Jesus
Ministered to Their Needs
Stephen
Terry
Commentary
for the August 27, 2016 Sabbath School Lesson
“After
this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of
him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, ‘The
harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest,
therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field’…The seventy-two returned
with joy and said, ‘Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.’” Luke
10:1-2, 17, NIV
In 1979, the year I graduated from Walla Walla College,
my wife was diagnosed with the progressive, debilitating disease Multiple
Sclerosis. Upon graduation, I had accepted a call to pastor in a mid-western
conference. After arriving there, as was our normal practice, my wife and I
went out for an evening run. We enjoyed running side by side and talking about
the day. But this time was different. She was not only not running beside me,
she was unable to keep up and quit running after a short distance. When I asked
her what was wrong, she said her legs felt very heavy. Later that evening, in
bed, she said she could not feel her legs. Obviously something was terribly
wrong, and with the help of our family doctor, who was also a church member, we
toiled through tests and specialist referrals toward the disheartening
diagnosis.
We were counseled by medical professionals that her
disease might progress very rapidly in the high heat and humidity where we
were. We determined to move back to the Pacific Northwest to slow the
progression of the illness. There were no pastoral openings where we were
headed, so not knowing what the future would hold, I
resigned from the pastoral ministry in order to accompany my family to that
healthier climate. After much struggle and help with rent from a few kind
church members, I eventually became employed with the State of Washington,
Department of Social and Health Services and spent twenty years helping the
disabled, poor, and needy in various ways.
Although I was no longer pastoring, I continued to serve
as an elder in a local church until my wife’s needs grew to the point where I
could not juggle job, church, and home care at the same time. I had to decline
serving in church office in order to tend to my wife. Several years later,
thanks to a state funded program, we were able to hire a caregiver to assist
with her care. This allowed me to return to church once more. When I did the
changes were startling, not just in the church, but in the community as well.
Before I stopped attending, I had been involved in
several door-to-door outreaches to the surrounding neighborhood. To be sure, we
were not doing as much as we should have been doing, but when we did reach out,
the community for the most part was receptive, and I recall many pleasant
visits with people at their homes. I am not sure what took place in the
interim, but apparently for whatever reason, the outreach fell by the way. When
I was able to finally return, the church had turned inward with infighting over
music, worship styles, diet and redecorating the building. The greeting I received
when I returned was “Glad to see you back. We heard that you had fallen away
and were no longer Adventist.” This struck me as a strange assumption,
considering that no one had attempted to find out. We had no visitors from the church
once I stopped attending. But this was only symptomatic of a larger problem
with the church’s inward focus. Since outreach to the surrounding neighborhoods
had stopped, the community had been left to itself. As a result, the
neighborhood changed for the worse.
A new youth minister was hired and his focus was on
reaching the non-Adventist youth in the area around the church. This rekindled
the door-to-door outreach that had been going on before. We did a census of who
lived around the church and who might be interested in becoming more involved
with the church. We succeeded in ferreting out several young people and built
up a credible youth outreach, but in going to the homes, I noticed a marked
difference in the demeanor of those we met this time. For most, the church had
become irrelevant to their lives. It was simply there, but it had nothing to do
with anything they were doing.
There was a lot of fear in people’s hearts, some
refusing to even open their door to our knock. Several mentally ill individuals
were roaming the streets shouting nonsense at invisible demons that haunted
them. Groups of young men, looking for trouble, were walking the streets as
well. I also remember visiting one apartment building where an attractive,
well-dressed woman was passed out drunk on the floor of the vestibule. When we
attempted to assist her, someone came out of an apartment and asked us to
leave. We expressed concern, but they were unmoved. My assessment of that day’s
door-to-door ministry was that the Devil does not rest. As a church, we may
choose to turn inward and abandon those around us, but the Devil sees that as
his opportunity. If and when we become concerned about the neighborhood again,
we will find the work that much harder to accomplish because of the Devil’s
inroads. Our failure in this regard is problematic when we consider the
ministry of compassion of Jesus. When He was challenged over one of His Sabbath
healings, He responded that because the Father never stops working, neither
does He.[i]
Perhaps this is significant regarding Jesus’ ministry to
others. He never ceased. Even when He drew apart, it was to immerse Himself in
prayer. The world is a mess. We are inundated continually through the news
media about how bad it really is. Too often we respond by hunkering down in
fear and letting the world go to hell. Some may look for a political savior to
step in and turn things around, but in so doing they abdicate responsibility
for how bad things have become. Perhaps because they are uncomfortable with the
implications of their behavior, they then turn upon the very ones they should
be ministering to. Proclaiming them leeches on the public purse and lazy people
who could work but don’t, they attempt to project their own guilt onto those
who need the church the most.
Why do we feel this way as Christians? Perhaps it is because
we fear we will not have enough for ourselves. Jesus promised that would never
be the case,[ii]
so why do we feel that way? Maybe the problem is in what we feel is enough. In
a world where most would be thankful to have one car or at least a motorbike,
we feel we must spend our life blood to have enough cars for everyone in the
household old enough to drive. In a world where sanitation is not a given for
many, many people, we feel we must have a bathroom to accompany every bedroom
in our homes, plus a powder room for guests as well. As a result, our homes
have grown from hundreds of square feet to several thousand. Are cars bad? Are
large homes bad? Not intrinsically. But they become bad when we spend our lives
in toil to procure these things to the extent that we lack time and resources
to minister to the more pressing needs around us.
Even our churches can be part of the trap. We build expensive buildings that
are costly to maintain, and fill them with appealing furnishings and
technological devices that have become “must haves” for worship and fellowship.
As a result, even our churches bleed resources from us that could be going into
ministering to the needy among us. It is surely a sin to have a church filled
with wide screen televisions and state-of-the-art projection equipment when
some attending have to choose between eating and affording needed medical care.
While some may not be aware of those needs, it may be because they are too busy
pursuing the American dream of having more and still more. It may also be because
we do not visit one another as we should.
I have taken communion to members who have asked me “If
I pay my tithe, I cannot afford my medicine to remain alive. What should I do?”
When I have shared those experiences with others, some have responded, “Tell
them to pay their tithe, and God will provide.”[iii] However some have done
that and that has not happened. But it is not for lack of faith on the part of
the impoverished member. In reality, such a question should never have to be
asked. God has placed ample provisions for these needs in the hands of His
people. Unfortunately, some have decided that continuously improving their own
situation with more expensive vehicles, homes, clothing and technology is a
better use for what God has entrusted to their care. And what do they do with
these things they add to the weighty chain of possessions they are forging in
life? Too often they are used to entertain friends who have similar wealth and
views, and their friends do the same for them.[iv]
Perhaps it is time we stopped ministering to our wants that
we misname needs and make the effort to become aware of the real needs God
would have us address. It is time we learned to move among the people as Jesus
did, for in so doing we may find our calling and receive an eternal reward that
might otherwise be lost.[v]
