Blood-stained Hands

I had gone out to the blackberry patch to pick berries. As you might expect, it is quite easy to lose track of time when you are picking those juicy little fruits. I had picked about two gallons of berries. Having picked all the ripe berries on our side of the fence, I then went down to the gate and crossed over into my neighbor's pasture, working my way back up the fence picking as I went.

After some time had passed, I heard my wife calling my name. She and my son had come to tell me that dinner was waiting on the table. As I stood up to let them know where I was, they came and stood across the fence from me. My son asked, "Watch you do Dada?" I proudly told him about the numbers of berries that I had picked and asked if he wanted to eat one.

As I held out my hand to him, he cried out, "You got owie, Dada!" I looked down at my hands and laughed. They were covered in Blackberry juice and to a two year old, it probably did look like they were covered in blood. I assured him that Daddy was fine. "Its just berry juice," I reassured him, but he wasn't buying my story. Very concerned he kept repeating, "Dada got owie on hands."

That convinced me that my time in the blackberry patch was done for the day. I had to eat dinner, but more importantly I needed to go wash my hands so that my son would know that I was okay. I needed to show him my hands were okay so he would stop worrying about me. I went back to fence and crossed over to our side of the fence. As I walked back to the house with my wife and son carrying my gallons of berries, I continued reassure my son, "Daddy's fine -- it's just berry juice on my hands."

When we got back to the house, my son and I went right to the sink. I needed to wash the berries and prepare them for the freezer, but more importantly I needed to wash my hands so my son could see that they were free of "owies." There was quite a bit of juice that had stained my hands, so I had to scrub rather hard with dish soap in order to get the juice off. As the stains slowly came off, I discovered that my son had been right all along. My hands were covered with scratches and cuts and some of them were indeed bleeding.

I had not noticed the cuts and scratches because of the juice that had stained my hands. They did not even hurt until I had washed my hands and got soap into them. Now it is not surprising that my hands would have been cut and scratched. Blackberry bushes are notorious for being full of sticks and thorns, not to mention that these particular bushes were growing along a barbed wire fence.

As I looked down at my hands that my son insisted upon covering with band-aids, I took pity upon my poor hands. My desire had been to serve my family, but it had cost me. I wanted to provide them with the joy of those fresh juicy little fruits, but it had come with the sacrifice of my hands. Then it occurred to me that service always costs us something. Service is always accompanied with sacrifice.

The Apostle Paul knew of the connection of service and sacrifice. Writing to the Christians at Philippi, he said...

But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. Phil. 2.17 NIV

In that verse Paul makes service pratically synonymous with sacrifice. Certainly Paul knew about the cost of service. Paul constantly identified himself as the "servant of the Lord" but that service had come with a price. Just listen to how Paul himself described his service.

Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. 2 Cor. 11.23-28 NIV

Certainly Paul had experienced first-hand that sacrifice accompanies service.

But this connection of service with sacrifice did not originate with Paul. It was true of our Lord Jesus Christ as well. If there was anyone who ever deserved to be served it was Jesus, but he was the greatest servant of all time!

...the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve... Matt. 20.28a NIV

He deserved to be served and yet he came to serve us. And we know that this is precisely what he did. He taught, he healed, he counseled, he fed the hungry. He spent his life in service to others. He was the model servant. But let me ask you, what was his ultimate purpose in coming? Was it not to offer himself as a sacrifice for our sins? That was his ultimate act of service -and it cost him! And Jesus recognized that this sacrifice was part of his service to us. Let us return to Matthew 20.28.

...the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

The proof of Christ's service is none other than his blood-stained hands. From the life of Christ we see that service always requires sacrifice. But the service of Christ is not just something for us to look at and admire -- it is an example. As believers we are called to the same life of service. In the verses that preceding Matthew 20.28, Jesus indicates that we are called to serve.

Jesus called them together and said, "You know that the rulers of the gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave - just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Matt. 20.25-28 NIV

And if there remains any further doubt about this call to serve, just listen to the Great Commission given to the disciples of Christ as it was recorded by the Apostle John.

Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." John 20.21 NIV.

Did you you notice that? Jesus sends his disciples as the father sent him. What does that mean? I think it means more than just the fact that they were receiving a commission as Christ had received a commission. It means that they were being sent to do the same task that Christ was sent to do, namely to sacrifice themselves in the service of others. This is the essence of what it means to be a disciple of Christ, to take up one's cross and follow him. Being a disciple is to give our life in service to others. And I think it is interesting that John says "Again Jesus said..." Evidently, this was not the first time Jesus had told his disciples that he intended that they serve others. It was a message that he had shared with them repeatedly.

It was the adherrance to this message that Paul used as the litmus test to distinguish himself as a true disciple of Christ, as opposed to the false teachers who were only claiming to be servants of Christ. (Cf. 2 Cor. 11.23-28). And it was this message that Paul taught his converts to observe.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Rom. 12.1 NIV

So what are some of the things that we may have to sacrifice as servants of Christ? Many will expect that as a preacher it is now my duty to ask for your money. Of course, our service to Christ may require a monetary contribution, but there is far more to being a servant than just giving money. As a matter of fact, I am convinced that God is far more interested in some of these other sacrifices than he is in our money.

One thing that we may be asked to sacrifice is our time. I always appreciate those who volunteer to teach at Vacation Bible School, or are willing to be a sponsor for a week of church camp. Those are acts of service indeed, but they are also acts of sacrifice. They are acts which require a sacrifice of time, and as we all know time is a very precious commodity which none of us ever seem to have in surplus. Most of the service that is rendered in the church, whether it be those already mentioned, or teaching a class, or participating on a committee or board, or even agreeing to clean the church, requires a sacrifice of time.

We may also have to sacrifice our pride. When we go to church camp, we have a sponsors meeting every morning. Without a doubt, in every meeting the sponsors are inevitably asked to volunteer for various tasks; for instance, sweeping the tabbernacle, or working in the snack shack, or serving at dinner. All of those require a sacrifice of time, but some of the tasks also require an additional sacrifice - the sacrifice of pride. For example, volunteering to clean the boys bathroom after 200 or so junior boys have used it all day! It is very hard to be proud as you are fishing filthy underwear out of a clogged toilet.

Our service may also require emotional sacrifice. Whenever you invest your life in another, you always open yourself up to being hurt. To being disappointed, to being criticized. At one of my previous churches I had a teacher of a class who threw up their hands and quit teaching. The reason? They had been criticized by a student. I understand that criticism is never fun. I never enjoy being criticized myself! But I also know that criticism comes with the territory. If you are going to serve you can count on someone hurting you with their criticism. Wasn't Jesus himself severely criticized?

These are just a few things that we may be called to sacrifice if we are going to serve, but there are many others. These were listed merely to demonstrate that service is always accompanied by sacrifice. There can be no doubt that service will require some form of sacrifice. The big question is what are we willing to sacrifice in order to serve?

Blackberries Are A Nuisance

It was early spring when the trustees and I met together to compile and prioritize a list of tasks that needed to be performed around the church at our upcoming church workday. We did not know how many people would show up for the workday so we wanted to make sure we had plenty of work for everyone to do, but we also wanted to be sure that the major tasks would be accomplished first. We also were making the list to ensure that there was something for everyone to do, regardless of age or abilities.

We had completed our survey of the interior of the church and were walking around the perimeter of the building when one of the men spotted the fencerow that separated the church property from our neighbor’s hayfield. “The fencerow is grownup with weeds again,” he said, “we should have someone burn it.” The other trustees quickly agreed and began to add, “Burn the fencerow” to the list.

Aghast, I hurriedly spoke up. “We can’t do that,” I protested.

“Why not, preacher? That fencerow is looking really bad, and the point of this workday is to make the church look nice. Burning that fencerow would be a vast improvement.”

“Oh, I agree! It does look bad. No question about that,” I continued to protest, “but we can’t burn it because that is where the blackberry bushes are. We can’t burn the blackberry bushes.”

Having come from Colorado to Rock Chapel, which is located in southern Missouri, the trustees were already suspicious that I might be a closet tree-hugger, and now in their minds their worst suspicions were probably being confirmed. “Pastor, don’t you know that blackberries are a nuisance,” one of my trustees explained, “we brush hog acres and acres of them on our farms every year.”

I continued to protest, explaining to the trustees that these were not just any ordinary blackberry bushes. These were my blackberry bushes, my own private blackberry patch. I counted this blackberry patch as one of the perks of living in the parsonage next door to the church. If they were to burn the fencerow I’d lose my opportunity to pick blackberries. “Surely, you do not want to deprive the parsonage of the joy of those plump juicy little fruits,” I reasoned.

After a few moments of listening to my passionate pleas of amnesty for my blackberries, one of the trustees graciously granted the sought after pardon. “Okay, we’ll drop the fencerow from the list and leave the blackberries for the preacher.” I immediately thanked them for their generosity.

Later, that summer as I picked blackberries, I thought back to this incident and gave thanks to God for preserving my blackberry patch. I remembered the words, “blackberries are a nuisance.” The trustees had good reasons for feeling this way, of course. It is not uncommon for blackberries that are let be to take over entire fields, and this is a problem because cattle cannot graze on the thorny blackberry bushes. But, nevertheless, it was difficult for me to reconcile how they could classify as a nuisance what I considered one of the best blessings of the summer.

But isn’t that the way that life works? Some do not value things that are highly valued by others. As my grandmother, who lives for a good yard sale, would often say, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” But this is true of more than just possessions. Circumstances do not often turn out to be what we initially thought they were, and so what we might view as a nuisance or problem sometimes actually turns out to be a blessing.

I am reminded of the story of Joseph. If there was ever a person who had troubles it was Joseph. Joseph was the youngest of his brothers, but the favorite son of his father. Now that may not be much of a problem if you only had a couple of brothers and they were only a few years older than you. But Joseph had ten older brothers! And to make matters worse, Joseph also had a big mouth! He loved to boast to his brothers about his dreams that predicted how one day he would rule over them.

Now, Joseph’s brothers may have been able to overlook a lot of what Joseph said as the wild dreams of youth. They gave Joseph the nickname, “Dreamer.” But when their father Israel gave Joseph a multi-colored coat to honor him and distinguish him from his brothers, it was more than they could bear. They weren’t going to idly stand by and let their brother’s dreams of ruling over his older brothers come true.

We know what happened next. They took Joseph and sold him as a slave to some nomadic traders and then manufactured evidence to make their father believe wild animals had killed his favorite son.

Now that is a pretty awful set of circumstances, but things got worse for Joseph before they got better. Those traders who bought him took him down into Egypt where they sold him as a slave to an Egyptian named Potiphar. Although, he had unjustly been made a slave, Joseph served Potiphar well and in time gained his trust. That is until Potiphar’s wife developed an infatuation for Joseph and tried to seduce him. When Joseph refused her advances, she responded by telling her husband that Joseph had attempted to rape her in her own house. Potiphar, as you may well imagine, became quite angry, and since he was also the captain of Pharaoh’s guard he threw Joseph in prison. So, here is Joseph falsely accused and imprisoned in a foreign land, and all of this through no fault of his own – rather this is all occurring to him as a result of his brothers’ jealousy and envy.

When Joseph meets up with his brothers later in life you would expect him to be extremely angry and possibly seeking revenge. And after their father died, that is precisely what his brothers expected. They thought, "Now that Dad is dead, Joseph will surely exact his revenge on us." But notice what Joseph said to them…

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. Gen. 50.20 NIV

You see, Joseph realized that sometimes things are not as they seem. We may look at our circumstances and see problems, when they are actually opportunities. We may see them as a nuisance, when they are actually blessings. We may see them as burdens, but they are actually joys.

Joseph had discovered this first hand in his life. Sure it was difficult to have his brothers betray him, to be sold into slavery, to be falsely accused, and to be rotting in prison, but he discovered that it was these very things that had brought his dreams to pass. These difficulties were all part of God’s plan to make him the ruler not just over his brothers, but of all Egypt as well. In Joseph’s life the nuisances turned out to be blessings in disguise.

You know that is often the case in our lives as well. I remember one of the first services I held at Rock Chapel. After the morning service I had one of the fellows come to me apologizing for the way his young son had acted during the service. He had cried and fussed and generally just made a nuisance of himself. I assured the father that it didn’t bother me; I just spoke a little louder. But he was still very concerned. Then one of the elder deacons who had been standing nearby and overheard our conversation turned to him and said, “You think he was a nuisance but I think it’s a blessing just to have young people like him here. Those are just the sounds of life!”

What a profound statement! How often have people complained about the noise of children during a church service? But those children are not really nuisances; they are blessings! How many have complained when people of a different ethnicity move into to a neighborhood or begin to attend the church, when really this is just an opportunity for the church to expand into new ministries?

How often have churches mourned over some natural calamity that their community faced – like forest fires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc. Only to discover later that those disasters were not disasters at all! Rather it had given the church the opportunity to meet and minister to people in their community that they otherwise would not have. It gave them a rise in attendance as people began searching for God in the aftermath, and as people searched for God they also saw more people come to Christ. It was a blessing.

A good example of this is what happened at the Wedgwood Baptist Church a few years ago.

For many young people in Fort Worth, Texas, September 15, 1999, started with prayer around their high school's flagpole. After taking a public stand for their faith, about four hundred youth gathered in the sanctuary of Wedgwood Baptist Church for a See You at the Pole rally that night. Alleluias rang out as a Christian band led the group in singing praises.

Suddenly a lone gunman burst in. Larry Ashbrook killed seven people—Shawn Brown, 23; Sydney Browning, 36; Justin Ray, 17; Cassie Griffin, 14; Joey Ennis, 14; Kristi Beckel, 14; Kim Jones, 23—before committing suicide. At first, many thought the gunman was part of a skit. But they soon realized the bullets weren't blanks and the blood wasn't ketchup. Many of the youth, plus 150 adults and children, at Wedgwood that night must have wondered where God was. But in the weeks following the tragedy, they, and the world, have found that God didn't abandon them.

Drawing from the church's official Web site and other sources, here are some confirmed instances of God's hand at work:

Although the deaths and injuries were tragic, the devastation could have been much worse. Sixty-eight bullets were fired and only 14 people were hit. About 90 bullets remained unused. A bomb Ashbrook fashioned blew up in the sanctuary, but most of the shrapnel went into the ceiling, injuring no one.

All of Ashbrook's victims were believers.

Though it was a beautiful night, no children were on the church's playground, which Ashbrook had to walk past to enter the church. The shooter did not come to the nursery or elementary school areas of the church, and leaders were able to get the children out with very few of them seeing anything but police cars and fire trucks.

A paramedic, Art DeFord, was at church that night and gave some of the victims immediate medical attention, stabilizing them before other emergency personnel arrived.

All of the injured have been released from the hospital and are recovering—Mary Beth Talley, Robert DeBord, 17; Justin Laird, 16; Nicholas Skinner, 14; Kevin Galey, 38; Jeff Laster, 34; and Jaynanne Brown, 41.

Fifteen thousand people attended a community-wide service at the football stadium of Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. Al Meredith, Wedgwood's senior pastor, challenged people to pray and fast on Monday, the 20th. The service was broadcast live on a local television station and on CNN. Because Kim Jones's parents live and work in Saudi Arabia, that country, which is closed to the gospel, allowed portions of the service to be broadcast there.

A DJ at a local Christian radio station (KLTY) was able to lead a caller to Christ. The caller had said he wanted what the church members had.

When prompted by a question from Vice President Al Gore, Pastor Meredith was able to present the gospel clearly on the television show, Larry King Live. In the days following the tragedy, Meredith was also able to pray with President Bill Clinton and Texas Governor George W. Bush.

The husband of a church member professed a newfound faith in Christ shortly after the shooting. His wife, Jodi, and three-year-old daughter were at the church during the shooting, as he watched the scene unfold on television. The wife had been praying, with others, for his salvation for two years. She says the shooting helped him realize he was not in control of everything around him.

As of December 1, 1999, Wedgwood's Web site, http://www.wedgwoodbc.org/, had 100,000 visits. The site offers a link to the site of the North American Mission Board (SBC), which displays the plan of salvation in multiple languages.

The church has received more than $100,000 in unsolicited donations. They have established a committee to determine how it will be spent.

Sydney Browning's family has set up a youth scholarship fund in her name. The survivors of other victims have also set up funds in their honor.[1]

So, I challenge us as Christians. Let’s be careful about viewing things as nuisances, problems, and obstacles. They may instead be some of God’s greatest blessings. Let’s be people, who instead of looking for nuisances, look for the blessings of God.

PRAYER:

Lord, transform our perspective. Let us see things as you view them. Where others see nuisances and obstacles, let us see blessings and opportunity.


[1] Randy Bishop, “What Was God Doing at Wedgwood?” Christian Reader (March/April 2000), p.88