Pastor's Corner: Small gestures in dark times

A few years ago I was at the bedside of a woman who was very near death. She could no longer speak and could barely move, but she was very thirsty. Most of my last visit with her was spent spooning water from a cup into her mouth.

Was there any value in giving water to someone on the edge of eternity like that? I doubt that it prolonged her life. I have no reason to think it made any big difference to her thoughts or feelings. In the moment, I mostly went on with that because I didn’t really know that there was anything else I could do. As I look back on that experience, I think it was a meaningful action.

For one thing, there are the words of Jesus in Mark 9:41: “For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ, assuredly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.” I’m sure that what is true for a whole cup is also true when it’s a few drops on a plastic spoon!

In addition to his words, there is also the example of Jesus. He had been under tremendous stress in the garden of Gethsemane when a sort of raiding party arrived to arrest him. Peter, wanting to defend Jesus, cut off the ear of a man named Malchus (John 18:10). Jesus promptly healed the wound given to Malchus (Luke 22:39–51). If ever there was a time to ignore minor matters, that would have been it! But Jesus took the opportunity to perform a relatively small good.

No action of Christ is meaningless. He was under the worst strain of his life. The power of evil and darkness had come upon him. He was engaging in the final few steps of accomplishing salvation. And yet he healed a fairly minor injury.

There are some different lessons in that. One is that we can learn to give a little help to others as we can, even when our own distress is great. Another is that small gestures are still worthwhile. My spoonfuls of water couldn’t save that lady’s life, but they could ease her thirst a bit. And the last lesson is the wonderful kindness of Jesus, who heals the ear of one of the very men who had come to arrest him. That small gesture displayed a great truth!