Do not forget that Jesus was a worker

We should never forget that Jesus lived a perfect, righteous life and then endured a terrible death save the souls of mankind (Heb. 4:15; Rom. 5:6-11). This is why we are admonished to follow His example (I Pet. 2:21). But let us not forget that when Jesus walked on this earth, He was constantly working.

Consider this example from Matthew 11:1: “Now it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples, that He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities.”  The next verse says that when John was in prison, he heard about the works of Christ (verse 2). This indicates how far the impact of Christ’s work spread. What else do we know about how much the Lord accomplished? “And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain all the books that would be written,” (John 21:25).

Many claim to be Christians – do they desire to be workers like Christ? If we sing the hymn “I want to be a worker for the Lord” can we also say, “I am a worker for the Lord, just like the Lord”?  This is a good aspiration to have, but it is not easily accomplished.

It is true that Jesus spent time healing people, which we cannot do. And yes, Jesus performed many miracles that we simply cannot do. However, our Savior did many things which we can do like praying long and often, encouraging and sympathizing, and preaching and teaching. We all need to be increasing in these things as time goes by.

Perhaps Jesus knew that He only had about 3 ½ years on the earth to do these things, so He did as much as He could in a short period. Whether this is true or not, it makes no difference. None of us know how much time we have. If we are earnest about our service and we do not know how much time we have, then we should be even more encouraged to work while we can! Live like Jesus lived, and work like Jesus worked!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Chuck