Jesus served before he sermoned

An ideal view of spiritual life is that the more one develops, the more one serves. For those who look to spread the gospel, this will inevitably lead to contact with those who don’t share their faith. I think Jesus’ example with people in the street is instructive as to how that contact should be approached.

Jesus almost always let his love be the message before he spokd the message, if he spoke it at all. Especially with one on one contact, there wasn’t an accosting of people in the street to ask them if they were right with God. Nor, say, was there an ancient parallel to seeking out the red light district of an area to spread the message to those in their sinful habitats. Actually, it was Jesus who was usually accosted and he almost always attended to the need as it was requested. There was no preamble, no obligation to hear a lesson or an exhortation to give money in some way to some cause. Jesus let his love speak for them through action. Jesus couldn’t prove his love, but understood the best way to aid that faith was through serving first. Even once Jesus had attended to their needs, the most he tended to offer was to ask the person to sin no more.

There’s much we as Christians can take from this example. The first is that love is primary and paramount. We live in a world where love itself is less and less considered a valid emotion, and even in Christian circles suffers the ignominy of being labelled the softer, watered down side of faith. It continues to give way to the powerful, dominion taking, governing self righteousness that comes from an iron fist of rebuke and condemnation under fear of judgement. Love continues to erode at the expense of our ability to really open hearts and serve for the better of others. That’s open hearts period, before opening them to God is even considered.

Perhaps we all do better to remember to serve before we sermon. If we really are about opening hearts what other way to do so than through love? It’s not a door to be forced or berated open. The door opens from the inside when the love there feels a connection on the other side to meet it. A sermon is no substitute for love.