Get ready to fulfil your purpose

Every day we’re asking four questions about part of the Bible. Today Bern Leckie answers:

What did I like about today’s passage?

Approaching deadlines can focus the mind, but what should we focus on? I love that Matthew finishes his account of Jesus’ teaching before his death with the end that Jesus told followers to bear in mind. This is a unique aspect of Jesus’ authority – no other teacher had a view of the universe from beginning to end like Jesus! So we should get some good advice here - how does Jesus say to prepare?

I am hearing this as two things – watch out for Jesus and get on with a purposeful life. This reminds me of getting ready for our local school’s Ofsted inspection, about which we do not know the day or hour. I heard a horror story about another school which failed instantly because the inspectors arrived unexpectedly and entered the school unchallenged through an insecure door. We don’t want to be that school, so people keep watch!

But if the inspectors found that all we were interested in was looking out for them, we wouldn’t be doing the job of a school. That would be a fail too. Knowing that there will be a time to account for everything soon is a spur to action, but what matters most is that the school makes the best possible use of the resources it is entrusted with. That is measured by how students benefit from the school’s decisions, spending and work: the school’s purpose.

I love the clarity Jesus gives us about our purpose too and what he expects us to do. We must have faith and invest what we have been given, even though this is a risk. We don’t know everything that will happen. God can seem remote at times. But is he?

What did it show me about Father God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?

God trusts us to make good use of his stuff. He might be invisible and seem absent, but he is so involved and close to us that he knows what we decide to do and receives every loving act of service to people as a personal service to him. He is involved – he supplied our love!

With an abundance of love, Jesus also submitted to the authorities he had spent his life clashing with. By allowing them to do the worst they could do to him, Jesus willingly obeyed his Father and set up the ultimate test of whose authority had the greater power.

What am I going to do differently as a result?

This reminds me of the importance of keeping the end in mind when I work. At school, where I am a governor, this is already a vital part of my role, but I want to add the encouragement from Jesus that what we do has an even greater purpose from God’s point of view and that, as strapped for cash as we feel, we have huge resources from God.

Who am I going to share this with?

People at school, perhaps in different terms initially with Christians, but looking for ways to share my hope and faith view consistently with people who have other beliefs too.