Useless people

Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,

To Philemon our dear friend and fellow worker, to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier and to the church that meets in your home:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, because I hear about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ. Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints.

Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I appeal to you on the basis of love. I then, as Paul--an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus--I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me.

I am sending him--who is my very heart--back to you. I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I am in chains for the gospel. But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that any favor you do will be spontaneous and not forced. Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back for good--no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a man and as a brother in the Lord.

So if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will pay it back--not to mention that you owe me your very self. I do wish, brother, that I may have some benefit from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in Christ. Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I ask (Philemon 1-21).

I’d like you to think about 'useless' people.

What makes a person useless? Let’s consider three different people. First, there’s Sam. Sam used to farm, but his tractor rolled over on him 10 years ago and his back was broken. Ever since the accident, Sam has been paralyzed from the neck down. He can’t dress himself, feed himself, or clean himself without his wife’s help. As a matter of fact, caring for Sam has been quite a burden on his wife. She can’t get a job because he needs her with him constantly, and Sam’s medical bills eat up Social Security before she can fill the refrigerator with food. Even worse, Sam’s wife has come to resent waiting on him hand and foot. They never had a chance to have kids, and she now realizes that she’ll never have any, stuck in this life with a cripple. As far as Sam’s wife is concerned, he is a useless man.

Then there’s Mary. Mary is 32 and still lives at home with her parents. She doesn’t pay rent, cook meals or help with grocery shopping. She’s never held a job for more than a week at a time because she can’t find any place that’s ‘fun’ to work at. She’s had lots of boyfriends and has had three abortions because she didn’t want to be tied down by any kids. Mary’s father wants her to move out on her own, but her mother is afraid that Mary will only get into worse trouble if she isn’t home where she can be taken care of. Mary’s mother loves her daughter desperately, but her father has come to think of Mary as a useless daughter.

Finally, we have Joe. Joe drives his wife crazy. When she asks Joe to put up shelves in the laundry room, she finds him tinkering on the car’s transmission instead. When she asks him to pick up the kids from school, he gets involved fixing the neighbor’s fence and forgets. When she knows she’ll be home late and asks him to make supper, he burns the food. When money is tight at the end of the month, he empties his wallet on lottery tickets. As far as Joe’s wife is concerned, he his completely undependable, useless as a father and as a husband.

What do these three people have in common? First of all, none of them could be depended upon to do things that needed to be done. Sam was unable to give his wife children or to care for himself. Mary was unwilling to take responsibility for living her life independently. Joe’s unreliability made it impossible for his wife to depend on him.

More importantly, all three of these people were afflicted by sin. Because of sin, our Earth and everything on it is imperfect. It was this imperfection that led to Sam’s farming accident, leaving him a burden on his wife. It is the imperfection of sin that tempts people to behave like selfish children, even when they’re grown adults, like Mary. It is the imperfection of sin that makes people easy prey to distractions, like Joe. Sin makes people useless—useless to each other, and useless to God.

Have you ever felt useless, or been told you were useless by somebody else? I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone hasn’t felt or been called useless more than once in their lives. And as if that didn’t make us feel bad enough, if we’re honest with ourselves, we have to admit that we are useless. How many times have you broken a promise to your parents, your spouse, your children, or yourself? How many times have you promised to do something, and found out that you can’t do what you promised? How many times have you told someone that you would do something, just to get them off your back, but never intending to really do it? How many times have you forgotten all about a promise until it was too late?

We feel worthless when we let ourselves down, and we feel guilty when we let our loved ones down. But God also condemns uselessness. In Luke, we find this parable of Jesus: "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, `For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil? `Sir,' the man replied, `leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.' " (Luke 13:6-9). In this parable, the owner of the vineyard is our Heavenly Father, and the man who wants to give the fig tree a little more time is our Savior, Jesus. God is certainly patient with our uselessness—after all, how many of you would keep an apple tree that didn’t give apples for four years in a row?—but even God’s patience will end eventually.

In today’s devotional reading Paul writes a letter to a wealthy Christian friend named Philemon. Paul writes to him because of Onesimus, a slave who had run away from Philemon (who owned him). As a slave, Onesimus had become worthless; having run away, he was worth nothing to anyone and could never be trusted to dependably follow orders again. Philemon was within his rights to beat Onesimus to death, if he wished. But God had brought Onesimus to where Paul was confined in prison, and through Paul’s words the Holy Spirit gave Onesimus saving faith in Christ. Now Onesimus had a completely different outlook on his life. Onesimus saw how Paul was more a prisoner than he ever was as a slave, yet Paul was at the same time free. Paul may not have been able to live where he wanted or eat his favorite foods, but he was free of the guilt of his sin, free of feeling worthless before God and his fellow Christians. Paul knew that Jesus had lived a life of infinite worth in place of Paul’s life of uselessness. Paul knew that Jesus had died to pay the price of God’s wrath over Paul’s worthlessness. Paul knew that Jesus had returned to eternal life so that the Lord could give worth to Paul’s life and make it useful to God. Paul was able to say, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life” (1 Timothy 1:15-16).

Because of God’s work through Paul, Onesimus came to see that he could be free in every way that truly matters, even while still living the life of a slave to Philemon. It may seem amazing to us, but Onesimus was willing to return to Philemon and continue his life as a slave! Because Onesimus had become a Christian, he did not want to live the life of a criminal; if he was to become a free man, it would be because Philemon freed him legally. Even more remarkably, Paul offered to repay Philemon for any losses incurred by Onesimus’ escape; Paul offered to settled the debt that Onesimus could not, just as Jesus settled our debt of sin which we could not repay.

In many ways, we are Onesimus. We have lived unhappy lives, enslaved to Satan because of the sin that makes us useless people. But thanks to God, we have been brought the saving words of the Gospel by someone like Paul. It may have been your parents, who brought you to be baptized. It may have been someone you dated, who invited you to church. It may have been a friend, who told you of their faith in Christ when you were going through a crisis in your life. It may have been a Gideon Bible in a night stand drawer, or a church service on television, or a devotion you read on the Internet. Somehow, some way, God made sure that you heard His Good News of freedom from sin, just as God made sure that an escaped slave somehow found his way to Paul, chained in a prison cell.

And now, like Onesimus, you are free of the guilt of every sin, through repentance and faith in the One Who Forgives. Because you have the Holy Spirit living in you, you are no longer useless! Because of God, the things we do in service to others have value and can be depended on. God told Paul “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). This means that although we are weak and our works are only feeble attempts at doing good, God takes what faith moves us to say and do and crowns our words and deeds with success! It has pleased our God, who is perfectly dependable, to act faithfully in other people’s lives through us. God, in His infinite mercy, uses the unusable to build His Kingdom in the hearts of mankind.

How does God use us for the benefit of others? There are as many ways as there are Christians. Some are used as artists who design web pages, banners, and bulletins that honor and worship God. Some are used to write and perform music that sings God’s praises. Some are used to grow and distribute food, that people may be fed and give thanks to the God that gives every good thing. Some are used to provide the electricity needed to give light to those who read the Scriptures. Some are used to protect God’s people from those who are still slaves to sin and Satan. And some are used to teach God’s word to His people, since we read in the Acts of the Apostles these words: Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Go south to the road…that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch…Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. "Do you understand what you are reading?" Philip asked. "How can I," he said, "unless someone explains it to me?" (Acts 8:26-31). This is the most important thing that you and I can be used for—teaching our children, telling our friends and coworkers about the freedom from uselessness that Jesus offers freely to all. Paul told Philemon: you owe me your very self. What Paul meant was that if Philemon had not heard the Gospel he would have nothing of value, even though he was wealthy. When we share the Gospel with others, as Paul shared it with Philemon and Onesimus, God uses us to give life itself! Surely there can be no more important use that we could be put to.

When you break a promise, when you succumb to a bad habit, when others are disappointed with you, read Paul’s letter to Philemon. Think about how Onesimus was a useless person until Christ made him His own. Remember that Christ has made you His own through Baptism. Remember that God’s power is made perfect in your weakness. And thank God that He uses us, the useless, to bring His light and life to those who still live their lives in hopeless despair. Thank you Lord, for using us to do Your good works.