Re-Imagining Evangelism Book Discussion
Chapter 6
Jesus Outside the Box
I’m constantly surprised by the level of misinformation that’s out there about Jesus… There’s the blatant tabloid-esque gossip, such as “Jesus had an affair with Mary Magdalene, and they had kids,” recently mainstreamed in Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code (which I consider a terrific read for a thriller and at the same time not worth it’s weight in salt as a source of theological or religious factual information). There are more subtle nuances: “Jesus was a religiously pious, judgmental goody two-shoes that called people to a less-than-exciting life but at least they would go to heaven” (which forgets the stories in which he drew crowds of partiers, sinners, prostitutes, and outcasts because he was attractive as a person of abundant grace, not to mention his first miracle was to make incredibly good wine at a wedding feast). There’s the idea that “Jesus loves everyone no matter what, so it doesn’t matter if or how I respond to his invitation to “follow me’” (which omits the fact that he was constantly challenging people to respond to him, asking questions like “who do you say I am?” and provoking nearly everyone he met to take a stand: they either loved him and followed him, or walked away in disgust or hatred).
And in the midst of this milieu of misinformation, our friends have sincere, tough, seemingly unanswerable questions: “What happens to the person in the Amazon Jungle who never heard of Jesus and never will… what will happen to them when they die?”
For the really tough questions like this, I try to listen to the question behind the question. Often, there’s a stereotype or deeper hurt embedded in the question and I want to uncover, defuse the stereotype, and offer a more relevant, pressing question in return. For example, in response to the question above, my friend let me press in a bit and say, “When you ask that question, I wonder if the real thing you wonder about is whether God is good or not. Does he want people to know him or not? Or does he create some people to live and die never knowing him, destined for eternal punishment in hell?” And my friend responded: “Yes! That’s what I want to know!” Now we were into a solid conversation.
(Long story short) I said, “Frankly, I don’t have an absolute way of knowing what happens to that person in the Amazon, and of course, neither do you. But you should solve a question starting from what you do know and working toward the unknown. As a Christian, from scripture, I believe God is more loving than you or me, more wise than us, more fair and just and righteous than we are… and so my hope is that however God treats that person in the Amazon, it will be wiser, more just, more loving than whatever you or I would do with them.” And then I offered a pressing relevant question that took the conversation from theological musing to practical application. I said, “But I also know that you are not that person… you have all these opportunities to learn about God as revealed through the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit… the question is, what are you going to do with these opportunities?”
It’s important to note that this was an open, honest conversation with a friend with whom I have trust. Remember, this is all about being a good friend. This wasn’t an attempt to be manipulative, it was a straight-forward opportunity to think through my friend’s question and at the same time offer a challenging and supportive way to move forward on their spiritual journey. And they began to consider Jesus from a new perspective: not an angry God looking for reasons to send people to hell, but a loving God drawing people to himself even in mysterious ways… and furthermore, a God who calls for a response from each of us. He was beginning to see Jesus outside the box in which he had always imagined him.
Note: a great resource to think through tough questions like the one above is The Reason For God, by Tim Keller.
It's your turn: Please comment on the sixth chapter! And if you haven't already, order the book! Check back next week as we discuss Chapter 7: Great News!