Sent Like Jesus

Bullets are flying everywhere. All you want to do is duck for cover and hope it all blows over. Jesus' disciples find themselves in such a predicament on the Thursday night before Good Friday. Tension is running high and Jesus starts praying (John 17). It calms their hearts and helps them believe that everything is going to be alright. Then they hear several disconcerting phrases in the prayer, one of which is this one:

"As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world." John 17:18

Earlier Jesus had said that the world hated the disciples. Now He says that He is sending the disciples into the teeth of that same world and doing so in much the same way that God the Father sent God the Son. What does He mean by this?

In a word, "Incarnation". God the Son stepped out of the heavenlies in order to become human, live like a human, hurt like a human, be tempted like a human, and then die like a human. This identification with human beings was God's way of communicating His love for us. It's now a model for the disciples (and all other Christians) for how they are now sent to impact the world.

So what does this mean for us as Christians being sent back into the war zone? It means that we step out of our comfortable heavenlies and into the lives of people who are in need of the good news of the Gospel. It translates into really practical actions:

Introducing yourself to people
Helping your neighbor shovel their snow
Sending a card on a special occasion
Making a meal for someone who is sick
Inviting someone to dinner, or to a hockey game, or game night
Asking people questions about their lives
Helping someone move, or paint their house, or . . .
Watching someone's house or pets for free
Complimenting someone on the good job that they do
Giving money to someone in need
Offering your tools, cars, house . . . with generosity
Being available to people who are in crisis
Offering to pray for people who are in tough situations
Celebrating big moments in the lives of others

The other day, I was shoveling snow in my front drive. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see my elderly neighbor struggling to get his car out of a snow bank. I quietly prayed that God would help him get unstuck so I wouldn't have to go over and help him out. Now that I think of it, that was a pretty dumb prayer. A lot of good it would have done my neighbor if God would have answered that prayer completely unbeknownst to him.

Of course he remained stuck, so I walked on over. For the next hour I shoveled and chipped and pushed and still the car stayed stuck. Every few minutes I would look around to see if any of the other neighbors were around to help out. Not one car in anyone's driveway. Finally, after the hour was up, my son Kory and I were able to get the car out. Immediately, as if on que, neighbors were driving into their driveways just missing the opportunity to help out. The result, thank God, was incarnation. An opportunity for me to sacrificially love my neighbor for a whole hour in the name of Christ.

It's these kinds of actions that not only bless people, but communicate something to them about the Gospel. As we step out of ourselves and into the lives of others, we are modeling what God did for us in the incarnation. He, who had every right to focus on Himself, got down on his hands and knees like a parent loving a little child and made it abundantly clear that He loved us. I'd say that most of us didn't believe that this love was real, until we first knew at least a facimile of that love from another person who claimed Christ as their source of love. So with that in mind, armed with joy, truth, and love, it's out of the bunker and back out into the world. See you in the battle.