“You had one job.” You may have heard someone use that phrase – hopefully not to you. You may have used that phrase yourself. People usually say that when someone makes a major mistake on what would seem to be a simple task: frozen chicken labeled as beef, a bill board put up backwards, letters out of place on a sign. When people have that “one job” and they mess it up, they usually get distracted by other things. Either they are overloaded with work, or they are doing other things and not paying attention to their work. Let’s be honest, doing other things is a synonym for playing on the phone in most cases. If you want to have some fun, do a search on that phrase and look for images. You can’t help but laugh!
It was easy for Jesus to get distracted from His task. He could have become a firebrand revolutionary and summoned the masses to overthrow the Roman occupiers in Israel. He could have been a miracle wonder worker astounding people with his amazing feats. He could have had a full-time job as a healer, going around and taking care of everyone. None of those activities, though, were His “one job.” They helped Jesus do His one job, but they weren’t that job. This was His one job: “After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.” (Luke 8:1)
The call of Jesus, His one job, was to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God. When Jesus proclaimed the coming of the kingdom of God, He didn’t talk about something that would come about when we all died or were raptured; He talked about people living in the kingdom of God in the present – the here and now. The kingdom of God is not some future, pie in the sky, locale; the kingdom of God is living with the reign of God in our lives right here, right now. As Jesus went about the towns proclaiming the kingdom of God, His challenge was never “be good so that some day you might go to Heaven.” His message was that they should let God reign in their hearts each and every day. If we believe that we should be following Jesus, that is our message, our one job, too.
I wonder if God might look at me and shake His head sadly saying, “You had one job.” Even though I have that one job; even though I know what God wants me to do, I get involved in other parts of His work that are really none of my business. I become judgmental and look at other people’s sins. It’s bad enough if they have the same sins as me, but when their sins are different than mine, can I ever let those people have it! I become a doctrine inspector because if they don’t believe exactly the same way I do, they’re probably heretics bound for hell. And when I look to Jesus for credit for helping Him out in these areas, instead of a “well done, faithful servant,” I hear Jesus saying to me, “Hey, that’s what I’m supposed to take care of. You have one job: proclaim the kingdom of God.” That is our one job. That is what we all need to commit to do. I’m going to let God take care of the sins that other people do, I’m just going to give people an introduction to His mercy and grace by proclaiming the kingdom of God.
Lord, there are so many people who need to be living in Your kingdom. Help me to proclaim Your kingdom. Help me to do my one job.
Daily Devotion by Bob James
https://dailyenduringtruth.com/
https://www.amazon.com/Daily-Enduring-Truth-January-February/dp/1983973955
