Need-oriented Mission: Matthew 11. 1-6, 25-30

On one occasion, fairly early on in his ministry (John was still alive) Jesus was travelling in Samaria, and feeling weary, he sat down beside  a well while his mates went shopping.  It was midday, hot, and as Jesus sat, he saw a woman approaching, carrying a water jar.  I wonder what was going through his head? 

Maybe, just maybe, “Come to me all you who are tired and heavily laden.... and I will give you rest...”  We often use these verses in the context of caring for overworked disciples: "Jesus' yoke is ready and his burden is light," we tell people who are too busy, trying too hard and beating themselves up themselves up because they can't do all that they feel is expected of them. I've quoted these verses myself in exactly that situation. But the context of these words was clearly mission.

In Matthew 10, Jesus has sent the Twelve out – on mission trip, to preach, heal the sick, drive out the demons.  Did you ever wonder what Jesus was doing while the disciples were out on mission?   We imagine him taking a few days off. Spending a few days at his Mum's place, maybe playing a few rounds of golf?  But Matthew tells us what Jesus was doing.  Chapter 11 verse 1 says quite clearly,  that “After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee”.  While the 12 were on mission, Jesus was on mission too.

We are on a mission: Jesus has sent us out. And when we are on a mission, Jesus is on a mission too! That is good news because we can't do it on our own. Recognising the truth of the Kingdom, knowing who Jesus is, depends on God revealing truth.  (see v25-27)  We need Jesus to be with us.

So it seems that Jesus is saying “Come to me all who are weary and heavily loaded...” to everyone who is tired and overburdened.  He is saying it to people who don't know him.  He is inviting people to put their faith in him and know his rest: not so much “inactivity;” more relief, from the stresses they are under.   

West were the burdens that Jesus' hearers might be carrying?
Jewish legalism.  Jesus described the Pharisees with their legalistic religion as laying heavy burdens on people.   (See Mt 23. 4).
Greek intellectualism.  The big thing for the Greeks was “the search for truth.”  But the Gospel is not so much for he wise and learned as for the little children.   (v 25f)
Roman tyranny.  Matthew 5.41talks about “going the extra mile” and that relates to something that the Empire could do – and had done, going back to the days of the Persians hundreds of years before Jesus. They could press gang people at random for short spells of forced labour.  Remember they forced Simon of Cyrene to carry Jesus' Cross. (Mt 27. 32)

What are the burdens and heavy loads that people have today?  Let me tell you a story about a young refugee. His wife and son are still in his home country, and he is waiting for his asylum case to be decided. He attends a Christian group and is learning about Jesus; and he has started another Christian group in his own flat where he tells his friends what he is learning about Jesus. What is his burden?  What is the heavy load of someone who works on the food industry, has to work long hours on low wages, who can't complain for fear of losing his job: he knows his company gets its business by being the cheapest supplier. What is the heavy load of someone working at Amazon or Sky? What is the burden for a single mum or someone in an abusive relationship? For someone with an ageing parent or a disabled child?  For someone living in Kurdistan, in fear for his life and with no prospects of improvement? What is the heavy load for somebody bereaved in Paris or Garissa (Kenya)? What is the heavy load for a young person caught up in ISIL?  We need to see that, to understand what the burdens are in people’s lives and to start there in reaching out with the Good News.

But the solution to the world's burdens and problems is not political or economic or military. It is not enough to change the government our kill the terrorists. The Problem will always come back. The solution is spiritual. It's not the UN, or the EU or Westminster or Holyrood; it's the Kingdom of God.  The Church's message is not Come to Jeremy (Corbyn) or come to George (Osborn)  but “Come to Jesus”.  We need to establish on our minds the supremacy of Jesus and his sufficiency, the sufficiency and potency of his Kingdom to change lives, circumstances and cultures. The point about verse 27 is who Jesus is.  God the father has committed (literally “handed over”) everything to him.  The father and the Son know each other as a matter of course, because they are the same.  They are God.  Unless God reveals Jesus to us we are only his acquaintances. 

When we come to Jesus, he gives relief, and places his yoke on us, his way of living, his "law", his demands. But Jesus the carpenter places on us an easy, well-made yoke.  He calls us to be learners, or disciples.  The Syriac NT – an ancient language similar to the Aramaic Jesus spoke – says “Come to me and I will rest you; for I am restful and you shall find rest for yourselves.”

So if you are weary and burdened today, Jesus says “come to me and I will give you rest!”  And I want to invite you to put your trust in Him – the Son of God –  for everything. I want to promise that as you put his yoke on you, and become his disciple, his learner, you will find rest.

And for all of us, I want to suggest four processes or habits, four things we can do, to engage in need-oriented mission. 

Image: G Lilly

Practical compassion .  We meet people at their point of need.  
Prophetic challenge. We speak the word of God, not only into people's need of a saviour, but into people's and society's need to repent.
Prayer for our world and for and with people. 
Presenting the Good news – one-to-one graciously presenting people with the truth that God loves them, and that through Jesus' death and resurrection, change is a possibility, and with the opportunity to repent and believe the Good News. 

We can see these worked out in the ministry of Jesus.  His life was empowered by prayer: an ongoing conversation with the Father.  He was constantly ministering to people's practical needs – healing the sick, feeding the hungry; once when he had raised a wee girl from death and people were staring at what had happened, Jesus said “Give her something to eat.”  The practical needs...  HE often spoke with prophetic insight and incisiveness as he proclaimed the Good News. 
Matthew 11. 1-6, 25-30We see several of these habits at work when this woman came to the well and began to draw water (John 4) …  When she arrived,  what were her burdens?  She had a sense of shame and was looked down upon for her lifestyle.  That is why she was at the well in the heat of the day: when everyone else was resting in the shade she could get her water without being looked at and spat upon.  She needed to be accepted and treated as a human being. 

Jesus took practical, sacrificial steps to meet her deepest human needs.  Men treated her as a sex object, women treated her as a slut.  Jesus treated her with respect and dignity, even asked her for a drink.  She was surprised to be asked.  Jesus took her questions seriously and answered them. 

All the while he is presenting the truth about who he is and what he can do. “If you knew who

Image: G Lilly

it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.  The water I give  will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 

When the woman heard that she said, “I want this water!”  Then Jesus says the thin the woman has dreaded hearing:  “If you want this water, your husband needs to be in on this. Go and get him!”   The woman is squirming.  I don't have a husband.  And then the embarrassing question becomes a bombshell: “You bet you don't have a husband – you've had five and you're now living with a guy you're not married to.”   Tough words; but they are true: how did Jesus know?   The woman recognises that Jesus is a prophet.  She's intelligent; she's also desperate to change the subject, so the conversation touches on other questions: who's got the right way of worshipping, and the promised Messiah.  Then Jesus tells her “I am the Messiah!”   She is so excited she rushes off to bring her friends to Jesus. 

That's need-based mission at work. 

© Gilmour Lilly November 2015