IV. Notes Towards a Ministry of Ḥesed
Thoughts on ḥesed
Does a ministry of ḥesed exist? I suggest that we can identify the ministry of ḥesed as, first of all, whatever springs from a heart that is like God’s heart—compassion, mercy, love, forgiveness, peace, faith, reconciliation, wisdom—all the character traits that God has made known concerning Himself throughout history.
There is abundant Scripture on the traits of God. The Psalms are full of it. The overarching story of the Bible is about God’s faithfulness to his promises, beginning in the Garden, culminating in the Incarnation, and fully resolved in Revelation. Scripture emphasizes His mercy, His love, His forgiveness, His patience and long-suffering. These traits come to us, his sons and daughters, through receiving a heart that is like God’s, by grace, through faith.
Faith is the turning point. When God gifts faith to His people, He grants them the capacity to believe what the world scoffs at: that God is, that God is Who He says He is, and that He can and will keep His promises, through His Son, Jesus Christ. Foremost is the promise to change us from sinners to citizens fit for Heaven. Faith is the key that opens the gate to His riches.
The Bible presents us with many descriptions of the change that comes about when true faith has been awakened. Ezekiel calls it the exchange of a heart of stone for a heart of flesh. Moses spoke of it as a circumcised heart. Jeremiah described it as a heart upon which God has written His law. Jesus spoke of it as the second birth. Paul talked about the new man, a new creation. St. John bluntly wrote, “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.” (1 John 3:9 NIV)
All these ways of talking about the changes that take place when God awakens faith are pictures, meant to suggest some aspect of transformation. The pictures are powerful and poignant, revealing deep truths. But they are figures. Even language about the heart is metaphorical for the totality of human motivation, character, and intent. But ḥesed describes the actual goal of the transformation. Ḥesed is the thing itself, not a figure.
I suggest that the ministry of ḥesed consists in the nourishing of the new heart in each other, together with the recognition of ḥesed as producing the true and final evidence of transformation. The new heart is nourished by following Christ, by seeking His Kingdom, and by immersion in His word, looking always to Jesus, our example. It is recognized and realized in the works of ḥesed.
Thus, the proclamation ministry of ḥesed is to inform those around us, our culture, and our society of the liberty that a heart like God’s brings and how it comes about—and more importantly, to demonstrate it. We proclaim the Good News as the witness to God’s ḥesed. We preach and sing and pray the attributes of God, asking Him to gift us with ḥesed, to fill our hearts with it.
Finally, the social ministry of ḥesed is to forgive, to work for reconciliation and peace, to do justice, to love ḥesed, and as inner truth and an example to society, to walk humbly before God.
One thing we need never doubt: God blesses the expressions of ḥesed in the body of Christ, without fail.
Robert McAnally Adams is a retired mathematician and curator of The Christian Quotation of the Day. See cqod.com
