JUST ONE

Isaiah 51:1-53:12; Ephesians 5:1-33; Psalm 69:19-36; Proverbs 24:7

“Who has believed our message? To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm? My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him.  He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.”

“So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

“Their insults have broken my heart, and I am in despair. If only one person would show some pity; if only one would turn and comfort me. But instead, they give me poison for food; they offer me sour wine for my thirst.”

“Wisdom is too much for a fool.”

Today’s Psalm broke my heart because it brought home the reality that no one – not a single, solitary soul – made any move to lessen the suffering of our Savior during His final hours. To the extent this Psalm can be read as prophesy, it is even more disturbing that God knew us so well so far in advance. How could He know such despicable cowardice and inhumanity would be shown His Son and yet send Him to die for those very sins (among others)? Even this sad slice of history was not the worst of today’s revelation, however. Because the next question which naturally arose got very personal. What I have done to lessen the suffering of my Savior today, to relieve the burden He carries in His heart for the downtrodden and suffering in the family of God? Certainly, not enough. I have no defense. I am stunned anew that the Holy Spirit has anything to do with me. Truly, His grace is unimaginable.

I do not today address unbelievers or those in foreign lands. Others have and will continue to call Christians to evangelistic mission work. This one time, let us acknowledge the dark reality of the full depth of our depravity, our disregard of the plights of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Let us feel it in our bones. People like us who do not respond to the suffering of family members do not deserve to be saved. We really, really need to appreciate that fact. We simply do not do enough to relieve the suffering of our own, let alone others’. Worse, our disregard of other believers’ pain actually prolongs and intensifies their feelings of isolation and abandonment. We live as if we are heedless of the deserved consequences of our callous disregard for the needs of our spiritual relatives. It is a reality many of us see, but few feel. We have utterly no right to claim exemption or an exception to the wages of our sins.

Oh, I know: no one can meet all the needs they see, even in church. Not even Jesus attempted that in this life. There are very real human limits. However, we also need to own that history is replete with examples of individuals who shine forth the best in humanity. They did so precisely because they took it upon themselves to live beyond their limits for no other reason than that someone else needed them to.

“Insamuch as you have done it to the least of these, you have done it to Me…. When you refuse to help these “lesser ones,” you refuse to help Me….” Jesus was not kidding or waxing metaphorical. He lives in and with His children who suffer, every bit as much as He does in us. All believers are bound in and to His Body. When we do not come to the aid of our brothers and sisters, we are, by definition, wounding Christ. More personally, we wound ourselves.

It is an interesting scientific fact that the only cell in the human body that lives utterly for itself is a cancer cell. When we, as members of the Body of believers, neglect the pain and needs of fellow believers, we may as well be cancer cells. Make no mistake: I am indicting myself and am unsure what to do about it (or, more painfully, if I am going to do anything about it). But that is a question for another day. Today, the Lord is just holding up a mirror, and asking me if I like what I see. I do not.

So, the Lord asks me one thing more. He asks whether I am willing to be the one soul He commissions to provide a unique, supportive touch to one of His children in need. He asks if I am willing to respond to His invitation unconditionally, unquestioningly, or if I am going to stop when I begin to count the cost. He asks, simply, if I will change my perspective and begin to see that helping others is not just a spiritual obligation, but an eternal opportunity. That is a paradigm shift for me. It should not be, but it is. Getting outside myself, extending myself outside my comfort zone, is simply not where I want to be. For crying out loud, I have enough to do already…, too much in fact. Hey, a lot of it is “good Christian work.” But somehow, the Lord is not interested in any of that today. He asked me a specific question. And all I really know right now is that I’d prefer not to answer. One soul matters. Perhaps the one who needs real help is me. Who knew?