Dr. Tim Harlow
Retired Senior Pastor, Parkview Christian Church in Orland Park, IL
Author of Life on Mission: God’s People Finding God’s Heart for the World and What Made Jesus Mad? Rediscover the Blunt, Sarcastic, Passionate Savior of the Bible
“This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 17: 5)
This is what every believer really wants to hear from heaven, right? And one of the reasons most of us go into located ministry is because pleasing God is a value we hold more dearly than any other. We certainly didn’t go into it for the money.
So, did you ever consider the fact that the Father said this to Jesus BEFORE He ever began His ministry?
I spent 40 years in located ministry and 33 at one church in Chicagoland. And then I stepped away from leading that church that had been our life, our existence, (and perhaps if I’m honest, my way of trying to prove my faithfulness to our Father), so that I could move to Franklin, Tennessee and be within five minutes of all eight of our grandchildren. (They all ended up together because of Covid and Gavin Newsom – but that’s another story)
Obviously, the change was wonderful for all the obvious reasons, and hard in the same way. We uprooted our lives, left our friends, but probably hardest of all was walking away from our purpose. What I never could have imagined was how much of my identity was tied up in being a pastor. And I guess some of that is healthy, but I now realize how much of it wasn’t.
In the first few months after leaving, a friend asked me about it, and I told him that I was trying to learn to be a child of God again. It’s not easy to separate, is it?
It seems like Jesus had that figured out. Go figure, right? So, the beautiful thing about God’s presence and voice at Jesus’ baptism was that Jesus hadn’t done anything yet. He hadn’t healed anyone, and he hadn’t taught anything (except when he was 12 years old).
One book that helped me through my PTSD recovery (pastor traumatic stress disorder) was called The Secret Place of Thunder: Trading Our Need to Be Noticed for a Hidden Life with Christ, by John Starke.
One thing John wrote about was that in Luke’s gospel, as Jesus’ disciples are learning from him, they have a hard time casting out demons. In Luke 9, Jesus encounters a man who has been begging the disciples to heal his demon-possessed son, but they can’t do it. Jesus rebukes the spirit and heals the son, leaving everyone amazed (Luke 9:37–43). Mark’s gospel unpacks the scene in more detail, telling us that the disciples were obviously confused and disappointed – “Why could we not cast it out?” they ask. Jesus says, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer” (Mark 9:28–29). #disciplefail.
However, the success story comes soon afterward. Jesus sends the disciples out to the surrounding areas to preach the gospel and heal the sick. When they return, they report great successes. No details are given other than, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” (Luke 10:17). Like, “Jesus, we are getting it!” They seem to me like little kids saying, “Daddy, watch me.” Jesus responds just as a proud father would. Jesus said in essence, “Boys, I’m so proud of you.” He makes this exaggerated statement, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18). Jesus is pumping them up! He’s saying, “You are kicking Satan’s King James version of Donkey!”
Starke says, “Their mission is to participate in and experience a foretaste of Jesus’ ultimate triumph over Satan’s reign in the world. I can’t imagine better feedback. I get all kinds of responses to my sermons on Sunday—some good, some bad. But never do I hear, “while you were preaching, I saw Satan fall like lightning.”
Then Jesus promises them even more: “I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you” (Luke 10:19). Wow. Seriously, this had to be a “moment” in the lives of these young guys. Talk about a fired-up locker room!
Then Jesus makes such an important statement, it should be tattooed on every Pastor at their ordination, like a Yellowstone “Y”! Jesus knows the danger of success. He sees the potential problem for his disciples, so he quickly adds, “Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20).
Jesus warns them that this is all awesome! But someday it will be gone. One day, only one thing is really going to matter, and it’s not anything you did. Which, by the way, is also true of any of your successes or failures in ministry. A million years from now, the importance you are currently placing on your attendance\ offerings\ small group signups\ baptisms, or how many people tell you they saw Satan defeated because of your ministry is going to be irrelevant. If we could live here, our lives in ministry would be a lot less stressful. Jesus is saying, you are neither who you thought you were when you failed with the demons, nor who you think you are now, after your big success.
John Starke again, “We tend to identify ourselves either by our outward successes or by our humiliating failures because these outward displays of our competencies, beauty, achievements, taste, togetherness—or lack of these things—are where we feel most loved and accepted, or most judged and forgotten, by others. We have based our sense of well-being in the performative parts of our lives. As a result, we often experience our lives as fragile. Jesus leads his disciples and us into a deeper place of being, not in our public displays of competence, but in the secret place with the Father, where our names are written and will never be erased.”
Drop the mic. That’s an incredible word!
And seriously, drop the mic. You aren’t the mic. If Satan was zapped because of your sermon, or if he was in the front row laughing at your poor exegesis. Drop the mic and walk away, knowing that God is using you in ways you will never understand. At the end of the day, God was proud of you before you were even ordained. You are his son or daughter, and with you, he is well pleased.
