June 2022
Jesus Is The Hero
by JR Horn
“Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.” Matthew 22:1-3 (NIV)
My family and I have a tradition that takes place every July 4th. It is a communal meal. This meal is no ordinary meal. Matter of fact it is a meal that we never repeat outside of this specific day. The reason why we only hold this meal once a year is because, well, it’s complicated. No no no, not that kind of complicated, the meal is complicated. Over the years this meal has grown from 3 families to 20 plus! At one point we made the mistake of actually taking a headcount and became overwhelmed. So much prep work had to go into this meal in order to feed these people. That is part of the meals complexity. The real complexity was juggling a meal that started at 6:30AM and ended somewhere around 8PM. It’s been said that Jesus loves a cheerful eater right?
I can’t think of this tradition without remembering Jesus’ words of what the Kingdom of Heaven will look like in Matthew chapter 22. Verse 2 and part of 3 read “2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come,” A wedding banquet, can you imagine Heaven being like a wedding banquet? Think about all of the prep that goes into throwing a meal for a wedding reception. Many people had been given specific tasks. Each individual had their task to accomplish in order for this meal to come to fruition. When one missed a deadline or did not complete their task, the rest suffered. The unique part of this wedding feast was that there was only one who was more important than anyone else. Yes, only one. The wedding banquet was thrown by the Father, for the Son. Jesus is the Hero of this story.
Just like our role in serving every Sunday, Jesus is the Hero. Your role on your ministry team is not greater or lower than any other wind breathing individual in your building. We all have a role to play. We all carry out our task in order for Jesus to be the Hero. No matter the size of our church, the quality of our worship team or the number of inputs on our sound board, we have nothing to boast or brag about because we are not the Hero. We serve in order for the Banquet to take place.
Each year our July 4th meal was held on the sandy shores of Lake Michigan under a towering shade tree that kept our group from being scorched from eating all day. The years went by and more tasks had to be delegated in order to keep feeding the individuals that showed up. Tasks ranged from bringing specific meats for the grill or serving items so we didn’t have to eat with our hands. One person even had the task of building a custom grill wagon to haul all of our grills, smokers and supplies down to the lake front. Seems like a very important person huh? However, there was one task a great friend of mine always prided himself on accomplishing. A task so grand in our eyes but potentially lowly in the eyes of others. What was that task? Coffee. Pat brought coffee.
We all serve in order for Jesus to be the Hero.
About the author:
With over 15 years of dedicated ministry work and training, JR Horn brings his experience, thought provoking questions and tools necessary to help churches create committed, growing disciple makers. For more information about JR, visit https://teamexpansion.org/
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