Sunday morning retuning: How wonderful to celebrate not only what Jesus did 2000 years ago to redeem our lost souls, but how He is working through us today to do the same! How are you letting Him work through you today, in what you are doing, to show His love and truth? If you are not sure, ask Him to show you. Get ready, He will!
We sang the song God of This City a few weeks ago in response to a number of things we heard on February 2 that God is doing through us as we learn to Serve Our World. The chorus says, "Greater things have yet to come and greater things are still to be done in the city." This is an expression of the promise Jesus gave us in John 14:12.
I have often struggled with that statement from our Lord, not only as I reflect on my own life but as well as when I contemplate what I have seen in the church, His people. Then I was reading that passage again the other day, and a thought occurred to me. It particularly deals with Jesus healing the physical needs of the people who were immediately before Him. Jesus then went on and told his disciples that because He was going to the father, they/we will do even greater things.
I wondered to myself, what would be greater than healing the physical needs of everyone who might come to us? And then it hit me. Though every physical need is great, it is simply an indicator of the much greater spiritual need every living soul possesses, and can only be met in Christ. Think of it this way, what is the greater thing, healing the physically or spiritually blind? If we heal the physical, and not the spiritual, that person will still die an eternal death, but if we heal the spiritual, even if we do not heal the physical, that person will still live an eternal life.
That perspective changes everything without changing anything. Does it mean that meeting physical needs are not important? Obviously not, for if Jesus was willing to employ effort into such cases, and in so doing reveal his glory, should we not be willing to do the same? Of course. Meeting those needs is often a bridge by which we can carry the resource, Jesus, Who meets even deeper and more significant needs.
This is an expression of the latter half of what Jesus answered was the greatest commandment, love your neighbor as yourself, Mark 12:29-31. Those two commandments are on our church billboard on East Market as I type. If we are going to be like Jesus we must walk as He walked, which implys that we will live what He declared as the greatest commandment.
We must do both, be engaged in meeting physical and spiritual needs. That is what the Bible teaches, and it is what we are trying to practice. Jesus healed physical maladies, and in so doing opened the doorway for the greater work of healing spiritual ones. We can most effectively do this when both parts of Jesus' mission is at work in us. Help us, Lord.
Jesus help us to do the works You did, even as well long to see your words fulfilled as we do even greater things. We want this for Your glory and power to be revealed for the good of those we serve. Continue to change us to be more like You. In Jesus name. Amen.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy
