Thursday Thoughts: The Greater Things

I have just starting reading a book called "The Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claiborne. I am gaining so much from this book. I will warn you, some of his ideas are very radical compared to what we are used to (the subtitle of the book is "living as an ordinary radical"), but it will touch you in a way I can't describe. I wanted to share a little excerpt from the chapter called "In Search of a Christian" for my Thursday Thoughts.

Shane and a friend traveled to Calcutta one summer(where Mother Teresa is) and worked in the home for the destitute and dying, and the home for lepers, and did many other things. This is a little bit of his experience there. (This is from pages 83-85 of the book.)

• "Most days I would go to the clinic run by the lepers-become-doctors, and a line would form as people waited to be treated. The doctors would lay out a huge pile of cotton about four feet high, and my job was to roll cotton balls for them as they cared for one another. I would watch intently, fascinated by their love and compassion. One afternoon as things were winding down, one of the doctors had to leave early, but there were a few patients still waiting to be seen. He looked at me and emphatically said, 'You know how this works; you have been watching. It's your turn.' Startled, I just stared at him. I had been watching, and I did know what to do, but I wasn't sure I dared. I came forward and sat in the doctor's seat and began staring into the next patient's eyes, and the decision had already been made. I began carefully dressing the man's wound. He stared at me with such intensity that it felt like he was looking into my soul. Every once in a while he would slowly close his eyes.
• When I was finished, he said to me that sacred word I had come to love: 'Namaste.' [It means 'I honor the Holy One who lives in you.'] I smiled with tears in my eyes and whispered 'Jesus.' He saw Jesus in me. And I saw Jesus in him. I remember thinking back to the stained-glass window my United Methodist church bought for over $100,000. I saw a clearer glimpse of Jesus in this leper's eyes than any stained-glass window could ever give me.
• I knew that I had not just looked into the eyes of some pitiful leper in Calcutta but that I had gazed into the eyes of Jesus, and that he had not seen just some rich, do-gooder white kid from America but that he had seen the image of God in me. That is nuts. What would the world look like if we truly believed, as the apostle Paul figured out, that we no longer live, but only Jesus lives in us (Gal. 2:20)?
• As I lived in the leper colony, the Bible came to life, changed from black and white to color, just like it did on the streets of Philly. I saw the gospel with new eyes. One of the texts that had always given me trouble was John 14:12: 'Very truly I tell you, all who have faith in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.' You shall do even greater things? Here's the Son of the Almighty, God incarnate, telling us ragtag disciples that we will do the same things he has been doing. I don't know about you, but I haven't raised anyone from the dead lately. I haven't seen anyone turn water into wine (although I had a friend who tried). And I hadn't healed any lepers. Even though I touched them, they still went home lepers at the end of the day.
• But I began to discover the 'greater things.' It was not just miracles. I started to see that the miracles were an expression not so much of Jesus' mighty power as of his love. In fact, the power of miraclulous spectacle was the temptation he faced in the desert--to turn stones to bread or to fling himself from the temple. But what had lasting significance were not the miracles themselves but Jesus' love. Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead, and a few years later, Lazarus died again. Jesus healed the sick, but they eventually caught some other disease. He fed the thousands, and the next day they were hungry again. But we remember his love. It wasn't that Jesus healed a leper but that he touched a leper, because no one touched lepers. And the incredible thing about that love is that it now lives inside of us. In the verses just after the one about the greater things, Jesus assures us that the Spirit now lives in us. Jesus says that he is going to the Father but will also remain inside of us, and we in him. We are the body of Christ, the hands and feet of Jesus to the world. Christ is living inside of you and me, walking the earth. We shall do even greater things because the love that lived in the radical Christ now lives within millions of ordinary radicals all over the planet."

I think sometimes we are satisfied as Christians to just be "pew-warmers" and sit in a pew 3 times a week, and we think we have done our duty as Christians. But we are supposed to be the body of Christ. We are supposed to be sharing his love with the world. I am not saying we all have to move to Calcutta with Mother Teresa, but we all have mission fields right where we are living. There are people who are hurting, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, who need to know Christ's love. If Christs body isn't going to show it to them, then who will??

Matthew 25:31-45 says, "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me."