This morning I was meditating on something the Lord brought to my attention over the last few days, namely my desire to see my own glorification through being used in ministry to bring healing, other miraculous ministrations, or anything of value. I didn't realize it was there, and it was something that He gently showed me, allowing me to repent. This morning as I was thinking about this I was reminded of the following story from Luke's Gospel, and was specifically directed to verse twenty.
Luke 10:2-3,8-9,16-21 NIV:
[2] He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. [3] Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.
[8] “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. [9] Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.'
[16] “Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.”
[17] The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”
[18] He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. [19] I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. [20] However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
[21] At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do."
As I look at verse twenty, it seems to me that Jesus is gently correcting the statement and mentality of the seventy-two. They came back rejoicing that demons were submitting to them, in Jesus' name. Jesus quickly redirects them and says to be less concerned with that and more focused on their relationship with Him, and as a result there eternal destiny in heaven (relationship with the Father).
We know from other scriptures that the apostles likely compared notes on how their ministry had gone, and at one point were even arguing about who was the greatest (Mark 9:34). The point Jesus seems to be making here is to not allow our thoughts to go down that path, rather we should rejoice that our names are written in heaven. That is such an interesting point, because that same thing is true of all believers, whether they are doing active successful ministry or not.
I believe Jesus is correcting a wrong thought process that associates successful ministry with God's favor or affection. The truth is that God has always loved us far beyond our comprehension and our success in ministry has no real affect on His affection for us, or favor towards us. We are called to be co-laborers with Christ and in that light we are invited to join in Jesus' ministry, but not for our glory, but rather for His!
I don't think there is anything wrong with rejoicing over God's miraculous touch through our prayers, but we must guard our thinking. We have a proclivity to think that successful ministry means increased favor, and we tend to believe that people who operate in these gifts are somehow special in the eyes of the Lord. There is significant danger down that line of thinking, as we start to keep track, start to keep score of what the Lord does through us and compare our ministry to others. One of the first things ministries are often asked is how many people have been touched or saved, or ministered to. It is good to be good stewards of the task and call the Lord has given us, but I believe He is far more interested in our relationship with Him.
It is interesting, in scripture we find what appears to be two different teachings of Jesus concerning our service for Him. On one hand we have the parable (and several like it) of the 10 talents or bags of Gold (Matt 25:14-30 or Luke 19:12-27). In this it seems that the Lord extends greater favor to the one who has stewarded the gifts of the Lord well. On the other hand we have the parable of the vineyard workers, found in Matt 20:1-16. Here the Lord rewards each worker, regardless of how many hours and how much work they have accomplished, the exact same.
At first blush these stories seem to be almost conflicting, and certainly could be confusing. I am taking these stories a bit out the context they were delivered in, but the basic principles are what I am observing. In both stories, I want to look at the mindset of the worker, and God's response. In the parable of the talents, the Lord doesn't indicate that there was going to be any reward, and the good servants aren't expecting any reward, but are rather faithful in their work because they know the heart of their master, and are faithful to the trust He has given them. It is so important to note that their motivation wasn't to gain more of His favor, but to be faithful to Him. This is one time where knowing the end of the end of the story can cause us problems in understanding the real lesson. The master comes back and rewards their faithfulness with greater responsibility and authority. This was not part of the initial understanding or contract, but rather was the Master's good pleasure to extend. The servants were not expecting this good pleasure, so it was not their motivation. In a similar way, the workers in the vineyard were working for what was considered a fair days wages. The vineyard owner was being generous in hiring everyone that was looking for work. While they were working, all they were expecting was to receive a fair days wages, and each man worked as he was able.
The problems in both stories arose when they started making judgements about the master's or owner's motivation and /or heart. In the first parable the man who dug a hole and hid the gold did so because he judged the master as being a hard man, and he was afraid. He was reprimanded for his lack of stewardship and most importantly for misjudging the heart of the master. In the story of the laborers, the workers hired first were angry when the workers who started late in the day were paid the same as them. They were thinking that those who did more, should be paid more. They thought the owner was being unfair when he decided to pay the late starting workers the same pay as was agreed for a whole day of labor, and this was due to the fact that they had basically been keeping score. They expected to be paid more than those who had done less work! Their problem was that once they saw how much the late workers were paid, they applied their score keeping tallies and of their own volition increased their expectations of their pay. They were so concerned about their own "payment" that they missed the generous heart of the owner towards the late workers.
Bringing these stories back to the topic at hand, the Lord's encouragement seems to be that we should not concern ourselves with our position, our successes or our reward for our works, but rather that we should be faithful in our work, in the trust He has put in us, and that we should be grateful for the chance to be a co-laborer. God is good and faithful and we can entrust ourselves and our efforts to Him. God Loves each of us and extends favor to each of us, and our efforts should be to bring as many people into relationship with Him as we are able, not for our Glory, but that they might know His love and goodness themselves. Our goal in every bit of ministry should be to help people understand that God knows them, loves them and has an invitation to relationship waiting for them. We should rejoice that we have been entrusted by the Lord with gifts and abilities and just be grateful that our names are written in Heaven. While we will experience His blessing on earth, His greatest blessing is relationship with Him that extends to eternity.
So let us rejoice in the Lord's love, mercy and compassion! Let us rejoice when He extends His power to heal and set people free from illness, injury or spiritual oppression. Let us share His joy when the enemy falls from heaven due to the extending of the Kingdom of Heaven, here on earth. Let us rejoice over souls who have entered into relationship with our Savior. Finally, let us stop keeping score, stop comparing ourselves to others, and stop expecting that our efforts will in some way entitle us to special favors or preferential treatment, for our reward in Him is more than enough!
Amen!
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