Last year when my son Aaron moved into his apartment at college, he asked if he could borrow some of my tools. I hesitated. In his younger days, when Aaron used my wrenches, later I usually found them in the yard. The prospect of my tools going an hour away did not appeal to me.
Nevertheless, I gave my permission.
Two months later, Aaron came home for a holiday and said, “Dad, I put your tools downstairs,” without my needing to ask.
I thanked him and at that moment had several strong feelings. I felt respected. I felt a new level of pride in him, for he had taken a step forward in maturity. I felt relieved about getting back my tools. Most important, I felt more trust in him (several things had strained trust of late). This simple act was a father-son trust event that drew us closer.
Trust events are some of the most charged moments in any relationship. They are inherently personal—even intimate—because at least one party is vulnerable. The result is either betrayal and alienation or faithfulness and intimacy.
More than messengers
Paul said, “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord … that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service” (1 Tim. 1:12). At its core, preaching is a trust event between God and me.
God has entrusted what is infinitely precious—his gospel and his sheep—into my care, making himself vulnerable to my betrayal. I can grieve him. When I preach with faithfulness, though, the Lord and I bond dearly in trust.
Jesus himself was a preacher sent by the Father. Jesus describes his preaching role in family terms—an obedient Son faithfully transmitting a critical message from his Father: “What I have heard from him I tell the world. … I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. … [F]or I always do what pleases him” (John 8:26, 28-29).
The language suggests a father drawing his son near, arm around his shoulder, telling him word by word what he wants spoken. I envision the son nodding, and later, as the son proclaims the father’s words, the father smiles. For Jesus, bearing the message is much more than work; preaching is an act of family trust and love.
Jesus also sent out his disciples to preach. Jesus reveals a similar tenderness when his messengers return from their first preaching mission: “Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. … Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, ‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see’ ” (Luke 10:21, 23).
This passage ascribes to Jesus some of the most effusive joy ever recorded in the Gospels. His near ecstasy shows that these men were much more than messengers; they were friends and brothers in a soul-gripping embrace of trust. They were nothing less than preachers found faithful.
Recently I sensed the divine intimacy of preaching when reading through Isaiah: “I have put my words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of my hand” (51:16).
Preaching is one more way for me to draw near to my beloved Father. As I speak his words faithfully, I feel a bond that only those who work trustingly side by side can know.
Craig Brian Larson is pastor of Lake Shore Assembly of God in Chicago, Illinois.
1998 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. For reprint information call 630-260-6200 or contact us.
