Recently on Facebook I came across a post, to wit: If you had to tell somebody about Jesus using only one word, what would that world be?
To me, the phrase in bold face (above) tells me that the intent of the question may be directed at some form of evangelism.
But the question is ambiguous.
Interpretation 1: IF you only could use one word to tell someone about Jesus (like before your last breath or just as the shimmer from the transporter beam is kicking in) what word would it be?
Interpretation 2: IF you HAD TO tell somebody about Jesus…I knew a nurse with a Bachelors of Science in Nursing who told me that her faith was quite private and she didn’t share it with anyone. She was only telling me she attended church and believed in Jesus because of the discussion we were having and that she liked me.
I’m going to go with Interpretation 2.
So.
Matthew 28:18-20 (AMP) makes the telling (as well as discipling, baptizing and teaching) everyone about Jesus mandatory for every practicing disciple of Christ and not just once but for as long as you shall live as a slave to God.
But back to the one word description bit: how bizarre.
Here are a smattering of answers from (I am certain) sincere, happy and enthusiastic Christians.
- Magnificent
- Amazing
- Loving (verb or adverb)
- Redeemer
- Alive
- Messiah
- Compassion
- Almighty
- Life
- Friend
- Great
- Everlasting
- Love (noun)
- Forgiving
- Wonderful
- Marvelous
- Savior
- Dependable
- Healer
- Grace
- Merciful
There were two outliers:
- Someone who could not play by the rules limiting them to one word only: Born of a virgin
- AND, a professed person of Jewish faith, obviously annoyed by the excitement of Christians: Bastard
If someone were to start a button campaign or a bumper sticker campaign where one could purchase ,for a small fee, a button or bumper sticker that reads: Jesus is…(insert your word here) what effect do you suppose these items would have on nonbelievers if you wore them to work or the store or put them on the bumper of your car?
None, comes first to mind. But maybe that’s just my contrarian nature.
Suppose you have a bumper sticker that says Jesus is Love!
Now suppose I am behind you in the line at the grocery checkout and you are an absolute jerk to the checker, making unreasonable demands to have prices checked, coupons that expired in 1977 be honored, etc.
As I step up to the checker after you've banged on I smile and shake my head. “Sorry,” I might mumble. And the checker says, “Don’t worry, they're the worst customer we have. There’s always something wrong, someone’s always rude or some idiot should be fired immediately. They're something.”
I buy whatever I came in for and leave. I come up on the back of your car and there’s that bumper sticker, Jesus is Love! and I think what in the wide, wide world of sports is going on?!
You're still at it: berating the teenager who helped you out with your groceries and who is now putting them in the back seat of the car for you! Jesus certainly is Love. Are you or maybe you just got the wrong car?
I knew of a beloved pastor on Kansas City’s East Side. He was a self admitted violator of speed laws, a great violator as I recall. He was asked why he didn’t have a “Pastor” window sticker on his back window or on his bumper. His unhesitating reply, “Because I don’t drive like a Christian.”
Well, ok, but what is wrong with telling someone about Jesus with one word?
Nothing per se. BUT.
If you are trying to tell someone about Jesus who does not know Jesus except through the filter of modern culture, e.g.,
of modern politics,
cable TV and the bumper crop of grifters and charlatans using the name of Christ to get rich,
the modern portrayal in TV shows and movies (usually either ultra liberal and therefore ultra cool but who don’t believe in the God they represent or ultra conservative and therefore ultra hypocritical and hateful),
books and magazines, etc.,
then your ONE WORD lacks any sort of meaningful context, especially among people who, regardless of their socio-economic status, LIKELY DON’T have a handle on what most of the answers to the question mean in the context of one’s faith.
I mean:
Professional wrestlers are “magnificent.”
Professional spiritual and paranormal skeptic, The Amazing Randi is “amazing.”
Ask any random person on the street what it means to be “loving” or what is “love.” I will wager you will get as many answers as the number of people you ask AND none of them will have explained Agape love which disciples of Christ are to have in them and practice.
“Redeemer?” Really? Excuse me, what? Uh, I know my old man used to clip and redeem bond coupons.
“Alive” - well aren’t we all? - “alive”? We’re breathing, eating, procreating, making sewage and are above the ground.
“Messiah.” I’ll take Highly Specialized Words for $100. The Answer is: “Messiah” Alex, what is: something or someone Jewish?
“Compassion,” isn’t that some sort of save the children kinda commercial that they run on TV late at night?
“Healer,” oh, you mean Jesus is like one of those con men on TV who con people out of their money for healing them but they aren’t really healed?
“Forgiving,” I haven’t done anything wrong so why do I need to be forgiven?
“Grace,” Jesus has a feminine side OR he dances ballet and His movements are graceful?
I could go all through the list of responses but I think you get my drift: ABSENT ANY CONTEXT ABOUT YOUR LIFE, to a person in need of Christ, your one word description, as ecstatic and warm and fuzzy as it makes you feel is WORTHLESS.
So where does this leave us?
Well, something that St. Francis of Assisi didn’t say but is nonetheless true: Preach the Gospel always. When necessary use words.
St. Francis did say:
“...love one another, as the Lord says: ‘This is my commandment that you love one another, as I have loved you.’ And let them show their love by the works they do for each other, according as the Apostle says (John - I John 3:15-24 (AMP)): “let us not love in word or tongue, but in deed and in truth.”
So, as I struggle to love and do good deeds (Hebrews 10:24 (AMP)) and as the Father leads me to preach to His Kingdom, it bothers me, rather GREATLY, that it seems there are so many “Christians” who are not disciples. That these “Christians” live by words, songs and rituals but NOT in deed; by simple ritual which neither taxes their consciences nor inconveniences them nor does it require their attention to Scripture.
I try to strive to be as I should - a disciple, having been buried in the waters of baptism to arise in Christ in newness of life; a new creation, a participant NOW in the Divine nature, an Ambassador (Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary) to humanity.
And sometimes it feels as if I strive alone.
To live as a disciple means (at least to me) a 24X7 state of mind; a repentance so thorough that I can say with a clear conscience that I am an Ambassador of the great I AM; of the NAME; of the Tetragrammaton - the true, dread, terrible, ineffable name of GOD.
That through Christ I AM reconciled me/us to HIMSELF so that I/we now have the ministry of reconciliation - the NAME making HIS appeal to man directly through us!
That I am no longer of this world; that I no longer look upon or consider things from a human perspective. (II Corinthians 5:14-21 (AMP))
It’s a 24x7x365 job, discipleship to Christ, isn’t it?
I’ve failed at it for the past 45 years, blissfully ignorant. And still most days. April 18 I will be 46 years in the Kingdom and I have to type that date and number of years with shame. I have almost nothing to show for those 46 years except that perhaps I have planted seeds that others have nurtured.
Or can I really fulfill the terms of discipleship to Christ with an hour or two of Sunday service, maybe 45 minutes of “Sunday school” and then, maybe, 15 or 20 minutes a day of devotional and prayer time?
Ask yourself if you can change your thoughts and therefore your actions with just the little time spent on ritual each week. Or, if through diligent prayer, meditation and practice you start to get it “right” and then one day you awake to find that it is your nature to love. (You are someone different! No longer a caterpillar or a chrysalis but a magnificent butterfly!)
The Holy Spirit through James says: someone will say ‘You have faith; I have deeds. Show me your faith without deeds and I will show you my faith by my deeds.’ You say you believe in God - well Good! So do the demons and they tremble in fear! (James 2:18-19)
Two morals to this provocation:
- Without some context, some reference point for those you seek to bring to Jesus, to compare perceptions of states of being, words mean zip.
Show someone your life by being different from them, because of Christ, and you won’t have to force yourself upon them but Christ in you will draw them to you! Why are you so different? Why do have a sense of peace that others don’t have? Why do you care about people who hate you? As St. Francis didn’t say: Preach the Gospel always (by the way you live - moment to moment); when necessary use words.
- I am...frustrated. As I look at the requirements of Love and of reproducing the Fruit of the Spirit. Discipleship will be the struggle for the rest of my life. I do not foresee a time when I can sit back and say, “Ok, phew, I made it!”
I see discipleship as an ongoing struggle and ABSOLUTELY NOT POSSIBLE, NOT ATTAINABLE through the simple ritualism that has developed and is PERVASIVE, like a metastasized cancer, in the Church today.
Are you a ritual Christian or are you a struggling disciple of Christ? Deeds not words, my brothers and sisters.
Well, until next time,
May the Peace of Christ Be With You,
† Scott, V.D.M., ev
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