Reach Out

Reach Out

 “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” (Luke 19:10)

One of the most important things you can do in your life is to meet someone. It needn’t be a significant event or dramatic moment, but people can be the most unexpected source of change in lives we laughably believe we can plan. “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17). Harold Macmillan was Prime Minister of the UK from 1957 to 1963, and at some point during this time he was asked by a journalist what his largest concern was for his administration. His reply is instructive, “Events, my dear boy, events.” Granted, the previous sentences seem cut and pasted from a handful of separate missives, but I can assure you there is a wisp of a link between them. Our Holy Habit this week is Seeking and Saving the Lost. Our first encounter with Jesus came about without our intent. We had to be introduced. In fact, even if we believe we sought Him out, this is an error of causality. Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.” (John 6:44). The Holy Spirit moves in this world, in our lives, and the lives of others and it would be a mistake to discount this or downplay it. Allow it to move in yours. But we must now speak of others.

One cannot seek and save the lost from isolation. It is true that Paul penned his letters but did so on the move, and they were written to those he had traveled to meet. They were not impersonal diatribes, scribbled aloofly by a social malcontent. (Unlike, say, digital Newsletter screeds scribbled by someone who acts like baked goods are a substitute for a personality…) The example of Scripture and our Savior prove that evangelism is an extroverted activity. This does not preclude our own interests though. It’s true that we act as one body, and that more “behind-the-scenes” roles are absolutely necessary. The number of people required to make a church run that aren’t out in front of a crowd on a weekly basis is staggering. But preferring to stay away from the limelight is not an excuse for not sharing the gospel. Would you like to know why? Because there are literally millions of people out there who need it and feel the same way you do! It is true that there are many who are specifically gifted toward evangelism in that traditional understanding of the word. Jesus performed numerous miracles, but many were not in the same way. In curing the blind for instance, Jesus touched the eyes of two blind men in Matthew 9:27-31, He spoke to a man and cured him in Luke 18:35-43, and He put clay onto the eyes of a man in John 9:1-7 and instructed him to wash it clean. Was Jesus merely showing off, or was there a larger point to be made? Maybe there is no one single way to share the Message. Perhaps there are as many approaches as there are people, and perhaps you are tailor-made for such a task.

Because we’ve been given what’s been known as “The Great Commission” (Matthew 28:16-20) some have understood that sharing the Gospel is an order or an obligation. This is a slight misunderstanding. While it is indeed our responsibility, we must re-tune our hearts to realize that this should also be our joy! An easy way to do this is to remember and continue to remind yourself, of what a large role the grace of God plays in your life. Try to imagine, for some, this is easier than others, what your life would look like without it. There are those without our enduring hope, there are those without the merciful knowledge of forgiveness. Paul considered himself indebted to these people. To those who still suffered under the law. “I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.” (Romans 1:14-15) We have been granted a gift, (A multitude of gifts, really) and the most self-centered action we could take is to neglect sharing this incredible news with someone else. Would you ever feel comfortable at a church that closed the doors and left those waiting outside and looking in? None of us would darken the door of such a place, but how many of us live our lives that way? Content to keep the security of our salvation secret. No more. Build up a habit of seeking and saving the lost.

To do this, both our eyes and our hearts must be open. And in the world we live in, opportunity abounds. We live in a sea of need, desperate, hopeless, and withering. With the removal of the Bible as a common cultural touchstone, the antagonism against Christianity by cultural elites, and the overall quietness (if not outright silence) of the Church so many are left not even knowing what they are missing. At this point, we may be advised not to “put our light under a bushel basket” and placidly informed that we are to be a shining light out to the darkness. All is well and good, but nowhere near enough. If a patient is bleeding out on the table in the ER, pointing them the way to the gauze won’t cut it. Jesus did not merely live a perfect life and hoped we’d sit up and take notice. He walked, He talked, He pursued, He wept. He shared His life with His followers, broke bread with them, talked with them, and traveled with them. He showed that to be fishers of men, you must at least be at sea. (**Clarifying Aside**-Ellie was correct to point out, and Benny was correct to reiterate that WE do not do the saving. We are to bring others to Jesus, and He is the one who saves. But our attitude should be driven by the reality, and like Paul before us, we should be relentless and unceasing in our efforts)

Books, among other things, are repositories of knowledge or ideas. There could be untold riches contained therein, but if nobody reads it, what good does it do? People too are massive storehouses of experience, knowledge, ideas, and so much more. And they deserve the same chance you got. Share with them the Gospel. God only knows the ripple effects that could cause. The web of human interaction is complex, interwoven, and ceaselessly moving. We interact with more people on a given day than we realize. And what could possibly change the course we have picked out for ourselves? “Events my dear boy, events.” Become an event in someone’s day, and make your interaction count for God. Share the Gospel with everything you’ve got and leave no doubt as to who you are working for. Take your ego out of the equation and let Jesus shine through in your attitude, words, actions, and behavior. There is nothing offensive about forgiveness, nothing untoward in salvation, nothing unseemly in redemption. There is no reason not to. One of the most important things you can do in your life is to meet someone. What if the most important thing in someone else’s life is meeting you?

Jordan Williamson