Every ‘one’ precious

Wherever Jesus went grace and compassion flowed from him. His heart was heavy as he walked among a humanity that was broken by sin and he reached out with gracious words of salvation, deeds of mercy and acts of healing and deliverance. All was leading him to a craggy hill outside Jerusalem where ‘he took up our pain and bore our suffering’, where ‘he was pierced for our transgressions, and crushed for our iniquities’ (Isaiah 53:4,5) If only we also could see every person we meet as an incalculably precious soul with a hastily approaching eternal destiny, it would change everything. We encounter people every day – in our homes, schools, communities and places of work. Crowds press around us in shopping centres, concerts and sports events. Most of the time we don’t regard them much at all, and eye contact (or any other form of contact) is often missing, in our typically 21^st Century aloof, frantic-paced way. The situation has hardly been helped by a global epidemic which has encouraged and at times even enforced isolation and remoteness. Yet this is far from the purpose for which we were made. When we are gripped by a view of the value of ‘one’ it gives us a motivation that delivers from the guilt-driven snare of going through the motions, whether on a personal level or in a local church context, merely ticking the evangelism box on the church evangelism calendar. To be frank, it is an endless fight to retain a conviction that the ‘ones’ are precious. But they mattered to Jesus as He walked this earth and they matter to Him now. We struggle to comprehend the grace of an omniscient God who never sees crowds as a mass of faces. Each one is known and loved, as they journey through life with their hopes, fears and burdens

The Apostle Paul testifies regarding his motivation in ministry, ^‘Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.’ (2 Cor. 5:15) When serving in Central London, I frequently had to rebuke myself for pushing past people, seeing them simply as obstacles to be avoided on my way to ‘ministry’. Travelling on the Underground, a place where eye contact is resolutely avoided, I would force myself to look into each face and seek to assess what their life might be. I would ask myself, “Could this furrow-browed businessman consumed by deadlines and family pressures be contemplating taking his life? Has this teenage girl fled to the big city to escape the consequences of coming out as gay? Is this lonely elderly person simply a statistic who will leave this life unloved and unmissed?” 

The look of love

Why, when the wealthy, self-sufficient young man weighed up his options and decided he would walk away from the only One who could provide the eternal life he desired, do we read, ‘Jesus looked at him and loved him’? (Mark 10:21) Surely one reason was to teach us that when speaking with a person, they matter to God. Whether accepting our message or rejecting it, they are of eternal worth and there was never a hint of the ‘whatever’ in our Saviour’s attitude.

CS Lewis greatly helps us in this matter of eternal perspective: “The dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare…There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal…it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendours…”    (London 2013 Harper Collins CS Lewis The Weight of Glory p 45/6 )

THIS IS AN EXCERPT TAKEN FROM MIKE’S LATEST BOOK ‘ONE’ BUY