Phillip Vasto is an avid outdoorsman. Though he lives in Brooklyn, New York, he set his sights on hiking the Humphreys Trail in the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, Arizona. The trail is only advised for experienced alpine mountaineers due to heavy snows and high winds. Vasto is only 28, so he decided he was up to the challenge.
On two consecutive days Vasto had to call for help. On the first day he couldn’t find the trail due to the snow, and late in the evening called for help. Tracked vehicles that travel in snow were sent to bring him off the mountain, and he declined medical help. The next day he had to call for help again after falling near a ridge on the trail. A helicopter was sent this time to retrieve Vasto and another hiker who had stopped to give assistance. Medical help was now needed for an injury.
The Associated Press story reported that Vasto was lectured on safe hiking practices and the need to pay attention to winter weather advisories. The story didn’t mention any limit placed on how often Vasto would be rescued, but one has to wonder if the rescuers were growing weary of helping this New Yorker who was not quite the mountaineer he imagined himself to be.
Another mountain rescue was the basis of a parable by Jesus: “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying?” (Matthew 18:12). We’re not told why the sheep was lost, but the main point Jesus made was the desire and effort to find it.
Was Jesus lecturing on sheep-raising techniques? Here’s how Jesus stated the principle: “Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish” (Matthew 18:14). He was talking about us! We wander away from the Good Shepherd and in sin we realize that we are lost, unable to find our way home. The Good News says that the Shepherd is already out looking for us and will bring us back to the safety of the fold (if we’ll allow Him).
But how many times will the Lord come searching for us? People grow weary of helping those who regularly go astray; is that how the Lord feels, too?
A bit later in the same chapter Peter asked a good question: “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” (Matthew 18:21). Peter was being generous in his suggested answer; how many of us would forgive the same person seven times?! Jesus, however, raised the bar considerably: “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:22). 490 times we are expected to forgive another?!
Here’s the point: Jesus expects us to “not grow weary while doing good” (Galatians 6:9), even if that means multiple “rescues” of another. Would the Lord expect from us what He is unwilling to do Himself?
Let us not “presume on the riches of [God’s] kindness and forbearance and patience” (Romans 2:4, ESV). But also let us never doubt that God responds to our sincere cries for help and rescue every time, as long as we are willing to turn away from that sin. Yes, each of us need multiple rescues, and God is gracious enough to send the help that is needed.
Come to the light God offers! Study His word, the Bible. Worship Him in spirit and truth (John 4:24). Get in touch with us if you’d like to discuss these ideas further.
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Copyright, 2022, Timothy D. Hall