Life in the helping profession

May 15, 2006

By Jimmie Brewer

An interesting story in the life of Jesus is found in Mark 2:1-12. At this point, Jesus is fully engaged in His ministry traveling around the area of Galilee near the Sea of Galilee and the town of Capernaum, which seems to be His headquarters. Because of His popularity, Jesus spends a great deal of His time in what Mark refers to as “outside in lonely places” (1:45, NIV).

When Jesus finally does return to Capernaum the people hear He has returned home. So many gather where He is staying there is no room — not even outside the door. It is indeed a packed house. Enter into this scene a man who is a paralytic, helpless to get to Jesus for healing.

Regardless of who we are in the body of Christ, God calls us to reach out and minister to others. But some days we are helpless to help ourselves. Like the paralytic, we really need those who can spiritually and emotionally carry us. This is not a time for egos — this is a time to allow others to minister to us.

Thankfully, much of the time we are the helpers and identify more with those who carried the paralytic. However, in the postmodern period, most of us find that traditional ways of helping often do not apply as they did in an earlier period in the church. There are two basic responses we can have. We can become discouraged and bemoan that things are not like they used to be. Or we can find creative ways to help others.

Notice the helpers in our story. Ingeniously, they design a way to get around the huge crowd — they open a hole in the roof and lower the man to Jesus. They had carried him this far, and nothing was going to stop them now.

As we minister to others let us remember, while we are “His hands extended,” Jesus is the ultimate answer — not our creative ways of helping. At best our helping points others to the true Healer. He is the only one who can deal with the sin question and the deep longings of humans.

Finally, we should never be discouraged when there is opposition to our ministries. It may be a “light and dark” conflict or it may be some people just do not understand. It is not our job to be defensive or feel we need to “justify” our ministries. We must remember it is God who calls and is our final defender, while Jesus is the ultimate helper. So when we face opposition in our “helping professions,” we realize it is human nature to distrust and even oppose that which is not understood or threatens one’s worldview.

Some days we are the helpless. Some days we are the helpers – but the healer is always Jesus.

Dr. Jimmie D. Brewer is a professor at Bethany University of the Assemblies of God in Scotts Valley, Calif., and senior pastor of Aptos (Calif.) Christian Fellowship (AG).