Renewal Through Serving “in the Name of Jesus”
It is OK to serve people in the name of Jesus!
Years ago, during a break in a conference in California where I was speaking on ways congregations can be engaged more with their communities, a woman came up to me and told me part of her life story. “I am recently retired,” she said. “I worked as an emergency room nurse for years, so I saw it all. But what sticks out in my mind is those years when we first began to see AIDS patients coming into the hospital. They didn’t know what was wrong with them and we didn’t know either. The young men were terrified! Many of them had lost contact with their families because of their lifestyle choices.” She paused, then added, “Back then, being gay was much less openly talked about, so many of them had had their communication with their families severed. Here they were—scared and dying—and they felt they couldn’t even share their circumstances with their families. Many of them didn’t know how their families would react to hearing from them. It just broke my heart.”
At this point the nurse’s eyes teared up. “So I began to offer to do two things for them. One was to call their families for them. And the other was to offer to pray with them. In every case except one, these young men welcomed my prayers—and they all welcomed my assistance calling home. When I prayed with them, I talked to them about Jesus. No one objected. So I know we can minister to other people in Jesus’s name—if we are willing to enter their pain and suffering.”
She then gave me the backstory on this part of her life journey. Her husband had suddenly died some years back. “I spent years asking God to give me another husband and complaining about my loneliness. One day I clearly heard God tell me, ‘Give yourself to the people around you and let me fill your loneliness.’ That was when I began my ministry to AIDS patients. By doing that, it took away my heartache.” Smiling, she said, “God doesn’t always give us what we want, but he gives us what we need.”
I believe this woman would tell you to be good to yourself—give yourself to the people in need around you.
But let’s return to the earlier point of my telling you this story. This emergency room nurse found no trouble integrating her service with her belief system. I think we can all be instructed by her. For a bunch of reasons, many of us Jesus followers are too embarrassed to mention Jesus when we are serving people, feeling that it’s the wrong thing to do. The result of this reluctance is that people are left with a caricature of Jesus that has been painted by some religious nut or poor church experiences or the media. People who need Jesus are not being introduced to him! People are underserved because they have not heard and understood the good news he brings.
I know where some of the retreat from being openly identified as a Jesus follower comes from. We want to disassociate ourselves from those who imperiously announce their religious convictions by bullhorning people with bad news or challenging people about their life choices without stopping to serve them. Honestly, we don’t need any more of this misguided and abusive approach.
But I think we’ve gone too far the other direction. People expect you and me to have some sort of belief system. They just don’t want us to cram it down their throats. As we serve people, we should not pull back from sharing our best with them. We should be able to identify the reason for the hope that we have in us (1 Pet. 3:15). People deserve to know how much Jesus cares for them and the full measure of life he wants for them. That information, coming from someone who is being a servant to them, shows up in the right packaging.
Please hear me right on this. Serving people purely for the chance to share the gospel with them does not fit any biblical mandate. That approach reduces the love of neighbor into an act with an ulterior motive. It smacks of disingenuous service—and people can smell it a ZIP code away. People deserve to be loved for all the reasons we have already gone over, starting with their being created in the image of God. Helping people who need to be helped and doing good to others have value in and of themselves. After all, in the Bible story told by Jesus himself, the Samaritan didn’t try to convert the person he helped.
I believe, however, that we are not availing ourselves of enough opportunities to connect our motives to Jesus. It’s okay to obey him and serve him by serving people in our lives. And I think it’s okay for them to know it, especially when they bring it up. And I think they will bring it up. Doing good deeds eventually leads to a discussion of motives and beliefs. We do not have to shy away at that point from sharing our own experience.
Also, serving people in Jesus’s name will bring you renewed joy and energy. Sharon, who works in a food bank, learned this secret last year. All day long she interviews people to determine their needs and how her organization can help with their food challenges. She is passionate about this, but the day-in and day-out exposure to people’s challenges was taking its toll on her. She began to ask people at the conclusion of their interview, “Can I pray with you?” Not only did she find that people really want her to pray for them and with them, she also discovered a new enthusiasm inside herself. People even write to her telling her they appreciate the food assistance, but they appreciate her prayers more! Sharon unashamedly prays “in Jesus’s name.” It has helped her believe all over again in the power of Jesus to touch people’s lives.
You’ve gotten the point. Helping others comes with a guaranteed self-help benefit. Not only does it move us out of our self-absorption, but loving our neighbor helps us get in touch with our own life purpose and with the God who made us and loves us and wants us to experience life to the max.
There are so many options, so many needs, so many people who are down in the dirt. How do we know where to start? How can you make your best contribution?
Again, the answer lies in you.
Reflection: How would you like to grow as a person? How can serving others help you with that?
Taken from Get Off Your Donkey! Help Somebody and Help Yourself. Copyright © 2013 by Reggie McNeal. Used by permission of Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group, Inc.
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