"If you have a cure for a disease and dont share it with the ones who you love then you're not only hurting them but yourself as well. I think the same can be said of a cure for the spiritual disease called sin. The cure is a relationship with Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins so that me may be free. So if we dont tell others of this cure, who else are we hurting? How about Jesus?"
I did not write this. I copied it from someone's status update on Facebook recently. Read it again. How does this make you feel? How motivated are you to act upon this?
Now, I have been following Jesus for 26 years and reading this made me feel anger. Yes, anger. I like this person and they are a friend of mine but my initial reaction was, "Really? This is the best that we have to offer as Christ-followers? No thanks."
Picture this. It is like this person is standing on the corner of Internet Road and World Wide Web Boulevard with a bullhorn yelling via their status update at anyone passing by declaring that they are right and everyone else is diseased and wrong.
((deep breath))
Now I have to admit that as I am typing this I am sitting here in quite a tension. I want communicate in a way that points out how ineffective this type "drive-by evangelism" is but yet I don't want to be condemning either. So I am in a tension that does not want to condone this kind of Christian behavior not condemn this person.
So let's take a look at the method and the message.
First up, where is the love in this statement? Do you feel the overwhelming sense of God's infinite love and grace from this declaration? If we analyze the posture of this statement it becomes obvious by the words that were chosen that there is something wrong with us. Yeah, us. "If you... don't share it with the ones you... you're not only... but yourself as well." Did ya' catch that?
Let's dig into this a bit deeper. The message starts with the "you" statements while setting up the problem then moves into "we" and "us" statements in the resolution portion. The message is communicated in a passive-aggressive voice. Who is the one with the problem? Everyone else is.
To be honest, I find that I even struggle with communicating like this myself. As I attempt to share my leadership and spiritual learnings here at covered in dust, I am constantly trying to do it in a grace-filled, loving way that allows for contemplation, reflection, and action without condemnation (assertive style not passive-aggressive). I do not always succeed and I am sorry. Seriously.
Moving on...
Notice the non-sequitur argument assumed in this statement, "so that you may be set free." The cure is a relationship that sets me free? Sets me free of what? The disease of sin? How does that work? I just don't follow the logic. How about you? The story starts with a disease and cure then moves to freedom through relationship. I understand the point the author is trying to make but it just doesn't work for me.
Next up is the position. Jesus' position. He is a cure. That's not a bad analogy but it is not exactly accurate either. It would be better to tell the story like this...
"If you saw a Rembrandt covered in mud, you wouldn't focus on the mud or treat it like mud. Your primary concern would not be the mud at all- though it would need to be removed. You'd be ecstatic to have something so valuable in your care. But if you tried to clean it up by yourself, you might damage it. So you would carefully bring this work of art to a master who could guide you and help you restore it to the condition originally intended. When people begin treating one another as God's masterpiece waiting to be revealed, God's grace grows in their lives and cleanses them." (excerpt from No Perfect People Allowed by John Burke)
This "Jesus is the cure" statement embodies the false juxtaposition of the message. While Jesus can and does cure and heal, it is false to assume that once you willingly follow Jesus with you heart, mind, soul and strength that you are instantly "fixed" or cured. Mud does not come off the masterpiece without time and effort. It is a process. Likewise, our struggle with sin does not get immediately healed nor are we "set free" from sinning the moment we confess Jesus as the leader of our heart and mind and life. However, this much is true- that we are set free from the control that sin has in our lives as we willingly allow God to work in us and through us. Maybe that's what is trying to get communicated here. That we must rely on Him to rescue us from our own dirt and muck. However, this does not mean that we no longer struggle with the "disease of sin" as this statement seems to delicately postulate.
So this post is as much of a conviction as it is a wake up call to my own life and my chosen communicative voice. Let's be a people who are known by our love and motivated to move towards others because God made them and they are beautiful. Let's be a people who realize that everyone is human just like us and needs love and acceptance. Let's be a people who do not stand on the street corners with bullhorns condemning the world around us. Maybe then they will see Jesus.
Take a peak at this video before you go...
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composed by
dave
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