The love of Jesus compels us to do something.”]What was Jesus known for?
Here’s one snapshot found in Matthew’s story about Jesus… Matthew 11.1-6:
1 When Jesus had finished giving these instructions to his twelve disciples, he went out to teach and preach in towns throughout the region. 2 John the Baptist, who was in prison, heard about all the things the Messiah was doing. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, 3 “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?”
Now John had already come to believe in Jesus as Messiah (Matthew 3.14-15), but now… now that he’s been imprisoned, now that he’s facing death he begins to doubt.
Maybe you’ve been there too. At one time your faith in Jesus was firm, but then trouble came. Sickness came. Broken relationships came. Problems with your kids came. Financial problems came. You name it, it came your way. And in the middle of the mess you wondered exactly what John wondered. Jesus, are you really who you say you are? Can you help me?
Jesus’ response…
4 Jesus told them, “Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen— 5 the blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.” 6 And he added, “God blesses those who do not fall away because of me.”
In other words, I am who I say I am & my mission is to engage in the things of earth & work to make them as they are in heaven.
But no one expected the Messiah to come as a healer. Jesus wasn’t anything like what John or what anyone expected! They were hoping for someone to come & rescue them. Someone to come & deliver them. Someone to lead them in battle & make them an independent nation once again. Someone who would make them victorious over their enemies.
But Jesus comes & the entirety of His work is the exact opposite of this. Jesus says, what matters most is NOT your political agenda, what matters most is not your independence, is not your deliverance… what matters most is making things the way they were always supposed to be. (Isaiah 35.5-6).
Here, Matthew is telling us who Jesus is & what He came to do. This is important for us as we try to discern who we are & what we’re called to do today as the body of Christ. This is a reminder to Matthew’s first readers that Jesus is with His church in it’s mission throughout history to engage in what matters most!
What was Jesus engaged in?
Teaching people, all people, about the Kingdom of Heaven. About God our Father.
Healing the sick.
Raising the dead.
Caring for the poor & marginalized.
Forgiving sin.
Welcoming children.
Elevating women.
Making disciples.
Touching the untouchable.
Loving the unlovable.
Making a tangible difference in people’s lives one at a time.
[Tweet “Jesus made a tangible difference in people’s lives one at a time.”]Although even Jesus didn’t help everyone, he was active in helping some. The fact that there was a mountain of need before Him didn’t paralyze him. The mountain of need before Him didn’t stop him from doing something, from engaging the need before Him in some way to make a difference.
Mountain Moved
Remember Sarah & her team? They saw that mountain in front of them & they were paralyzed into inaction. They literally got on the plane & came home thinking they would never be able to build that school in that location.
What they didn’t know was that after they left, a 60+ year old Hatian man came to that same location. He saw the same mountain of rock. And listen to what Sarah wrote about what happened next:
“One day, a skinny Haitian man in his sixties showed up with a pickax and a shovel. With the promise of only lunch as his daily payment, he shouldered into that stone and dismantled an entire rock hillside, shovel by shovel, in the equatorial heat.”
When Sarah & her team arrived the next year, they found that the mountain of rock had been completely removed. They found the man who had singlehandedly moved it & here’s what happened…
“…we asked him why he felt compelled to do this, what motivated this tremendous effort, and he told a story of always longing to go to school; and even though it was too late for him, it was not too late for Haiti. It took months of hard labor, but he leveled that hill with his own wiry arms and strong back, and they set up their tent school: more than 150 kids from the neighborhood showed up in little brown uniforms, many girls among them.
So what does it mean for you & I to engage in what matters most. Put simply, I think it means us finding a mountain & moving it rock by rock.
Why?
Because when we give ourselves away we open the door for others to receive Christ.
[Tweet “When we give ourselves away we open the door for others to receive Christ.”]Think about it… every time Jesus helped someone, healed someone, He always, always talked about His motivation. He always talked about the incredible love of God. He always coupled the good work with forgiveness of sin. With telling people what life is like in the Kingdom of Heaven.
This is the secret to ministry of Jesus, when you help people, when you participate in making things they way they are supposed to be, you have an opportunity to talk about your fundamental motivation.
We serve because Christ serves us. We love because Christ loves us. We help because Christ helps us. We sacrifice because Christ sacrifices for us. Everything we do is motivated by this fundamental reason: We are recipients of the unconditional love of Jesus. And His love changes everything!
[Tweet “We are recipients of the unconditional love of Jesus.”]And when we serve others in the name of Christ we have the opportunity to share the love of Christ.
Jesus once said, “If you want to follow me, show up at church every Sunday.”
O wait, He didn’t say that. What He said was, “If you want to follow me, take up your cross & follow me.”
In other words, if you want to follow me, do what I’m doing. Engage what I’m engaging. And give your life away for the sake of others & the sake of the gospel.
