His Mission = Our Mission
I can’t escape the desire to continue to re-examine my understanding of the Christian life. When I put on my pastoral hat and step back to view the full landscape of the Church today, there are blurred portions of the picture that I wish were more clearly in focus. One of the areas needing our attention is the understanding of our direct role in the work of God in this world.
Contrary to popular belief…God is not pulling the strings behind the scenes making a mockery of our pain, suffering, or temptations. God is also not entertaining himself by sitting back in his heavenly recliner waiting for the next good laugh. God is motivated by one thing…love. God sent his only son, Jesus, because he loves. Jesus and his earthly ministry was more than an appeasing sacrifice for an vengeful God. Jesus and his life were a gift to humanity, teaching us how to live. Helping us put actions, attitudes, and meaning into what a life of Love looks like.
The blurred portions of the Christian life can be refocused. And it starts by illuminating the reason God wants us to be living. To be spotlights of love, focused on spreading the light of Love from one created person to the next. We do this by living out the Great Commission, by putting others ahead of ourselves, and by focusing on extending Love (God) to others.
“The crucial form in which the Great Commission has been handed down to us (though it is the most neglected because it is the most costly) is the Johannine. Jesus had anticipated it in his prayer in the upper room which he said to the Father: “As thou didst send me into the world, so I have sent them into the world” (John 17:18).
Now, probably in the same upper room but after his death and resurrection, he turned his prayer-statement into a commission and said: “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” (John 20:21).
In both of these statements Jesus did more than draw a vague parallel between his mission and ours. Deliberately and precisely he made his mission the model of ours, saying “as the Father sent me, soI send you.” Therefore our understanding of the church’s mission must be deduced from our understanding of the Son’s.” – John R.W. Stott in Christian Mission in the Modern World
