Michael Seaton - Start Becoming a Good Samaritan Participants Guide: Six Sessions

Theres a well-known passage in Matthew 25 that describes a day when the Son of Man will come in his glory with all the angels in tow, and with all the nations gathered before him, he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. Interestingly, the criterion for dividing them is not that the sheep confessed faith in Christ while the goats did not. Its that the sheep acted in tangible and loving ways toward the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, and the vulnerable, while the goats, as it turns out, did not.

I know youre not supposed to rewrite Scripture, but every time I come across that sheep-versus-goats text, I find myself mentally adapting the verses for an affluent, twenty-first century audience:

For I was hungry, while you had all you needed.

I was thirsty, but you drank bottled water.

I was a stranger, and you wanted me deported.

I needed clothes, but you needed more clothes.

I was sick, and you pointed out the behaviors that led to my sickness.

I was in prison, and you said I was getting what I deserved.

RESV (Richard E. Stearns Version)

Either way you read it, God has clear expectations for those who choose to follow him. While we are not saved by piling up enough good works to try to satisfy our heavenly Father, if we take Christ at his word, then we know that an authentic and genuine commitment to him simply must carry with it demonstrable evidence of a transformed life; otherwise we have subscribed to a gospel with a giant hole in it. In other words, our faith is marked not only by a personal and transforming relationship with God, but also by a public and transforming relationship with the world. This is the whole gospel I believe Christ intends for us to live by and to communicate to a broken and needy world.

Eleven years ago I was given the opportunity to embrace the whole gospel when World Vision invited me to leave my job as a corporate CEO and become its U.S. president. I felt compelled to pursue such an unparalleled opportunity to demonstrate the love of Christ to the poor my passion since the day I committed my life to Christ in my twenties. Id always wanted nothing more than to join God in building his coming kingdom a kingdom in which the poor would be helped, the downtrodden would be lifted up, human dignity would be restored, oppression would be challenged, and biblical justice would be proclaimed.

But how could I just one fallen man help usher in such massive change?

Perhaps you too can relate. You see grave societal injustices and ills all around, and you wonder how they could possibly get fixed. Either you could become so overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the challenges that you turn away, hopeless, convinced that nothing you do will ever make a difference. Or you could dive in with naive enthusiasm, underestimating the problems, only to burn out from discouragement after the first few setbacks. But you know as well as I do that neither of these approaches is very useful. The pessimist sees only obstacles; the optimist sees only opportunities. But its the realist who sees the possibilities between the two. And thats who you and I must be: people of the possible.

Ive seen the hungry fed and people taught to fish and farm. Ive watched wells being drilled and cisterns being built the thirsty given water. I have seen the sick healed, the lame walk, and the blind given back their sight. I have met refugees who have been resettled, disaster victims whove been restored, and captives who have been released. Ive seen widows comforted, orphans cared for, children freed from slavery and abuse, schools built, clinics opened, babies vaccinated, loans lifting the poor out of poverty Ive witnessed these things with my own eyes. But even greater than these, I have seen the gaze of Christ staring back at me through the eyes of the poor, and the love of Christ demonstrated to them through the lives and deeds of his faithful servants. Best of all, Ive watched them find new life in the One who created them. I have been an eyewitness to these things to this amazing, full gospel transforming the most broken of lives and flooding the darkest of places with the radiant light of hope. I know these things are possible. And we must be people of the possible.

I tell you the truth, Jesus says in Matthew 17:20, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, Move from here to there and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. I used to read that verse and think that it was an exaggeration, that Jesus was just trying to make a point about the power of faith. But recently I came to view it in a different light. What if Jesus meant for millions of his followers each to put his or her faith into action by grabbing a shovel and challenging the mountain one shovelful at a time? Then any mountain would be moved, even the peaks of Poverty, Hunger, and Injustice if we had enough people out there shoveling.

These days I find myself wondering what would happen if the worlds two billion Christians instantly became possibility-minded and took seriously Christs call to transform our world if we actually picked up our shovels and worked to move some dirt. Two thousand years ago, twelve men so empowered did move mountains. I believe it can happen again, and I have a hunch it will start with us.

In the end, God doesnt require us to be superstars. He simply calls us to be faithful to the things he has given us to do praying, loving, serving, giving, forgiving, healing, and caring doing small things, as Mother Teresa once said, with great love. This is the whole of the gospel. And if we each embrace it, we will see the world we live in change.