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For whom do we labor?

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For many weeks, the media has brought our attention to the ever controversial topic of “border control” and we have made a unified gasp at the thought of thousands of children crossing the border into our country and into the hands of opportunistic villains who would use them as slaves. It is unthinkable that human beings are so desperate in their environment of violence and poverty that they are risking everything to be in our country.  It is more unthinkable that they are children.

One situation that I encounter too often in my work breaks my heart each time it comes to light. Many of the babies I care for have siblings in other countries. Five, six, seven year-old children are left behind so that their parents can come to the United States and earn a better living and support their loved ones back home. These are good parents who love their children. They ask me the same questions about their new babies that other parents ask about. This is the choice they had to make, the only choice they see in front of them. In fact, many of the children “rushing the border” are children in desperate search of the parents who left years before. Heartbreaking. If you believe that “all men are created equal” and “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights”, then this reality is unsettling. A simple solution does not exist for this crisis.

After celebrating Independence Day and singing our National Anthem at a few recent events, I take great pause and reflect on how little I truly understand my freedoms. My comfortable suburban self has no clue how lavishly I live in freedom. Do I appreciate that I can pray freely? Sure, maybe some public forums are not appropriate settings, but no one is stopping me from praying. We have a host of fantastic schools to send our children to, both the girls and the boys. I can speak freely as I write today. My vote is counted equal to a man’s vote in my community. There is a minimum wage that I must be payed as an American citizen. The list goes on and on and I absolutely take it all for granted.

We live in a country viewed as utopia by others, not because of “free healthcare” as many believe, but because one can actually earn a living without fear of horrific violence all around them. People risk their lives, abandon their children and sell all they have in desperation for the hope they see here. I have no concept of the desperation of their plight, I have not even known “poverty” in our wealthy nation.

When I look at the political agendas of many Christians in this country, I am greatly disturbed to see a vicious pursuit of ensuring personal liberties upheld: the right to carry a gun, the right to pray at a graduation, the right to have a monument of the Ten Commandments in front of the Oklahoma Capitol building. While I used to believe that we should defend our freedoms as well, I now feel our efforts are quite misguided. Is this the work we are called to? Do we really need to spend such time, money and energy on ourselves? What are we doing? Folks, we have it made.

What about our brothers who are desperate for work and truly have no freedoms among us? What of them? What of the countless women in our world and our nation who have no freedoms? When was the last time I used my freedom of religion to pray for these souls? When have I welcomed them to the table of grace I constantly feast upon? Did Christ defend himself or others? Why toil for a statue of the Ten Commandments? Those laws are to be upon our hearts, not in stone to perish and to divide us.

I do not propose a solution to this grave reality. I do not condemn those who fight for personal liberties to be upheld. I merely want us to collectively pause and consider what phenomenal liberties we have as Christians in the United States. First and foremost, the freedom in Christ Jesus, which is all sufficient, always, and is our only true hope, regardless of our nationality. Secondly, realize the everyday freedoms we enjoy that also came at a great cost and continue to be costly. When we consider such freedom amidst our global awareness of slavery and suffering and inequality, I ask, “What are we doing?”. Are we defending ourselves or serving the least of these among us?

I am reminded of Jesus’ teaching on the heart of the Law: to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your mind and all of your strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. When a man asked, “Teacher, who is my neighbor?”, he told them the story of the good Samaritan:

“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back. ’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
– Luke 10:30-37

The esteemed priest and the Levite each looked away and passed by the severely injured man. The second rate Samaritan citizen did not. He had compassion and cared for the man. Who loved his neighbor? Let us not continue to look away from great suffering, but look to our Lord for answers to these most difficult circumstances. He is their only hope and He is our only hope as well.

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
– Matthew 9:36-38

We must reflect on our labor and whom we labor for. What a great harvest we shall miss if we continue to toil for ourselves.

The Passover Lamb of God

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“Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people came to the decision to put Jesus to death. They bound him, led him away and handed him over to Pilate the governor.” – Matthew 27:1-2

Upon first glance, one might think that Jesus was caught, that he was weak, that he was strong-armed into death. Why would the Son of the Most High God suffer so greatly? In the words of his captors, “He saved others, but he can’t save himself”. Ironically, his suffering indeed saves others and the cost of salvation was his submission to death on a cross. He tells us in the Sermon on the Mount that he has not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets, but to fulfill them. During Jesus’ three year ministry, he increasingly pointed toward His cross as that fulfillment.

“Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, ‘We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day, he will be raised to life.” – Matthew 20:17-19

Jesus knew. He knew details. The religious leaders thought they had caught him, but truly he gave himself up as the final Passover Lamb. God is sovereign. Jesus knew. He knew Mary’s lavish gift was preparation for his burial. He knew his betrayer’s heart.  He knew to prepare His disciples with the Last Supper. He knew to fortify himself with prayer to His Father in the garden.  He knew.  He knew Scripture:

“He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.  He had no beauty of majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.  He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.  Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.  Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.  But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;  the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.  We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way;  and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.  He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth;  he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.  By oppression and judgment he was taken away.  And who can speak of his descendants?  For he was cut off from the land of the living;  for the transgression of my people he was stricken.  He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, although he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in him mouth.  Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.  After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied;  by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.  Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors.  For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” – Isaiah 53

Jesus knew the details, they were well recorded in the Ancient Texts.  Perhaps he considered the twenty-second Psalm of David as he entered Gethsemane:

 “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?…But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people.  All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: ‘He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him.’…I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint…Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet.  I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me.  They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.”

Jesus knew the devastating details, yet proceeded in love. At his arrest, Jesus halts Peter’s battle plan with a miraculous healing of the servant of the high priest. He tells Peter, “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?”

Jesus was in control of his betrayal, arrest, trials and crucifixion. In fact, he knew the exact scripture to quote in his response to the high priest’s charge that he is indeed, the Christ, the Son of God: “‘In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.'” This statement was blasphemy to his captors, who were unable to see this man as their King.  It was his death sentence.

Full humiliation.  Complete loneliness.  Excruciating pain.  Our Lord embraced it for you and me.  He was not caught.  He was willing.  For He knew suffering and death was not the end of the story.  He knew the eternal story.