This is the second in a series called Ministries of Mercy, in which we explore some helpful things I have learned along the way as we care for people in our community. Today, we are exploring tip #1 - understand the goal and mission of mercy ministries.
My wife and I have had the privilege of serving as foster parents for several years now. So long, in fact, that when I interact with others who are considering or just getting started with fostering, we get the opportunity to offer help and advice for those who are starting their fostering journey. Usually, my advice starts with something that catches their attention off the bat:
Don’t do it for the children.
Now, before you think me cruel, let me explain. There is a passage in the teachings of Jesus that has helped me think rightly about Mercy Ministry more than almost any other part of the Bible. It happens in John 12. Jesus has come to Bethany, where He had already raised Lazarus and done much work. He was at a dinner, where Martha was serving, and Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead, is reclining to eat with him. Mary, in a moving and lavish symbol of her deep gratefulness for Jesus, took a pound of ointment, which would have cost about a year’s worth of income, and in a matter of seconds, poured out a year’s worth of money on the feet of Jesus. The room was filled with the smell of this lavish offering. Mary’s offering was on full display, and the whole room was blessed by the fragrant offering. It was a moving moment, as she wipes the very feet of Jesus with her own hair, her face bowed before the feet of her Lord.
You would think it would have been a sweet moment for all.
Judas, however, had better ideas for this ointment. “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” On the outside, it sounds like a great idea, right? I mean, you can feed multiple families on the money being spent on the feet of Jesus? It seems so practical! As an aside, John makes it clear that Judas was also pretty good at taking care of himself, by stealing money out of the general fund used by the disciples. It is, in many ways the height of hypocrisy. But the part that we are focusing on here is the response of Jesus:
“Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you will always have with you, but you do not always have me.
I have literally heard Christians abuse and twist these words of our Lord to mean all kinds of unbiblical things. I have heard them used as justification to not help the poor or to spend the resources of the church primarily on things happening in the church, instead of in the community. There is a highly technical term I like to use to describe these sorts of interpretations:
Bologna.
Far from teaching us that we ought not to be using time and resources on the poor, it is actually encouraging quite the opposite. Doing ministry in a challenging community will teach you many things, and this is a consistent lesson that we have had to learn the hard way – if you come to do ministry to the poor with the primary motivation to help the poor, you will almost certainly never last. You can take this principle and apply it to any need that you feel called to fill: addiction ministry, poverty ministry, even foster care: there has to be a call to do more than simply care for physical needs.
There needs to be a call to worship Jesus through the work of these different ministries.
You see, when Jesus says “the poor you will always have with you,” He is reminding us that, no matter how hard we work, and how much we serve, poverty, injustice, and brokenness was in this world before we got here, and will be here after we are gone, until Jesus returns. But this doesn’t mean we don’t work to end these things. It means we work to address these issues with the right motivation in mind.
Ministries of mercy must be, at their core, acts of worship in response to a Jesus that has saved us. They must be the outworking of our love for God, as we show the love of Christ to those who are desperately, and primarily, in need of knowing more about the love of Christ. The glory of God simply must be the primary motive, goal, and mission for any ministry in the community. That is what separates the Christian’s work in the community from the world’s approach. The secular world can only work to take care of physical needs. We can do that AND SO MUCH MORE.
And we should! Instead of seeing John 12 as an excuse for not serving the poor, we should see it as a rallying cry. We will glorify Jesus, and praise His name, and show what the love of God looks like by caring for those in need in our community, so that we may be able to not only show, but also to tell, of the great love that Jesus has for us.
So, if you are thinking of foster parenting: Don’t do it for the children. But I don’t mean don’t love children. Please, definitely love children. If you are considering working in addiction ministry, don’t do it for the addict. Love the addict, definitely. Want to help the poor? Don’t do it for the poor.
Do it for Jesus! Right motivation for mercy ministries is the primary way to help ensure that you are in the trenches of mercy ministry for the long haul. Everything else will have a shelf-life that will be quickly outstripped by the needs around you. It frees you to give because you have been given. It frees you to love, and expect nothing in return because you have been loved. Whether foster parenting or food kitchen, the goal is never simply the alleviation of suffering.
It’s the glory of the name of Jesus.
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