SO SEND I YOU

Scripture for the day: Luke 10:19-20 Behold, I give you the authority to trample serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because you names are written in heaven.

Thought for the day: In another place Jesus had commissioned the twelve apostles to go and preach throughout the area. He gave them power over evil spirits and all kinds of illnesses and was very specific as to what their message was to be. They were to “heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead and cast out demons.” (Matthew 10:8) In addition, he gave them the basic content of their message: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand!” Off they went; and conducted what seems to have been one of the most successful evangelistic campaigns ever recorded. They came back rejoicing, singing at the top of their lungs, excited beyond measure to be able to tell Jesus all that had happened.

“You should have seen it Jesus! Demons ran away trembling. Sick people got well before we even laid hands on them. The lame walked as we took them by the hand. Jesus, it was phenomenal! That’s just like us disciples, isn’t it? We get all caught up in the glamour and power, the miracles and the amazing, and forget the really important. If the Lord chooses to use you to perform some miracle, rejoice in that by all means. But we must never forget that the most important aspect of our relationship with him is to have our names written down in the Book of Life. Without that we are like the ones who stood before the throne and said, “Didn’t we cast our demons in your name? Didn’t we do miracles in your name?” And he said, “Depart from me, for I never knew you.”

And then Jesus went on in the rest of Luke chapter 10 to tell them their real mission as ambassadors for the kingdom. They were to put into action the faith they’d already expressed. One semester, a seminary professor set up his preaching class in an unusual way. He scheduled his students to preach on the Parable of the Good Samaritan and on the day of class, he choreographed his experiment so that each student would go, one at a time, from one classroom to another where he or she would preach a sermon. The professor gave some students ten minutes to go from one room to the other; to others he allowed less time, forcing them to rush in order to meet the schedule. Each student, one at a time, had to walk down a certain corridor and pass by a bum, who was deliberately planted there, obviously in need of some sort of aid.

The results were surprising, and offered a powerful lesson to them. The percentage of those good men and women who stopped to help was extremely low, especially for those who were under the pressure of a shorter time period. The tighter the schedule, the fewer were those who stopped to help the indigent man. When the professor revealed his experiment, you can imagine the impact on that class of future spiritual leaders. Rushing to preach a sermon on the Good Samaritan they had walked past the beggar at the heart of the parable.

We must have eyes to see as well as hands to help, or we may never help at all. I think this well-known poem expresses it powerfully:

I was hungry and you formed a humanities club

to discuss my hunger.

Thank you.