Waiting For Heaven by Craig Manners

Luke 10:25-37

25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

Three (of many) points we can focus on from this passage are:

• Anyone in need is our neighbor. There are no exceptions, no conditions, no “deserving” poor so speak. When Jesus saw us on that road in desperate need of earthly and eternal help, He put no conditions on us. We were His enemy. We did not deserve His help. Yet He saw us, He stopped, and He helped us.
• We should put ourselves in the position of those we help. This is what Jesus did to the religious law expert in His parable by making the man on the Jericho Road a Jew, someone who the Jewish scholar could associate with, rather than having the Samaritan man as the one in need of help.
• Helping the needy is costly and sacrificial. The care dispensed included items such as bandages, oil and wine and money, as well as disruptions to the carer’s schedule, the hardship of having to walk instead of ride his donkey on that steep, rough Jericho Rd, and the disruption of a follow-up visit to check on his recovery.

It is helpful to realize that if Jesus is telling His followers to “Go and do likewise” then we can be assured that the resources we need to do so will be provided. After all, He is the owner of all the resources. So, while we obviously need to be good managers, and good stewards of the resources we have, we should not focus as much on worrying about getting the resources as we should on doing the work of mercy ministry.

Let's seek opportunities to serve and to help people in need and watch and see how God responds. In these culturally dark and lost times, maybe Christians in the West could just double-down and intentionally ramp up mercy ministry. While we wait for Heaven, lets aim to be as active as we can in doing good to others.

Combining deeds of mercy with evangelism and discipleship allows us to reach into our community, break down barriers and plant seeds of good in people’s lives. Healing a broken heart, a community, a nation.

We generally should be a people who aim to meet the needs of people around us, no matter who they are. Christians should be doing so much good in our community in so many ways that people not only notice but are confounded and confused by us.

With prayer and faith, this could have a ripple effect and cause a groundswell of change in our community, advancing the Gospel and God’s Kingdom.

In A.D. 361 Roman Emperor Julian noticed the Christians doing lots of mercy ministry in the community and said, “It is disgraceful that…while the Christians support their own poor as well as ours, all men see that our own people lack aid from us”. (Timothy Keller, Ministries of Mercy, p87)

Throughout other periods of history, it has often been the Christians stepping up to help people. During plagues, famines, natural disasters, pandemics, and often putting themselves at personal risk to help people.

The greatest good we can do for a fellow human being is of course to share the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ with them. There are two ways we can do this, with words and with deeds. What better way to spend our time while we wait for heaven.

Eventually, like the early Christians did to the Romans, we too will confound our enemies around us and potentially God may use us as a witness to lead many to Heaven.
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Prayer: Father, please help us to be a neighbour to our neighbours in need. We know we need to change. I need to change. Please give us a greater measure of your Holy Spirit and fill us with a greater measure of compassion for others. Bring them across our paths and show us how to be like you. May this bring glory to you and advance your Kingdom. We know you have used small groups of people to do amazing things in the past. If it be your will please use us likewise.

(The post is abbreviated from a larger article by Craig Manners called While We Wait.)