When Helping Hurts: Why Did Jesus Come to Earth?

The topic of community development is vast and often more complicated than we assume. Yet at the same time there are fundamentals that form a series of best practices and underlying values that clearly guide our approach to helping those around us. Over the next few months we will be examining the principles from the book When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert.

This will not be a book review or critique, but will aim to lay the foundations in which you all can begin thinking critically about reaching those in need around you. Bear in mind, this will be from a Biblical Worldview, and will go beyond the practical/physical aspects of development and will often include the spiritual dynamics of our broken world. That being said, let’s dig in!

A few weeks ago I was sitting in an agricultural-based school learning about basic permaculture concepts. This particular lesson was about site designs and the rules for how to approach them. The number one rule included a very important concept: We must always ask WHY we are doing what we are doing and what we hope to achieve. The WHY informs WHAT we design and HOW we design it.

The WHY question will be an important concept that I will refer to throughout this series, but first let’s go back, and I mean WAY Back, by asking: Why did Jesus come to earth? If you’re a non-believer you don’t need to answer this question, but for those who believe in Jesus, it’s a critical place to start; it will inform the WHAT and HOW we design, or in this case, how we live and what we want to achieve.

So why did Jesus come? Many would say that Jesus came to earth so that he could live a sinless life, die on a cross and be raised again so that we can have the hope of an eternal life in heaven after we die. In fact, I’m sure that a majority of evangelical Christians would include some variation of that answer. But is that answer sufficient to describe the WHAT we do with our lives and the HOW we do it? Digging deeper we need to see what Scripture says about why Jesus came:

For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross.
— Colossians 1:19-20

The mission of Jesus was to reconcile everything unto Himself. When He told His disciples to go and make disciples, He had the framework of reconciliation in mind. To go one step further we can look at some Old Testament examples that lay the foundation for Christ’s ministry.

For context read Isaiah 1:10-17 and Isaiah 58:1-10. I’m going to focus only on parts of the story. These scriptures describe the underbelly of why Israel was sent into captivity to Babylon — because they weren’t doing key things — which I’ll highlight for you.

“I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before Me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing Me meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths, and convocations - I can not bear your evil assemblies…. Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.

Let it sink in.

These were well-meaning “church-goers” doing their standard church thing. They assembled regularly for worship, making offerings, honoring holidays, etc. In today’s terms, they were, by all external evidences, the “Good Christian.” So why was God upset?

God was upset because they weren’t seeking justice.

They weren’t encouraging the oppressed.

They weren’t defending the fatherless.

And they didn’t plead the case of the widow.

In essence they were neglecting the most vulnerable individuals amongst them.

Let’s look at the verses from Isaiah 58.

…Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter — when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break both like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.

Again we see a similar set of interests at God’s heart.

Loose the chains of injustice.

Set the oppressed free and break every yoke.

Share your food with the hungry.

Provide shelter for the poor wanderer.

Clothe the naked.

Do not turn away from your own flesh and blood.

I love how it’s phrased here, “…if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will shine in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.”

All of these things were what Israel was supposed to do, but failed to do. They were to foreshadow Jesus who would ultimately make his entire ministry about completing what we just read. We see this when Jesus is in the synagogue reading from Isaiah 61, and says “Today this has been fulfilled in your presence” (Luke 4:17-21).

And so here we are after a long read laying the groundwork showing this simple lineage:

Israel was supposed to foreshadow of Jesus on Earth.

Israel partially failed due to the issues listed above.

Jesus came to do what Israel could not, we see this claim in Luke 4:17-21.

Jesus then spends His ministry years doing everything that Israel had not been doing.

Then Jesus tells His disciples to go and do as He had done, meaning, we too have the same mission.

So why did Jesus come? To reconcile everything and to care for the poor, oppressed, etc. What did He command us to do? The very same. Have we done a good job at it? That can be assessed on a person-by-person basis, as well as looking critically at our church.

There is no condemnation if we are falling short, but we must think critically about what it means to “spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed.” After all, Jesus claimed that was His mission when He read from Isaiah.

Knowing the claims made by Scripture for the shared duty of those who follow Jesus is an important foundation to begin this journey toward alleviating poverty and putting our hands to the plow in effective community engagement.

At the end of Chapter 1 of When Helping Hurts, there is a list of questions. Some of them won’t make complete sense if you haven’t read the full chapter, so I’ve selected one to get you thinking, and to help prime the pump for our next installment.

Reflect on how your church answers the question: What is the primary task of the church? Your church’s answer to this question might not be explicit. Hence, you might have to discern your church’s implicit answer to this question by thinking about the messages from the pulpit, the types of ministries it pursues, and the way those ministries are conducted. How might your church more fully reflect a Christ-centered, kingdom theology in its ministries? Be specific.