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Needy People

             Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. (Matthew 10:1)

Oh, that would be the life… to have God call me and tell me, “Go here, do this marvelous thing in the following manner” (not included above). What we likely would find coolest about it is the authority. But God had reasons for doing things that way at that time. He has reasons for doing things differently now. There are, however, two things are clear.

The first is that He sent them to minister to people, and not just people, but people who were the last sort of people they (or we) are likely to have wanted to visit: the possessed, the broken, and the sick. This wasn’t about their classification. It was about their need and about the disciples' comfort zone. They were, in short, to be Good Samaritans who didn’t need an innkeeper to help them.

And again, I struggle with the virtual people aspect. Am I supposed to go out every day, looking for the downtrodden? Is God going to provide me with the power and the money to fix everyone’s problems? I don’t think that’s the way it’s supposed to work for everyone. But I do think we’re supposed to keep our eyes open, and when we notice someone, perhaps someone other people haven’t noticed, we’re to help as we can (and perhaps as only we can.)

The second issue is that the disciples weren’t doing their own ministries. They were following Jesus’s specific ministry and instructions. If we are going to follow His example, the day will come when we will be teaching others. That’s daunting. I like Dallas Willard’s take on it – that we’re not helping them learn to be like us. We’re teaching them how to be like Christ. I may never teach someone to do things I do. That would be too easy. It’s more like teaching them to become what we hope to become. And as we do that, we do so using the “dialect” of our areas of interest and expertise, not (necessarily) by becoming street preachers.

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