Day 18 – March 12, 2010
Jesus Must Have Persons
Scripture: Luke 6:12-16
“The day following Jesus went into Galilee and found Phillip and said to him, ‘Follow me.’” Jesus
did not say, “Follow my way” or “Follow my truth” or “Follow my life,” but “Follow me.”
Philip told his neighbor Nathanael that he had found the Messiah and invited him to come see this
person. When Christ invited Levi (Matthew) to follow him, this tax collector invited his friends to
come and have dinner with Jesus.
In Sychar he encountered a woman who invited others to him. To accompany him to Paradise, he enlisted
a thief. His ambassador that first Easter morning was Mary of Magdala. On the day of Pentecost, the
mantle of the church’s leadership fell across the shoulders of Simon Peter of Galilee – a province from
which no religious leader had ever come before. He wanted an apostle to the Gentiles and secured a
person who had a reputation for despising Gentiles – Saul of Tarsus.
Jesus wanted witnesses. He taught, preached, healed, sang, visited, crusaded against the evils of his day,
magnified children, fed the hungry, and used all methods to reach people. He loved the outcasts; he put
his hands on lepers. He touched untouchables, tamed those who were wild, taught the unteachable, and
loved the unlovable. He sought the unsought, saved the unsaved, cleansed the unclean.
What were Christ’s witnesses to do? You “shall be witnesses unto me” he told them (Acts 1:8). We do
not witness to a church or a Sunday school class or a youth group or a program or a new world order. We
witness to a person.
What a variety of persons Jesus befriended! Let it be our prayer this day, our Father, that we may find
someone in need whose life will be brightened by our expression of love and concern. Amen.
(Prophetic
Evangelist: The Living Legacy of Harry Denman, 1993)
Harry Denman
