WHAT TO EXPECT IF YOU MEET JESUS TODAY

Part 3: Partnership

Contemporary leadership-training programmes have shifted their views on how leaders must lead. They’ve called for a major reversal; they’ve moved camp, pulled a u-turn, switched their modus operandi. Rather than lording it over their underlings, the modern leader now understands that collaboration is the key to leadership. Leaders must integrate and coordinate their most valuable resource, people, to create an organization-moving synergy. They could have come up with the idea sooner by watching how Jesus leads.

As Jesus introduces Himself to the first four disciples in Luke chapter 5, He sets the stage carefully. He draws a crowd, teaches them the word of God, takes an intermission to catch the disciples’ attention through a private miracle, and then makes His primary appeal. He invites the four into partnership. He summons them into God’s great business of life-transformation and gives them the vision, the objective, the holy grail of their role, saying, “from now on you will catch men.”

That’s how Jesus leads. It’s how He called all twelve disciples. It’s how He and they sent others out into the far reaches of the Roman Empire at the time. And it’s how what we now call the gospel has permeated throughout the planet. It’s about partnership.

Jesus is alive and well and fully capable of doing His work without His people. But for some divine reason He wants to include every generation of His followers to participate in this grand scheme of His to ‘catch men (and women, young and old)’. It makes sense, really. As our Creator, He has invested a fair amount of timeless creative energy into each of us. He has gifted us with unique abilities, one-of-a-kind combinations of mindset, focus, skills and perspective that make us exactly what He wants for His organization, no matter how little we have valued ourselves. And He doesn’t stop there.

Jesus is not only concerned about adding numbers to His association. He’s consumed by the idea of personal development for His co-workers. Unbelievable as it may seem, He directs all the profits of His business back into people in order to make them….perfect. It’s what the company is all about. The Father wants to create a place where individuals – you and I – become everything we were designed to be, and are able to fully enjoy relationship with Him and with our co-workers. That’s the vision in a nutshell.

But no one said it would be easy. The partnership Jesus calls us into is stimulating and life-changing, but it is also demanding. We are no longer masters of our own destiny, desires or decision – we have a leader whom we must follow at all costs, and His vision trumps our lesser ones. We also have guidelines to which we must submit the vagaries of our minds and bodies. We tend to be a capricious lot, a bit eccentric and unpredictable. We revert back to our own style of ‘fishing’ when our faith wanes. Jesus is pretty clear that He wants us to be transformed from the inside out and it will take His Spirit indwelling us, our own determination to learn from His Word, and a resolution, as partners, to follow His lead.

(Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons, T.K. Naliaka)

WHAT TO DO IF YOU MEET JESUS TODAY

 

Part 2: Taking Liberties

 

“Hey, you there! Get off my boat. It’s my boat, my problem, my livelihood, and my leisure time! Find someone else to be your lackey.”

Peter could have responded that way to Jesus’ rather bold approach and invitation. I wonder if there was even a wisp of that line of thought in his mind that morning when he first met Jesus. It wouldn’t be unusual.

Jesus had just come from his hometown, Nazareth, where he had infuriated the synagogue-goers by calling them fickle. They had tried to toss him over the town’s cliff, the usual method of dealing with irritating folk, but He had peacefully walked away. Those people, neighbours He had lived among for thirty years, had sent Him a clear message: get out of our town.

And later, after healing a madman at the expense of a herd of swine we’re told, “all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear.” So He left them too.

It becomes a common theme for Jesus. He meets people; He takes what some view as liberties by turning tables upside-down on social norms, and there is a reaction. There is no wishy-washy ignoring of Him. It’s either reject Him fully or embrace Him completely. That’s what happens when people meet Jesus. It makes sense, because if we look at this event where Jesus meets His first four disciples in Matthew five He does seem to take liberties with them. And, from everything we learn about Him in the gospels and later epistles, it’s how He treats every follower. So it’s important to study this narrative carefully. If we want to be His followers, we need to see what we’re in for.

He commandeers our possessions for His work: He takes Peter’s boat and uses it first as a speaking platform to minister to the Capernaum townsfolk, then as a resource to bring in a haul of fish. But did we notice something? There is a theme here. His use of Peter’s boat transforms that possession into something that works for others’ good. Townsfolk are taught how to pursue the kingdom of God; later, they are presented with a boatload of fresh fish, free for the taking. Jesus doesn’t use up the possessions of His followers – He expands them. The same is true for us. When we allow our possessions to be used for His work and glory, others benefit in amazing ways. Try it.

He commandeers our strength and skills for His purposes: Did you notice how Jesus asks Peter to do a menial task in His presence? It’s the same task Peter has tried to accomplish overnight but has failed. This time, as Peter obeys – tired as he may be – a miracle happens. Sure, there is a huge catch of fish waiting, but the real miracle is happening in Peter’s heart and our hearts when we allow Jesus to use our strength and skills. We begin to see Him as Lord and Master of our lives, and ourselves as His servants. It’s a huge lesson in humility, and that’s not a bad thing.

And finally, He takes our fears and makes them faith: When Jesus addresses Peter’s fear – of following Jesus, of being sinful, of leaving everything he’s ever known and stepping into the unknown – Jesus is transforming Peter from the inside out. It’s the same with us. When we truly meet Jesus, not just the first time, but every day, Jesus goes to the very heart of us. He sees the fear, addresses it, and offers to exchange it for faith, a new perspective on life and a new calling. So in a way, He not only takes liberties with those He meets, He gives liberties too. He frees us to live fear-free lives when we live for Him.

Jesus, meet us today in our present places. Speak into our hearts, step into our lives and do what you do best – make us people of faith. Amen.

(Picture Credit: Wikimedia Commons, Gunter Klug)