By: The Very Rev. Robert S. Munday
We read in John 20:21, “As the Father has sent Me; even so I am sending you.” And, earlier, in John 17:18, we read Jesus’s words to the Father: “As You sent Me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”
John Chapter 1 tells us, “He came to His own and His own received Him not.” As Jesus sends us out and as we seek to minister for Him, we sometimes encounter the same rejection. They plotted against Jesus. So it sometimes happens to us. He had no permanent home. Sometimes we are called to experience that, too. They trumped up false charges against Jesus. So it sometimes is with us. They whipped and mocked Him. Some of us may face that degree of opposition and persecution. Jesus died after three years’ ministry. None of us knows how long we may have.
But there is a worse danger than any of these. In the mid-16th century, Francis Xavier (1506-1552), a Jesuit missionary, wrote to Father Perez of Malacca (today part of Indonesia) about the perils of his mission to China. He said, The danger of all dangers would be to lose trust and confidence in the mercy and love of God… To distrust Him would be a far more terrible thing than any physical evil which all the enemies of God put together could inflict on us, for without God’s permission neither the devils nor their human ministers can hinder us in the slightest degree.
The greatest danger anyone who is on a mission from God can face is to distrust the mercy and love of God. If we can avoid that danger—if we can keep our trust in God’s love and mercy, then all other dangers lose their sting. God causes every arrow of the enemy to become a scepter in our hand.
John W. Alexander, who was for 20 years president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, said, “Each instant of present labor is to be graciously repaid with a million ages of glory.” That is the same assurance we find in Scripture—a promise to all who follow and serve Christ. From the time of His temptation in the wilderness to His agonizing decision in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus escaped the danger of distrust. Therefore, God has highly exalted Him!
All of us who know the Lord are on a mission for Him. This is now our life and our calling. “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” Whether our calling is to a foreign mission field or someplace much closer to home, spiritual assaults and opposition mean that our mission is still dangerous—and that the greatest danger is distrusting God’s love and mercy. If we succumb to this distrust, all is lost. But if we are victorious here, we know the true joy of life in Him; and nothing can harm us for all eternity.