My Dear Shepherds,
Quite a few of you may be feeling the post Holy Week droops. So a reminder from the conclusion of Paul’s great Easter message:
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. (1 Cor. 15:58)
The whole chapter focuses on the kinds of resurrected bodies we will have through Christ. Then there is this concluding assurance which isn’t about our new bodies: “Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
Christ’s resurrection guarantees that our labor here and now, like our bodies, has a resurrection destiny—immortal, honored, and powerful.
We see life-giving power in our work now, of course. Last Sunday people were baptized in our church. Jacqui told us about her encounter with God a few months ago. “For three days God put me down on my kitchen floor and showed me my wicked heart,” she said. “Today and forevermore, I say yes to God. Yes to his will, not mine. God is medicine to my soul. His breath is air to my lungs. He is my comfort in a discomfort hour. I know who I belong to. I love God!” After she was baptized to the cheers of us all, she could not stop weeping for the joy of it.
That is an Easter story; but also a pre-resurrection story, because it is a foretaste of her even more wonderful transformation in heaven. It will be like that with our labor in the Lord. The work we do as pastors often seems shot through with weakness and mortality. The people and churches we serve plug along much of the time. Three steps forward, two steps back. But just wait till we meet the Lord in the air!
Remember Jesus’ harvest parables, his story of the servant who is faithful with little, his promise that those who abide in him will “bear much fruit”? We see that now but we will see the full harvest then.
Paul wrote, “If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light…. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward” (1 Cor 3:12-14).
One time, in a season when I was very discouraged, I sat with two men I didn’t know who prayed over me. After praying that God would speak to me, the first man said he saw a phrase from God for me, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” He prayed, “Lee’s been faithful in ways no one else saw.” A few moments later the second man, quoting “It’s a Wonderful Life” (of all things), said that God wanted me to hear, “You just don’t know all the good you have done. God will begin to show you in a fresh way what you have done.” I wept to hear these things because they were so healing. If that could happen with two brothers in a Sunday School room, what will it be like when our eyes are opened in glory!
Imagine recognizing clearly all the people who’ve been touched by our pastoral work and seeing for the first time how the stories of our work played out in ways we never imagined—the harvest, the fruit, the treasures. So it will be. “He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”
Be ye glad!