Scripture References: Luke 10:1-12, 17-20
Last lesson: If God puts out that call for more laborers, we are here, and ready. However, if any new workers go, we will have to be with them, and the assignment can be very demanding.
Getting close to people and opening ourselves up for genuine care and an honest witness to our own source of strength requires that we make ourselves vulnerable, and that means we can get hurt. Some people will not be receptive even to the love of God, and they may take out their anger or their frustrations on anyone who seems to possess it. This is why Jesus said: “Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves.” – Luke 10:3.
The song-writer, Margaret Clarkson was precisely on target with regard to this less-than-glamorous dimension of Christian service when she wrote the words to a hymn as if Jesus were speaking to those of us considering the possibility of making ourselves available to go and prepare the way for Him. Clarkson heard Jesus saying to us:
So send I you to labor unrewarded,
To serve unpaid, unloved, unsought, unknown,
To bear rebuke, to suffer scorn and scoffing—
So send I you to toil for Me alone.
So send I you to hearts made hard by hatred,
To eyes made blind because they will not see,
To spend, though it be blood, to spend and spare not—
So send I you to taste of Calvary. 1
Even though we may treat the subject rather casually, not even fully committed to the idea, in Jesus’ mind involvement in people’s lives to prepare them for His personal visitation is an ongoing and urgent task which explains His strange-sounding instructions, “Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals; and greet no one along the road.” – Luke 10:4.
Clarence Jordan, the Baptist preacher, translates these words of Jesus in our vernacular: “Don’t carry a suitcase or a wallet or shoes. And don’t stop and gab with everybody you meet” (The Cotton-patch Version of Luke and Acts). This says something not only about the urgency of the mission in that there will not be time to stop, pack bags, get traveler’s checks, and plan meals, but also this business of traveling without provisions will continue to remind us of our complete reliance on Jesus as the source of supply for all our needs.
Being preoccupied with our own comfort, present and future, generally sidetracked with things of the world is so easy; in fact, for many of us, it is the most natural position to take. Against it, we see how much the kingdom of God, the God Movement (as coined by the aforementioned Clarence Jordan) in the world pales in comparison to our ever increasing list of priorities which has nothing to do with serving and honoring God. The truth is that in success-oriented America and even American Christianity, we can barely identify, if at all, with the idea of putting God and God’s will first, regardless of the consequences. Back to Margaret Clarkson’s hymn again. Is it possible to hear Jesus making these kinds of demands on His laborers?
So send I you to leave your life’s ambition,
To die to dear desire, self-will resign,
To labor long, and love where men revile you—
So send I you to lose your life in Mine. 2
The gospel however, doesn’t offer any apologies about the demands it makes of us; there is a no-nonsense clarity with which the rewards and the burdens of being one of Jesus’ people are presented. In this lesson, for example, Jesus isn’t mincing any words, and there is clearly no way we can comply with Jesus’ call to us unless doing the will of God is an all-consuming desire. Certainly the writer of Proverbs is correct in his practical wisdom when he reminds us of the Scripture from Proverbs 10:5 quoted above.
To Be Continued
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 
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