Day 25: Saturday, March 25th, 2017

Mar 25, 2017 | by Congregation Members | series: Lenten Devotionals 2017

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Day 25: Saturday, March 25, 2017 Matthew 9:35-38

“Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. 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 disciple, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, ask the lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest.’”

Because God indwells all of human life with the gift of free will and the ability to choose between what is destructive or what is creative, life in that sense is essentially changed in every human being. This applies to all persons, but when life follows the basic nature of the life and teachings of Jesus, the positive changes are remarkable. All human walls of separation and division are torn down and dismantled, and the moral divide between races, gender, or religious preferences are replaced by the fact that every person is created in the very image of God. This is fundamental to the very nature of our faith.

The old life, as it were, is gone; the new has come. We leave behind all that is personally comfortable and comforting to us and follow as disciples of Jesus, whatever that discipleship requires for the good of humanity. An excellent example of such a life is that of Albert Schweitzer, a famous musician, theologian, and medical doctor who left all major aspects of “the good life” in Germany and gave up fame and fortune to live among the poorest of the poor in Lambarene in his tin-roofed medical clinic. He scraped infectious lesions off blue-black natives in the steaming misery of equatorial Africa. He championed the sacredness of all life. Jesus’s command rang clearly in his ears: “Follow me,” and he did.

Prayer: O God, who indwells all of life, we renew our pledge to do our part in healing the wounds of our tragic human divisions and bring about the noblest and finest persons we could be, only by Your abiding and sustaining grace. Amen.

Contributed by Rev. Boni Mequi