Saturday: The Partnership Must Be an Equal One
WEEK 9
SATURDAY
THE PARTNERSHIP MUST BE AN EQUAL ONE
Luke 5:4-7
Let us gather up the lessons we have been learning about the mastery of the conflict between youth and old age.
I am convinced, after seeing youth and old age living and working and playing and worshiping together in a close-knit fellowship in the Ashrams, that it is better to have them together rather than have youth conferences and old age conferences. Each needs the mental and spiritual cross-fertilization of the other. Each is poorer without the other, and each is richer with the other. But old age must not patronize or dominate youth; it must be an equal partnership.
I think Paul made a mistake here, a mistake that he rectified later. Why did John Mark leave Paul and Barnabas at Pamphylia and return home? Was he homesick? Weak-kneed? Or was it the position they gave him? This sentence would imply this reason: “John was with them as their assistant” (Acts 13:5). John was the “assistant minister” instead of the “associate minister,” so in protest he silently went home. That was probable, for John was there “as their assistant”; they were the center with John at the edges assisting them. Barnabas took John and made him his associate (Acts 15:39). That he wasn’t weak-kneed and afraid is seen by the fact that he and Barnabas sailed off straight to Cyprus, and he never turned again. He was an equal now. Paul later changed his attitude and asked for John Mark, but on a different basis: “Get Mark, and bring him with you. He has been a big help to me in the ministry” (2 Tim 4:11). Note “big help to me in the ministry.” Before John Mark was profitable to minister to Paul; now he is profitable in the ministry—not “me” but the “ministry” the end. The years had changed Paul and taught him a needed lesson. He could get John to come only on a new basis.
Youth and old age must work together as partners, neither mastering the other. But both mastered by the kingdom, which could use both; for they were now one in being devoted to the great change.
Lord, we see that when we are both devoted to something beyond ourselves, we find ourselves and we find each other. You master us so gently. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: People shall not work for me but with me—a partnership in God.