Made for Mission: Why Am I on a Mission?

It had been almost 3 ½ years since the day he’d dropped everything he’d ever known to step out into a life he knew nothing about. He could still remember Jesus’ whisper loud enough for only him to hear amidst the crowd. “Come and follow me.” Peter knew very little of what he was getting into but something inside him told him this was the most important decision he would ever make in his life. Now, several years later he could barely even remember the days when his only goal was catching fish on the Sea of Galilee. He and the other guys Jesus called his disciples had seen the blind see, the dead rise, the waves become calm and demons cast out. Even crazier was that at some point Jesus had him actually doing the miracles too. It never got old seeing the look of joy on a man’s face as he walked for the first time after a lifetime of being paralyzed.

And, here they were eating their 3rd Passover meal together. Somehow, though, this one felt different. As the disciples found their spots around the table, Jesus didn’t go directly to his seat. Instead he got down on his knees, next to a basin of water and began to wash their feet. All of them were speechless. Jesus had spoken about serving others countless times but this was too much. This was going too far. Peter was the last one to go and by this point Peter couldn’t stay keep quiet anymore. “No Lord!” he blurted out as he pulled his feet away. Then Jesus looked deeply into Peter’s eyes much like he’d done over three years ago when they first met and said words that once again would forever change his life. Once more Peter slowly extended his feet and watched in disbelief as the creator of the universe washed the gunk in between his blistered toes.

A Quick Recap...

Good morning once again. We are in the fifth week of our series on mission. As we have progressed through this series, we talked about the fact that we are all called to be in mission, that there is a specific mission that we are called to live out in our lives, then we talked about the message that we need to share, and finally last week, we covered who might be the people we are to reach with our mission and message.

Today, we will spend some time discovering why we need to be doing this and living out a mission in our lives. I have to admit that this particular one is really near and dear to my heart. I have many favorite stories in the Gospels but my top two would have to be birth narrative of Luke and this story of Jesus serving his disciples and really telling them that they must do after he is gone. And the answer to all of our questions about why we have to do these things is simply put as one word...

LOVE

For over 3 years, Jesus had been pouring his love into others. Did he love all people, of course he did. Did he show contempt for some, of course he did. He lived out his mission in a way that those who get it, and I mean really get it, could easily see how he loved all people regardless as to how they treated him.

Think about it…just before our story for today, Jesus had been betrayed into the hands of the Jewish leaders of his time. He had been sold to them for 30 pieces of silver, by one of his most trusted students. Someone who had been with him since the beginning, the man who they all trusted to make sure their money stores were well maintained and that they could purchase what they needed and give away all that they could. The man who they trusted had not only betrayed Jesus but every other person in that room that night. And yet, Jesus continued to pour his love into that man…Jesus did not exclude him because he knew what Judas was about to do. No, he stooped before him, washed his feet just like everyone else, and even ate the passover meal beside him.

Love is...

As we begin thinking about all of what this means for us today, we need to remember a few things though...

Love is hard

…even when our children disappoint us to no end, we continue to love them. Even when our spouses do things that get under our skin and irritate us, we continue to love them and show them our affection.

Love is complicated

…sometimes, in order to fully show someone your love, you need to separate yourself from those who mistreat you to protect you and them. Sometimes, we need to separate ourselves from family because they have become too abusive or they have become too toxic and their toxicity is dangerous.

Love is never harsh words or abuse

When the people in our lives become abusive, we often need to remove ourselves from situations and circumstances and do other things to protect ourselves from that abuse.

Even though Jesus knew what Judas had done, he continued to show him love. Jesus continued to pour out his love toward him and even those who were all about having him killed. Jesus never struck out with harmful or hurtful words, yes he called them hypocrites, but sometimes we need to be shocked with the blatant, ultimate truth so that we can change course or correct our ways. Here’s my point in all of this...

Jesus Understood the Why

Jesus understood why he needed to do the things he was doing. For us, it is easy to look at the world around us and give a million reasons why we should not serve those who “don’t deserve it” or are not doing for themselves so why should we do something to help but I want us to put this in perspective…Jesus stooped before each and every disciple to do the one thing that was below even the lowest servant and each one of them would turn their back on him at one time or another throughout the coming hours.

Jesus knew exactly why he was here and what it was that he was trying to teach those around him. And that is exactly what he was getting at with what we heard this morning.

John 13:34–35 The Message

“Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”

Jesus leaves the disciples that night with one thing to keep in mind…love. Everything he did for them that night was about loving them and everything he was about to endure was about loving the whole of creation.

As I mentioned before, sometimes that is hard, complicated, and distressful but it is what we must do and that has to be our why as much as it was his...

There is a song that has rung through my mind over the last few days and while it is a very secular song, it echoes what I have been sharing this morning and here are just a few lyrics as we end our time...

Walk blindly to the light and reach out for his hand Don't ask any questions and don't try to understand Open up your mind and then open up your heart And you will see that you and me aren't very far apart

'Cause I believe that love is the answer I believe that love will find the way

Let us pray…God show us the way to show your love to others, Amen.