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DOING THE WORK OF GOD
We all agree that only one thing is needful, that if we really seek Jesus everything else will take care of itself ...we will bear fruit if we only abide in the Vine. The danger is that it is possible to assume that we are sitting at Jesus' feet with Mary drinking in the life of God, when in fact we're stagnating. Like a man who diligently goes into his prayer room and shuts the door every morning at 6.00 a.m., comes out at 7.30 a.m. looking like he is ready to face the world... yet nothing happens in his life---because nothing's happening in that room. He starts off sitting in a chair reading scripture and calling on the name of the Lord but within five minutes he's asleep. The man himself isn't aware of how shallow his union with the Lord really is. He is quite certain that he has a valid spiritual discipline and can't understand why life is such a bore ...why so little seems to be coming forth by way of fruit.
We have to distinguish between going through the motions of putting Jesus first and actually, aggressively, diligently seeking him.
A householder goes out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After making an agreement on their wages, the master explains to his new employees exactly where the vineyard is and what they'll be doing when they get there.
But on the way strange things start happening to the new employees. To the left of the road is a beautiful gate supporting a sign which reads, "THE VINEYARD OF THE GIANT GRAPES"'.
A few hundred yards down the road the workers come to another sign painted on a red barn. "THE VINEYARD OF THE TRUE GRAPES" A man waving a white cloth urges the workers to come in.
Nevertheless, some taste the grapes and turn aside while the rest travel on. Soon the group comes upon still another sign which reads, "THE VINEYARD OF HARD WORK". Beneath the sign stands a man with a bull horn shouting,
Looking into the vineyard one can see people picking grapes while angry guards lash them with whips.
Strangely enough a sizeable group drops off and enters "The Vineyard Of Hard Work". Just beyond the Vineyard Of Hard Work is the most elaborate gateway they have ever seen. A beautiful stone arch under which hangs a magnificent illuminated painting depicting Mary sitting at Jesus' feet in rapt attention, while in the background Martha can be seen frowning in the kitchen. It is marked by a sign which read, "THE VINEYARD OF PURE FAITH". "This must be the real vineyard," cries the chap who has now taken the lead. "Look at that painting, doesn't the man in the picture look like the man who hired us in the marketplace?"
But the leader and many followers pass under the arch and enter the Vineyard of Pure Faith. A guide in a white uniform ushers the newcomers to a long row of vines lined with clean white canvas cots.
In seconds they are flat on their cots and fast asleep. And while they sleep these laborers are robbed of everything they have. The workers who stayed on the road and turned neither to the left nor to the right finally reach the end. And who should be standing there waiting for them but the Master himself. "Welcome!" he says. "You took me at my word, did what I said. Come, enter my vineyard and we'll work together."
To labor in the Vineyard of God is to believe on him whom
he has sent. And to believe in Jesus involves more than going
into your prayer room, shutting the door, sitting in a chair
and To believe in Jesus, to choose the one thing needful, involves an aggressive pressing on to know Jesus all the time.
The ones who do this work of God are the ones who bear the fruit of God. The branch that really concentrates on abiding in the Vine is the branch that receives the life of the Vine and bears the fruit of the Vine. Some of us have left the marketplace and got sidetracked at
the Vineyard of the
And some of us have been drawn into the Vineyard of the True Grapes....
We're scared to death of making a mistake, We'd rather do nothing and be correct than do something and run the risk of making a mistake. And some of us have spent most of our lives in the
Vineyard of Hard Work....
We need to get up and press on to the end of the road. We
need to move from a dreamy pseudo-relationship with Jesus,
where we're falling asleep in our prayer chair and talking to
ourselves to a living, Where our whole day is spent under the yoke with him,
The Vineyard he has called us to is the Vineyard of Himself.
Notice that after every "I am" there is an "if".....
He's there waiting at the end of the road, but it's up to us to press on. And even as we walk toward him, he's with us.
Each of us has to ask herself, himself, daily, "Is my pursuit of the face of Jesus aggressive, active, willing to clear away all distractions even if it means letting go of everything I have? Or, is my pursuit of Jesus a tired motion void of mind, heart, soul, strength."
Mary not only saw the one thing needful... she chose it. We may see the one thing needful but to make it ours we have to do more than move toward it, vote for it, agree with it, sing about it. We have to go after it with an active mind, If we should be asleep right now, or half asleep, may God help us to wake up and get going and keep going until we reach the One who waits for us at the end of the road....
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