The Cost of Discipleship 15: Wesley: Acts of Mercy and Justice

 In addition to being an evangelist, like George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley also had a gift for leading and organizing believers (Romans 12: 8; I Corinthians 12: 28). Getting sinners to the altar and then releasing them unaided into the world is irresponsible. Who teaches, guides, and prays for disciples to grow and learn to do what Jesus would do? A leader who can lead. Someone who can discern God’s will for the moment, because God does not just give directions and then leave us on our own. God is always there, and God works through leaders, teachers, and preachers. As groups grow, God is sure to do something new, perhaps something that the people of God could not have handled earlier (See Isaiah 43: 18-19). 

 Wesley led by organizing societies, bands, and class meetings, each with their own local leader. They began as fellowship and accountability groups. But, they were not just gossip groups. Sessions were based on Bible study and prayer. Growth is not inevitable unless one is sensitive to the Holy Spirit who is always preparing us for the next step. Disciples must not settle into a comfortable space; or put another way: God’s will may not be one thing for the rest of your life, or the life of the church, but God may in stages lead you on to a deeper understanding and closer obedience (see Genesis 12: 9). 

 God is on a mission; we are privileged to be invited by God to participate. It is not our own mission, but God’s mission. In fact, if we don’t participate, we don’t grow. The problem is this: We may have looked promising at one stage of our lives, but when God went one way, we went the other. Then, when God might have reasonably expected that we would produce fruit according to His gifts, God looks and we have died on the vine. Not a good place to be since Jesus, as you will remember, cursed the fig tree that looked promising but on  closer inspection, actually had no fruit (Matthew 21: 18-22). 

 I once asked a question of a pastor of a large church set in the suburbs of a large city. There were houses all around. Sweeping my hand in a circle, I asked: “Who lives in these neighborhoods?” His church was mainly composed of people who lived somewhere farther out but drove in on Sundays. He wrinkled his eyebrows, then said: “I don’t know.”

 Wesley saw the poor around him, but perhaps he wouldn’t have seen them if he had become a parish priest. He did not have a church building, but he had a ‘church’, that is, an ekkesia, which is the Greek word for a gathering of people with a purpose. This following was the natural (or supernatural) result of preaching right out in the open where the poor worked and lived. 

 One of Wesley’s “Standard Sermons,” although a lesser known one, is titled “On Visiting the Sick,” which was based on Jesus’ standard of a faithful disciple as described in the Parable of the Sheep and Goats in Matthew 25. 

“One great reason why the rich, in general, have so little sympathy for the poor, is, because they so seldom visit them. Hence it is, that, according to the common observation, one part of the world does not know what the other suffers. Many of them do not know, because they do not care to know: they keep out of the way of knowing it; and then plead their voluntary ignorances an excuse for their hardness of heart. 'Indeed, Sir', said a person of large substance, 'I am a very compassionate man. But, to tell you the truth, I do not know anybody in the world that is in want'. How did this come to pass? Why, he took good care to keep out of their way; and if he fell upon any of them unawares "he passed over on the other side."      (Sermon # 98: “On Visiting the Sick,” from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library, https://www.ccel.org)

 Thus, Wesley established the principle that ‘to visit’ means to be present face-to-face; something we have watered down in this digital age with texts and tele-visits. Caring for the flock requires actual not just virtual visiting. Then one can observe people’s situation and listen to their stories. This is the duty of pastors as well as other members of the church who have the gift of compassion.  

 Wesley finishes the sermon by suggesting some questions that might be asked to reveal the physical, social, and spiritual condition of the person who is sick. This, in order to evaluate the direction to go in offering help. 

 For example, Wesley went so far as to gather together a variety of folk remedies, treatments that the poor might be able to afford, and he published them in a little handbook. I have a copy and it is exactly the size of my outstretched hand.

 The title page looks like this: 

      PRIMITIVE PHYSIC:

OR,

An EASY and NATURAL METHOD

OF

C  U  R  I  N  G

        MOST

D I S E A S E S. 

—--------------------------------------------

By JOHN WESLEY, M.A.

—-----------------------

THE TWENTY-FOURTH EDITION

—-----------------------

     L O N D O N

Printed by G. PARAMORE, North-Green, Worship-Street;

And sold by G. WHITFIELD, at the Chapel, City-Road,

And at all the Methodist Preaching-Houses in Town and

County.  1792.

 In addition to health, Wesley undertook to support education for the children of the poor, opening several schools and finding teachers. He also had people teach classes for the adults about how to budget and save a little money of what they had. He did not give further support to the education and health options for the rich, as we seem to be doing. The rich, with private schools and private hospitals, don’t need the help. Wesley followed Jesus’ lead in helping the sick and the poor, which he did because he said they needed help, but the healthy and rich did not (Matthew 9: 12).