Today’s Reading: Luke 10:25-37, 11:37-54
Optional readings: Luke Ch 10:38-11:36
Prayer, Mary & Martha, Pharisees
I’m not talking about spiritually clean hands. We want to keep those.
I’m talking about literal clean hands. Like, hands that are never willing to get dirty.
A missionary friend of mine told me that real ministry is messy. It’s exasperating and exhausting. It’s a get-down-in-the-dirt and help-people-through-the-mess kind of vocation.
Take the Parable of the Good Samaritan as an example.
A beaten, half-dead, naked man lay helpless on the side of the road.
The priest couldn’t even walk near him as he passed him by.
The Levite did the same, crossing to the other side of the road to pass by.
The Samaritan, an historical outcast to the Jews, stopped to help.
And he didn’t pray over him, that God would send someone to help him. He helped him. He cleaned and bandaged his wounds. He picked him up and put him on his donkey, which meant he had to walk the rest of the way. He cared for him through the night. I imagine he cleaned him, covered him, and fed him as well. Then he paid the innkeeper out of his own pocket.
He didn’t hesitate to ponder whether the man deserved it. He didn’t ask if he had a criminal record. He didn’t question whether he would have the ability to repay him. He didn’t judge that he must have deserved the beating he received.
Sometimes ministry is hosting a lovely ladies’ tea, but sometimes it’s sitting with a woman going through withdrawals.
Sometimes ministry is preaching a sermon, but sometimes it’s helping the injured farmer with his farm chores…in the rain.
Sometimes ministry is a conversation over coffee, but sometimes it’s cleaning up the homeless encampment.
God forbid that we ever think we are too good for any kind of ministry opportunity that God puts in our path.
I saw a clip of Rev. Jonathan Evans a while back that made me chuckle and check myself:
“Anytime we come to church, we have the tendency to make ourselves the victim in the Bible or the victor in the Bible. If you’re always the victim and you’re always the victor, but you ain’t never the villain?...
How you ain’t never the villain?!”
He’s right, though, isn’t he? We are Christians, so surely we are the Good Samaritan in the parable. Well, yeah, we’re supposed to be, but are we really? Or do we more often say, “Oh quick roll your window up. That guy is walking over here.” Do you find yourself avoiding eye contact with the homeless people in the bigger cities? Do you cross to the other side of the road?
Interestingly, we see “clean hands” come up again in the next chapter when Jesus is invited to dinner at a Pharisee’s house. He received the same criticism his disciples had previously. He didn’t wash his hands before he ate, as was Jewish custom.
Jesus calls out their hypocrisy. They may wash their hands before they eat and have clean bowls, but “inside they are full of greed and wickedness.” He continues, “…be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you” (Luke 11:39-41). They love being respected and honored by the people, but they are too good to actually serve them.
So perhaps you’ve had a fire lit within you to get your hands dirty and really minister to people, but you don’t know where to start. Mother Teresa once said, “It is easy to love humanity, but it is hard to love the person in front of you.” So start there.
Ministry is not a corporate ladder. We don’t (shouldn’t) have ambitions to keep climbing. We don’t ever get to a position that is too good to do the grunt work. If we did, we’d spiritually be moving backward.
“Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,
And whoever wants to be first must be your slave”
Matthew 20:26-27
Jesus, I repent of my lack of motivation to do the stinky, dirty, uncomfortable work of ministry. That is right where You would be, and I have often chosen comfort over service. I commit to saying “yes” the next time you put a need in my path. I won’t cross to the other side of the road. Amen.