Powerlessness And Mission
This past week Vladamir Putin quoted Jesus. And he did so at a rally to support his invasion of Ukraine.
He said:
“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.” - John 15:13
Now it's never surprising to me when people quote Jesus or wish to co-opt his influence for their cause. To this day, most still want Jesus on their team. Even corrupt dictators.
What does surprise me, however, is when Jesus' words are twisted in such a way to suggest the very opposite of what he meant.
Jesus said these particular words on his way to the cross where he would willingly lay down his own life for others. Putin quoted these words while he willfully uses his own position to sacrifice and take the lives of others for his own benefit.
One is a perfect example of how power is used by empires and their leaders in a broken world. It is a "power over" kind of power. One in which those with the most guns and the biggest bombs typically win.
Jesus, however, announced and lived out an altogether different kind of power. His was a "power under" kind of power.
He announced with his life, death and resurrection that this is the way in which the kingdom of God works and the power of God is unleashed. And then he beckoned those who would follow after him to pick up their cross and do likewise - laying down their preferences, their resources, indeed their very lives so that others might find life.
One of the places we see this great reversal and counterintuitive celebration of the powerless is in Jesus' famous Sermon On the Mount.
The sermon is a distilled, highly concentrated summary of all that Jesus embodied and taught. It is his manifesto.
In it Jesus announces what the kingdom of God is like. In short? It doesn't often come to who we think and it isn’t going to flow through who we think.
Blessed are those at the bottom, the hurting, the beat up, the poor, the least. For in the kingdom of God the first shall be last and the last shall be first.
Suffice to say Jesus' message received a mixed response by those present.
Some leaned in.
Some walked away.
And some just didn't get it.
This last group included his inner circle of disciples.
Just several chapters later in Matthew 18 we find them arguing amongst themselves about, of all things, power and status. They wanted to do know who amongst them was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
And apparently they had different ideas amongst them about who deserved the title.
What is it Peter with all of his bravado and boldness? Was it John, the disciple of love? Was it James with his deep passion and inner conviction? Was it Andrew with his quiet faithfulness and willingness to bring people to Jesus?
"Which one of us is greatest, Jesus? Which one of us is winning? Who is on the right track? Who is at the front of the line? Whose got the stuff required for greatness in the kingdom?"
In response to their question, Jesus called a little child, who was placed among them.
We know from the Greek word used that this was a young child. Think between the ages of 4 and 6. He places amongst them a little kindergartner.
And said to them:
"Unless you change and become like little children, you'll never enter the kingdom."
Notice the key words here.
They're going to have to change.
To become.
To be transformed.
And apparently the journey would not be one up and to the right, but rather a journey of dissent.
Theirs would be a journey deep into powerlessness.
For all of the good things we could say about kids, remember what Jesus and his disciples are talking about here:
Power. Standing. Status.
As it pertains to those things, nothing has changed in the two thousand years since these words were first spoken. Kids don't have any.
They are utterly powerless.
They have no authority. No say-so. They can't even survive with out lots and lots of help.
Instead they are
Needy.
Dependent.
Small.
Vulnerable.
All things, if I’m honest, I don’t want to be.
But Jesus says, “This is what true greatness in the kingdom looks like. It looks like this little powerless child. And if you want to follow after me, you're going to have to become like one of these.”
He says the path is one of powerlessness and humility.
Two things that our flesh avoids at all costs.
But can I share a secret with you?
This is one of the reasons why following Jesus into mission is so incredibly important.
One of the unexpected and greatest blessings of living a life of participation in the mission of God is that it will constantly lead you into a place of powerlessness.
A narcissistic gospel or church cannot produce this.
But a life lived with and for others, one characterized by self-sacrificial love, always will. You can take that to the bank.
In this season of our lives our family is getting to participate with Jesus in our city on multiple fronts. Everywhere we turn we seem to see Jesus at work and opportunities to join him as his hands and feet.
It's been such a joy, amongst other things.
But words like strong, capable or powerful are not words we would use to describe how we have felt at any point along the way.
One of our daughter’s friends is a boy named Jacob. Jacob’s dad died when he was young and he's the only child left in the house. His mother is his world. This past month doctors found a large mass in his mother’s brain. She was rushed into surgery immediately. With nowhere else to go he ended up at our place the night he found out and a number of the days that followed. How does it feel to have a teenager in your home who feels like the floor has suddenly dropped out of his life, with nowhere to turn, desperate for answers but no interest in faith?
Powerless is a pretty good word for it.
Another one of the kids who has spent significant time in our home in recent months is a girl named Abbie. Abbie struggles heavily with body image issues and her sexual identity. She also struggles with bulimia. We know this not because she has shared this with us, but because we've been with her enough to realize she is purging after every meal. How does it feel to desperately long for this kid to find her identity and self-worth in the God who says she is perfectly and wonderfully made, but to have no power in ourselves to make that happen?
Pretty powerless.
Another one of our daughter's friends is Jennifer. Jennifer has lived a really hard life and although she's just a teenager, she wears it all over her person. Mom and dad are gone. Her older brother has full custody. The problem is he can barely take care of himself let alone raise his little sister. When he dropped her off at our house last weekend he was so drunk he could barely speak or stand. We tried to get him to stay but no luck. He was gone. And soon she would be as well. How did we feel?
So powerless.
This past weekend one of the single dads in our neighborhood invited me and our son Jackson up to Pigeon Forge to celebrate his little boy's birthday. While there I got to meet and hang out with a bunch of his family friends, including a gal who shared with me that she has stage four breast cancer. A couple hours in she turned to me and said, "Hey since you're a pastor, maybe you could pray for my cancer?" I said, “I’d love to. Let’s do it right now.” So Jackson (7) and I stepped outside into a crowded beer garden, wrapped our arms around her and a close family friend and we prayed in the name, authority and goodness of King Jesus for healing. It was beautiful. And it was an honor. But how does it feel when someone with stage four breast cancer asks you to pray for physical healing, something you know you have absolutely no power or ability to do in your own flesh?
Utterly powerless.
Our neighborhood has an elementary school just around the corner. All three of our kids have gone there and it has been mission central for our family for most of the past five years. One of the most broken and isolated parts of our city, a large government housing project hidden just over the hills feeds into that school, bringing with it everything you'd imagine comes with it. Lots of hurt. Lots of brokenness. We and our church family have labored to love that school and its kids to the best of our ability. We've mentored at risk kids, we've hosted parent support groups, we've chaperoned, we've grilled food, we've served coffee, catered in breakfast...but one of the hardest things about this kind of ministry is the transience. Someone gets busted. Someone gets evicted. Life happens. And then kids and their families, some of whom you've spent investing in for years, are just gone. Often not even the school knows where they went. What does it feel like to pour your life out for kids who could disappear with their families at any moment?
So, so powerless.
But let me just share briefly what these things have created and continue to create in us as a family:
A holy desperation.
A keen awareness of just how small we are in this great thing God is up to in the world.
A trust that God loves these people more than we ever could and will pursue them with his love until the work is complete.
And a pleading with him through it all to do what only He can do.
And that, friends, is an incredible a gift.
You see, regardless of anyone might tell you, you don't need to follow Jesus into mission for me or any other pastor or religious leader type.
You need to follow Jesus into mission for you and for the ones you love.
Why? Because
This is where we get changed.
It is when we are at the very end of our virtuous rope, when we are stripped of the strength we so often project into the world, when we have entered into the messy lives of people Jesus thought worth dying for, and find ourselves in over our head that we are changed.
This is where transformation happens.
And it's not just where other lives are changed.
It's where our lives are changed as well.
I meet far too many Christians who are waiting to feel ready. They feel weak, small, ill-prepared and so they make excuses for not entering in:
"I'm too young"
"I'm too old"
"I'm not educated like pastor so-and-so"
"I won't have answers to their hard questions"
"We have young kids so we're too busy"
"We have older kids so we're too busy"
"We don't have kids so we lack the connections that others have"
"I'm too [this]"
"I'm not enough of [that]"
So let me just share this as someone who has made every single one of those excuses along the way.
One, if you wait to feel ready, strong and capable before you begin to join God in what He is up to in the places He has you, first of all, you may never actually get around to obedience.
Second of all, even if you do manage to get there, ironically your heart will be in precisely the wrong place to actually do the work.
So hear me, friends:
God doesn't need your power.
All He needs is your willingness.
And in those moments when you feel powerless it turns out you are perfectly positioned to be used by God.
In fact, it's where He loves to do some of His best work.
This is one of most beautiful aspects of this great reversal we call the kingdom of God.
In the kingdom, God chooses not to use the Putins of this world who know only how to oppose their will through brute strength. Instead he chooses to use those who are willing to enter in as weak, needy, vulnerable children who are willing to trust in the great strength of their Heavenly Dad.
This means, amongst other things, that everyone gets to play. Every man, woman and child - no matter how young, old, big, small, over-prepared or under-prepared - is invited to join God in what He is up to right now.
And that includes you.
Do you feel weak today? Small? Beat down? Frustrated? Powerless? Like you’ve got little or nothing to give?
Perfect.
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” - 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
