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John 2:11 - This, the first of His [Jesus'] signs [turning the water into wine at the wedding], Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory. And His disciples believed in Him.
This devotion pairs with this weekend's Lutheran Hour sermon, which can be found at lhm.org.
Years ago, before I became a pastor, I had a boss in the military who gave me a small assignment. The assignment wasn't part of my job officially, but it needed to be done. And my boss could have easily shot a quick email and ordered me to do it. Or even a phone call. But, instead, he got up from his desk, left his office, walked down the flight of stairs to my office, knocked, put his face through the doorway and said, "Hey Mike, I need you to take care of something for me." That was the kind of leader he was. Whenever possible, he worked through face-to-face communication. And even though he sometimes gave me inconvenient or difficult duties, I did them gladly because I believed in him.
"Belief" in this case, does not mean "I agreed that this person existed." Of course, I agree that he existed. But the fact that I think so is not what I mean when I say, "I believed." In this context, believing in my commanding officer meant I had confidence in him. I trusted that he cared about the mission and the people, and that he had the skills to do his job well. And believing in him meant that I wanted to be involved in his mission.
The disciples of Jesus are called "believers" not primarily because we agree that God exists and that Jesus is God's Son. Of course, we agree that those statements are true, but that's not what makes us believers. As the Bible says, even the demons in hell agree that God and Jesus are for real. And the thought of it terrifies them (see James 2:19). No, Christians are believers because we've become involved. In Jesus, God came down the stairs, manifested His glory, and made us believers. And now we entrust our lives to Him. We make sacrifices to be involved in His mission. And the more involved we are, the more deeply we believe in Him, and the more we believe in Him, the more involved we become.
In the military, it's sometimes said that soldiers don't die for their country. They don't die for a faceless bureaucracy. They die for the soldiers in the foxhole next to them. In God, Jesus has joined us in the trenches. He came down to live, suffer, and die, to manifest His glory on the cross, to rise again, to give His Spirit, to get us involved in His mission. So, when He says, "I need you to take care of something for Me." We do it gladly because He asked.
WE PRAY: Dear Jesus, thank You for so graciously getting us involved with all that You do. Amen.
This Daily Devotion was written by Rev. Dr. Michael Zeigler, Speaker forΒ The Lutheran Hour.
Reflection Questions:
1. Who is someone that has modeled good leadership for you? How did they do it?
2. What makes face-to-face communication so powerful?
3. How is Jesus using the faces of the people around you to get you more deeply involved in His mission?
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