Sending Humans

When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted. Matthew 28:17

They saw the risen Jesus. They worshiped him. And then, they doubted.

That's what we read from Matthew.

And yet, also according to Matthew, Jesus approached these worshipers--doubters and sends them to go out to the whole world to make disciples out of men. Jesus further gives them the authority to baptize people in the name of the Holy Trinity plus the position to teach people regarding how to follow and love him. Most importantly, Jesus promised them of his presence until the end of time.

That's right.

Jesus sent doubters to the world to bring his life giving and life saving message. He is sending imperfect disciples to preach to imperfect people. He does not commission people who have no flaws, he sends men who are just like us, humans. He sends men, who even in their prayers, have doubts into their hearts yet they continue to lift their hearts to him. He sends men, who even in their time of worship, have worries in their minds and yet they rest in their ever dependable God.

God sends humans to humans. Imperfect to imperfect. Sinners to sinners. Doubters to doubters. So maybe they can empathize with them. So maybe they can accept them and love them. So maybe they can understand their situation for they are in their situation.

When you feel you are unfaithful to him to serve him in your church, read that verse again. When you feel your weakness pulls you before you are able to offer your time and skills for him, reflect on that verse again. When your imperfection or spiritual inadequacy prevents you in volunteering for a ministry, come back to that verse again. When a doubt or a sin blocks you to make disciples out of men, be encouraged by that verse.

God is not sending superheroes. He is sending humans.

What Would You Do?

He would have decreed their destruction, had not Moses, the chosen leader, withstood him in the breach to turn back his destroying anger. Psalm 106:23

There’s a catch in helping someone.

In ABC’s “What Would You Do?”, they had this featured experiment episode where a waiter drops, on the floor, the food he is about to serve to a certain nice couple. The people sitting near the couple, who saw what happened, informed the couple even before the waiter has gone back to the kitchen or to whatever he is about to do. These people are really helpful.

One twist is, how about when the partners are not nice but are mean customers to the waiter? The couple would belittle the waiter as he is getting  their orders. They would shout at him, even mock his job. They would call him unacceptable names. The people around the couple had mixed reactions when they saw the waiter dropped the food and served the food on the couple’s table. One woman informed the couple about it. But with an angry tone. She pointed out their abusive conduct towards the poor waiter and defended the food server. They repeated the experiment and no nearby person helped out in informing the mean couple about the dropped food.

So, its good to help good people but its not good to help bad people.

Moses did not see it this way.

As the Israelites turned their worship from God to a fashioned molten calf, God was about to destroy the former slaves. Psalm 106:20-22 exposes their actions, “They exchanged their glorious God for the image of a grass-eating bull. They forgot the God who saved them, who did great deeds in Egypt, Amazing deeds in the land of Ham, fearsome deeds at the Red Sea.” Before this, they were complaining about their situation in the desert and even compared it when they were Pharaoh’s slaves. Surely, these are bad people. Moses would have told God, “Lord, you are right, anyway these are bad people. They turned away from you. These are spoiled brats. Go ahead with your plan.”

However, Moses helped them. Moses prayed for them. He pleaded for God’s mercy on their behalf. And God listened to his intercession, “So the LORD relented in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people. “ Exodus 32:14.

You can be like Moses. May you look the way Moses looked. May you help the people who may not deserve to be helped. May you pray to God in behalf of the people who may be mean to you or to others. May you concretely practice concern for people who in one way or another have hurt you or are hurting someone.

Helping people is being blind. You don’t see who they are or they are not, you just help them.

Amnesia

Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you. Isaiah 49:15

It was a deliberate short-term amnesia.

I left my mother as I marched down to my high school graduation. I was one of the students getting honors and my mother came to march with me. I did not call her out that the entrance ceremony was about to begin. She made her dress by herself for this day. She prepared for my big day. She was proud of me but I guess I’m not of her. I marched down alone as my classmates held hands with their fathers or mothers.

I got the hardest scolding of my life after that. She was trembling with anger that I deliberately forgot about her. She was asking for explanation why I did what I did but I had no reason for my fault against her. And she has every reason to forget that I am her son.

But she did not. She continued to be my mother. She blessed me every day after that. She gave me life’s insights through her words and actions. She cared for me up until her last breath on her bed. She did not forget.

Just like God.

How many times you have deliberately have forgotten about him? When it is high time that you hold his hand, and declare he is with you, you turn your head to the other direction, clasp your own hand and forget to call his name. There were times, publicly, you have shunned association with this living God who loves you and cares for you.

Yet, this is the same God who stays with you and stays being your loving God. He is the same God who blesses your days and guides you to lead you to a prosperous life, a future and a hope. A God whose tender love gets you through the difficult times. A God who continues to remember his faithfulness in the midst of your unfaithfulness. A God who remembers to pull you out of the deep waters whenever you focus on the winds rather than on him. A God who will stand up for you and with you when people around you are about to stone you. He never forgets you. He will never forget you.

He got no amnesia.

You Come First

The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me." John 5:7

He was never first.

Every time he made strides to be the first one, someone beats him by a mile. His sickness has dragged him to the bottom of the pole. For thirty eight years, he was there. It might have encompassed his teens years where he was to be strong bodied and strong willed. It might have slowed his twenty something years where he must have been enjoying life as a bull, being a young man. Notice no wife was with him during this time, and this might have pulled his chances of marrying the woman who caught his heart since some best man won her heart over him because of his health.

Suddenly he comes first.

He comes first for Jesus. No lines to stand up to. No calling of rosters. What he can’t do, Jesus did. He can’t hop into the pool, the Source of living waters came to him. Remember, Jesus ask him if he wanted to get well, and get well he did. He did not need to line up like at the DMV or at the bank. His resume, which was filed down over the years, was not even looked up by Jesus.

This is what Jesus gives you. You line up to all these distractions or less noble things, yet he puts you on the top of his priority list. If you think he is ignoring you as you are in a tight hole in your life, think again. He will enable you. He will heal you. Jesus will go up to you and tells you, you matter to him. Tired of being at the last of the order? Weary of taking chances with zero possibilities? For him, no one comes second or third or at the cellar.

For Jesus, you come first.

Ripple

Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them. Luke 5:29

It's unstoppable and contagious.

Levi heard Jesus' invitation and followed him. He left his post. He left everything.

At the next scene, Luke tells us that Jesus and Levi having dinner. But they were not alone. They are with a large crowd of tax collectors and others. Imagine a large table for a large crowd.

Jesus called one sinful man. One sinful man who left everything for him. Next minute, a large crowd is eating with him. What is this?

It's like a tiny water drop in the ocean creating a wave, not just an ordinary wave, but a huge wave enough to put a liner in one direction. Like a puff in the wind developing into a typhoon ready to swarm and blow a city. It cascades. It rippled.

These large crowd may have heard about Jesus. News may have reach them about his teachings, his healing touch and his invitation. Or they heard about their long time colleague Levi just resigned, left everything and offered his life on earth in following Jesus. They may be curious on how a man like Levi gets an invitation despite his life as a public knowledge.

I say the large crowd heard both. They heard about the Master and the follower. They got hold of the invitation and the response, how Jesus welcomes a sinner and how a sinner can become a saint. They may have realized no sin can separate Jesus' love and the sinner.

May you be like Levi, hear and heed Jesus' call to follow and leave everything for him. Let the people hear about Jesus and your changed life. That you, who is like a tiny drop of water or a puff in the air, may create that huge wave and that gusty wind.

Let it ripple.