Many hands make light work
Like-minded agreement should never be a prerequisite to extending God’s love to another person. Love should be the rule, not the exception.
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. He said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.” (Matthew 9:36-38)
When I was a freshman in high school, our youth group at church divided into four teams and competed for an all-expenses paid trip to Six Flags in Dallas. We earned points all sorts of ways: Bible verse memorization, performing special music in youth group, performing special music in “big church,” bringing guests, and doing ministry projects.
Well, our team (the Nu Delta Knights … not even making it up), got to do a ministry project at the local Salvation Army. We volunteered to sort through donated clothing.
Friends, I still have nightmares about that ministry project. And it is the primary reason I thoroughly wash any clothing donation I give to the Goodwill or His Helping Hands.
My goodness. It was so dirty. And there were piles and piles and piles of clothes, some stuffed in trash bags, some crammed in moldy cardboard boxes, some glued together by lollipops. (gag)
I looked at that room full of nasty, dirty donated clothes, and I thought to myself that we would never get through it. I thought there was no way we would finish. It was too big a project.
But you know what? We did finish. We did get it done.
Know why? Because it was WE. Not I.
We had a group of people working together to tackle those giant filthy piles of clothes, and we all had one goal in mind: Get it done … and then take a shower.
When you’re facing a huge project, the best way to get it done is to have help. That’s where a community comes in really handy. There’s nothing better than a unified team of people working together to accomplish a goal.
This part of Scripture from the Gospel of Matthew is so important because it reveals Jesus’ heart. It shows us, by His actions and responses, how He feels about people.
Jesus felt compassion.
Not anger. Not fear. Not disappointment. Not frustration. Compassion. Because they were lost and confused and struggling and didn’t understand why. They didn’t know what to do. They were helpless, victims of leaders who had taken them the wrong directions and authorities that had taken advantage of them.
My friends, fellow Jesus-followers, Jesus hasn’t changed.
Believe me, I’m talking to myself right now. There’s little else that can irritate me more than large groups of people, especially ones that see the world differently than I do. But do we believe that the crowd of people who followed Jesus around all saw the world the way He did? Shoot, His disciples didn’t even see the world the way Jesus did.
Like-minded agreement should never be a prerequisite to extending God’s love to another person. Love should be the rule, not the exception.
And the world is so full of people who are lost and hurting and scared, now more than ever. The uncertainty and anxiety of our culture has reached all-times highs, and everyone keeps looking in the wrong places for comfort.
Maybe if they could find comfort and compassion among God’s people, they would go there instead?
Jesus didn’t require people to clean themselves up before He showed them love. He loved them regardless. And that’s what He expects us to do in His name. It’s not easy. That’s why the workers are few.
We each have an opportunity to be one of the workers, one of God’s ambassadors. We each have a chance to show love and compassion to someone who is searching for hope.
Alone, we could never do it, but God didn’t leave us here alone. He gave us His Spirit, and He gave us each other. So, yes, there’s a lot of work to do, but when we work together with Christ as our firm foundation, miracles happen.
Questions for Reflection
What was a huge project you needed help to finish?
What are the downside of working with a team on a project?
How is one way you can help keep a group of people focused on the reason why the project matters?
Weekly Memory Verse
