Kingdom Building Ministries - Back in the days when people traveled long distances by stagecoach, they could choose to buy a first-class, second-class or third-class ticket. That may sound strange since there’s only one seating area in a stagecoach, but the difference in class had nothing to do with where a person sat. It had to do with what a person was expected to do if the stagecoach got bogged down in a muddy area.
If you had a first-class ticket, you could stay seated when the stagecoach got stuck. If you had a second-class ticket, you were expected to get out and walk alongside it until it was past the muddy area.
But if you were a third-class passenger, you were expected to get out of the stagecoach
and push it through the mud!
Wading in the mud
The Kingdom of God needs more third-class passengers who are willing to sake of others.
The harvest is too plentiful and the laborers are too few (Matthew 9:35-38) for us to be first-class passengers who simply go along for the ride or second-class passengers who are content to watch others do the work of God’s Kingdom.
God is calling us all to be third-class Kingdom laborers who will roll up our shirtsleeves and pant legs and wade into the mud puddles of human need.
Just like Jesus did.
When Jesus walked the earth, He spent most of His time outside the synagogues—up close to the lives of ordinary people, involved in their needs and messes.
He met people where they were and got involved in the pressing needs of their lives.
He waded into their mud puddles.
The religious leaders didn’t do that. They were first-class passengers. They were content to stay inside their synagogues and debate the Law, while Jesus went outside the synagogues and fulfilled it.
The religious leaders stayed away from the poor, the unclean, the diseased and the sinful. They treated them like they were invisible “non-persons.” But Jesus saw and interacted with them. He got up close to them and hung out with them.
Jesus looked into the faces of children who were not highly valued in that culture…and He stopped and put them on His lap.
He daily walked among poor beggars and often stumbled across men lying by the roadside with crippling physical illnesses (even leprosy)…and He stopped and put His healing hands on their diseased bodies.
He encountered hopeless prostitutes and adulteresses…and He stopped and talked to them about the way of hope.
He regularly came face-to-face with those who were oppressed and tormented by evil spirits…and He stopped and delivered them.
He met all of them where they were.
“It’s time for Christians to stop looking for spotlights and start looking for the mud puddles of human need...”
He didn’t give them an invitation to meet Him at another place and time that were more in His comfort zone. He engaged them where He found them, in the real-life places where they lived and worked and suffered.
Religious people walked past them. Jesus didn’t. He slowed down and saw them. And He stopped for them and served them.
Jesus didn’t have to be a third-class passenger—He was God! He chose to travel third class out of His incredible love for people. And He calls us to make the same choice.
THE “LITTLE” IDEA
Christians must be willing to be third-class passengers and serve in the mud puddles of human need—the little and lowly places where needs are often the biggest.
“You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them…Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:42-45).
The fate of the world
It’s time for Christians to stop looking for spotlights and start looking for the mud puddles of human need—the places where they can serve those who are “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).
Paul Billheimer once wrote, “The fate of the world is in the hands of nameless saints.”
It sounds similar to something Jesus is in the hands of ordinary people who aren’t afraid of mud puddles.
Are you willing to get muddy? The fate of the world around you depends on it.
Dwight Robertson is Founder and President of Kingdom Building Ministries. He's also a sought-after speaker for conferences and other events. He's the author of several print resources, and he's a regular writer for The Laborer's Journal.
Mark Vermilion is Vice President of Communication for Kingdom Building Ministries and Executive Editor of The Laborer's Journal. He's also the author of numerous articles and resources.
