Jesus Exemplified
A People-First Approach
To Ministry
There is no question that Jesus cares. He endured great difficulties during His short life and that alone gives us a measure of His interest.
Just being born exposed Him to humiliation, inconvenience and threat, and then later He was buffeted by insult, doubt, rejection and finally crucifixion.
And none of that was a surprise. He knew this would happen but it didn’t deter Him.
All of that is to say He’s invested. He cares but the question is what exactly does He care about?
He had to have a good reason to willingly subject Himself to these abuses and we need to ask what that was.
He Knows All The Issues
Obviously, being God, He is aware of everything. He’s intimately familiar with all the issues and He knows how they stack up. Heck, He even knows the stuff we aren’t aware of and He touched on a broad range of ideas during His three-plus years of ministry just to provoke our thinking.
But the question remains: what was His primary focus?
Obviously, He didn’t address every possible topic and the ones He did mention, weren’t all equally important. If He treated them all equally, those who read Him today wouldn’t know what was important and what wasn’t. It’s reasonable to believe He had one primary focus and we must determine what that is.
It is legitimate, even necessary, for us to ask where His biggest interest lay. What is it that motivated Him?
He said things about science, but could we say that science was His focus? I don’t think so.
He said things about monetary issues but could we say finance was His primary focus? Clearly not.
He certainly never engaged socio-political issues the way Christians do today. The few comments He did make along social or political lines run contrary to what Christians like to think.
Rather than render unto Caesar, like He said we should do, we’d prefer controlling him or, even worse, becoming him.
His teachings on paying taxes have caused some to accuse Jesus of complicity with an evil regime.
What makes that worse is unlike people today, Jesus never tried to rearrange the government or conform it to His religious views.
He said enough about many different issues to indicate that He was aware and that they were significant but hardly enough about most of them to signal a primary interest.
Jesus Cared About All People Not Just The Poor
He was charitable, and we should be too, but charity wasn’t His primary focus. He showed as much attention to the rich as He did to the poor. He celebrated with tax collectors. He recognized a centurion for his faith.
His comment that camels could pass through the eye of a needle more easily than the rich could enter the Kingdom of God (Matt. 19:24) was said for the benefit of the rich. If He didn’t care or there was no hope for them, He wouldn’t have said anything.
Based on how often He helped the needy, we could say generosity was important for Him but it wasn’t His primary concern.
I hesitate to say that because Christians, who should lead the way in charity, are some of the most ungracious, unkind, uncaring, impatient, indifferent, critical and insensitive among us.
Whatever charitable activities they engage are many times transactional (we will give you a meal if you listen to us preach first) and accompanied with uncharitable attitudes laced with judgment. Wealth, on the other hand, is usually held in high esteem.
Transactional is one thing. Generosity is another. The two can never be the same. Attacking the wounded and cannibalizing the dead is more like chickens than Jesus.
I wouldn’t say charity was the highest priority for Jesus but that doesn’t give anyone an excuse to be uncharitable.
What Jesus Taught We Should Do
So the question is what was Jesus’ primary interest? On what was He focused the most?
That’s the question we need to explore. It’s an important question because Jesus is central to Christianity. What He taught and what He did should be motivating factors in our lives.
The Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5-7) gives us a good idea of how Jesus thinks. He started that sermon with the Beatitudes, a list of behaviors that should characterize believers. The characteristics Jesus promoted (poor, mournful, meek etc.) aren’t usually found in the lists of the most popular motivational topics.
But, there’s more. Later in the sermon, He tells us how we should act toward others:
- Don’t murder anyone (5:21).
- Don’t be angry with anyone (5:21).
- Don’t insult anyone (5:21).
- Turn the other cheek (5:39).
- Give twice what the needy ask for (5:40).
- Go the extra mile (5:41).
What’s conspicuously missing here are issues. There are many reasons we might get angry with someone or even insult them to their face but He doesn’t mention any. He was more concerned with people than He was with issues.
Jesus taught us to be people first.
You wouldn’t think that, of course, from what we see and hear from the Christian community. Jesus is talked about a lot but that doesn’t mean His focus has become our focus.
Changing Souls Changes The World
Jesus was focused on the little picture.
Take, for example, His stated purpose. He plainly told us that He came to seek and to save those who are lost (Luke 19:10). That means He came to save souls. He didn’t come to manage them or control them; He came to save them.
And if He came to save souls, that also suggests that He didn’t come to renovate the world. In fact, according to end-time theologies, renovation comes at a much later date and is not something today’s Christian are to attempt.
Jesus engaged a one-person-at-a-time type ministry and so should we. Making an effort to see souls saved is very different to religionizing the world around us.
When souls get saved, it creates micro changes to the world. What it doesn’t do is completely refurbish it. One fact Christians don’t seem to accept is that before the return of Jesus, the world will never be perfect, not even close to perfect.
There’s a good reason for that. Apart from the innate sinfulness of every born-again believer, there’s always going to be enough unsaved individuals left to create a putrefying effect.
It’s a fact. We have to learn to moderate our responses to this. Creating a universal religious framework into which everyone is forced to live was not the aim of Jesus and it shouldn’t be for us either.
Jesus never focused on a thou-shalt-not regulatory approach but His efforts still made things better.
But more to the point, and realistically speaking, since salvation involves a personal choice, you can’t offer individual souls the option to be saved while legislating them beyond reason at the same time.
Jesus never did that and for good reason.
Imposing Christian ideals on the broader community without a deliberative and democratic process works against the primary objective, the salvation of souls.
Jesus Focused On Individuals Not Issues
The world can be better but it’s never going to be perfect. The best way to make it better is not run for office or gain the majority in government but to introduce as many people as possible to the saving knowledge of Jesus.
That happens best in a free society, one that isn’t in a constant state of turmoil caused by political and religious rancor.
The people to whom Jesus ministered did not understand this. They wanted a kingdom over which Jesus would be king and by which they could control the world.
Instead of obeying those in authority, they wanted to become those in authority.
They were so determined to make this happen that at one point, they attempted to force Jesus to be King (John 6:15).
That is neither a biblical purpose nor an appropriate precept.
But even though Jesus stated His purpose, those who heard Him didn’t get it then and we still don’t get it now.
The election of Donald Trump, not once but twice, is proof that we’ve missed the point. Never has a more foul, salacious, criminally minded, democratically inept person (not to mention intellectually deficient) been elected as president.
But if that is true, why would Christians vote for him in such large numbers?
It can’t be because they thought he was a Christian. That’s a hard pill to swallow. I wish it were true. It would make a big difference if it were.
Trump is a legitimate candidate for salvation prayer, not for election.
Christians voted for him because he promised to push the Christian agenda, and he followed through on that promise. Unfortunately, Trump being the least democratically minded President ever, his methods (if legal at all) were highly questionable and clearly manipulative but he did follow through.
It is true that no person is ever perfect so the President, whoever he or she is, will always have faults but does it make sense to elect someone with so many faults and to such an odious extent?
And, if the Christian agenda were correct, if their ideas were truly based on the primary focus of Jesus, that would be acceptable. But there’s a little fact, an obvious one no one seems to mention, that gets in the way of that kind of thinking.
Christians don’t all agree!
Focusing On People Mitigates Conflict Around Issues
Probably the biggest, most notable observation about the Christian community is the many things about which they don’t agree. And Christian thinking on the issues about which they seem to agree, may not be sound (abortion, same-sex marriage, etc.).
Disagreements are myriad and there’s a good reason for that. Christian ideas are beliefs. We call them beliefs because they can’t be proven.
I believe in God but even though there is an enormous amount of evidence for His existence, no one can prove Him.
I want others to know Him but I can’t make that happen by proving Him.
Even if my beliefs are truly correct, I can never force them on anyone politically.
That’s why it is important to identify the focus of Jesus. What is He concerned about? That should be the determining factor in what we think, what we do, and even how we vote.
Jesus Didn’t Start A Fight
At one point, Jesus made a curious statement about conflict.
I came not to bring peace but a sword. (Matt. 10:34)
Sounds ominous, kind of like fighting words! The question is how should we respond?
If you’re human, you know that people are independent thinkers. We don’t all agree on prevailing ideas and the differences may easily result in conflict.
Friction naturally occurs around all kinds of preferences, even ones that aren’t that serious: which school you go to, which team you support, which foods you prefer. When it comes to religious/political/philosophical differences, disagreements can become violent.
We all know this is true. We’re experiencing some of this even now.
But was Jesus telling us to start this fight or was He warning us about the inevitability of friction so we could be prepared to deescalate it?
All of these conflicts are centered on issues. What’s lost in the fury, relationships, is personal. So what does Jesus care about? The issue or the person?
I would say that Jesus is more interested in how we limit the conflict than in how we feed it. He really does care about people. Issues come and go. People are eternal.
His purpose was to save souls not do them damage. And Jesus clearly said we are to be peacemakers (Matt. 5:9).
A person may get riled up when we share Jesus but whatever we do in response should be conciliatory. Picking fights is never our purpose.
Jesus Loves Everyone
I haven’t mentioned motive but that’s an important issue. Doing the right thing is good but doing the right thing for the right reason is far better.
I know it sounds mushy but for Jesus, love was the motive.
Love is something everyone needs. I need it. You need it. We all need it. Even hateful people need it.
The question is how is love communicated? How is it received?
We, of course, know that Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world. Based on John 3:16 (the most popular verse in the Bible) we usually say His death on the cross was the ultimate expression of His love.
But that was the end game for Jesus. He didn’t start with death, He ended with it.
The question is not was that a loving thing to do or was He expressing love when He did it? The real question is was that the only way He communicated love and if so, was it effective?
If it was, everyone would get it and many clearly don’t.
Many people have died, even intentionally, in an effort to protect us and we appreciate it but do we really get it? We know that the death of soldiers on the battle field have made our lives possible, but do we really understand how their death has made our lives different? Have we fully appropriated the opportunities their deaths made possible?
No! We often just take it for granted.
There are many ways to communicate love other than dying. In fact, many people have died for no reason at all. Nothing changed. No difference was made.
There are also many ways to show you love someone that don’t involve dying.
Being patient with others, leading them to new ideas (without insulting opposing ideas), being open and generous are all ways to show love. That was actually the point of the Sermon on the Mount.
And Jesus did all those things before His crucifixion.
The staggering truth is Jesus did very little fault finding. Finger pointing wasn’t customary for Him.
I’m not saying He agreed with us. He clearly saw humanity’s faults. He suffered many accusations, but it wasn’t customary for Him to respond in kind.
I’m not saying you can’t disagree with others or that you can’t engage a legitimate discussion on the disagreement. But disagreeing without a deliberate discussion, without asking questions and investigating the details is nothing more than dismissing opposing ideas and that is disrespectful.
We all know that Jesus wanted to save souls and that salvation ultimately leads to changed lives. In fact, transformed lives is the desired goal.
The reality is you can’t change a life without first changing a mind. That’s how Jesus worked. He engaged dialogue and offered input patiently as a way of bringing about change.
And that was an expression of love.
Idle Words Are The Most Unloving Response
We’re all guilty of idle words and they are seriously condemned by Jesus.
I tell you that every idle word that a man shall speak, they shall give account thereof on the day of judgment. For by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned. (Matt. 12:36-37)
This statement flies in the face of all traditional and conventional thinking. For us, judgment is reserved for big things, like murder, theft, trafficking, physical assault and so on. According to Jesus, you don’t have to be so bad to be in line for judgment.
Jesus was focused on our words, particularly the ones He called “idle.”
In the Greek, “idle” translates the word “argon” and the dictionary says it means:
- Lazy
- Thoughtless
- Unprofitable
- Injurious
In other words, Jesus is focused not on the issue itself but how we address the issue, how we talk to each other.
It’s ok to have a discussion. It’s ok to engage a debate but uninformed deflections and insults can never take the place of an argument.
And according to Jesus, not only are idle words serious infractions, they express love more for the issue than the people involved. They represent the worst kind of disrespect.
Jesus Was Almost Apolitical
Jesus never focused on political leaders, government structures or even religious rules and regulations, and He had chances to do that.
The Pharisees faulted the disciples over Sabbath rules (religious governance) and Jesus responded with a pithy statement that should become an interpretive principles for us all.
The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. (Mark 2:27)
He responded to Pilot’s interrogation but His remarks, rather than address the socio/political issues of the day, were mysterious like a parable but without a story.
When Pilot asked if Jesus was the king of the Jews, Jesus, instead of answering directly, asked:
Is this your question or did someone say that about me? (John 18:34)
Remember, this was a trial and in normal circumstances, anyone in Jesus place would have been arguing for acquittal. Instead, He gave Pilot enough information to make him think.
Pilot wasn’t stupid. He wasn’t unthinking. For Pilot to maintain his position, he needed to be clever enough to balance the input from all parties.
The political-legal system of the day wasn’t fair but there was nothing Pilot could do to change that. But the more important point is that wasn’t the intention of Jesus either.
Instead of arguing political philosophies, Jesus simply said enough to goad Pilot’s interest.
When Jesus said His purpose was to “testify to the truth” (John 18:37), Pilot’s response was an expression of exasperation: “What is truth?”
So, if He wasn’t focused on politics or religion, what did He care about? What was His focus?
And the only answer is people: you, me and the rest of humanity. He cared about living, breathing souls. All of them. Intensely!
Jesus Wept
More than once (John 11:35, Luke 19:41-44).
We often refer to Jesus as a personal Savior, and that is true, but we don’t always elaborate on what that means. What makes Jesus a personal Savior is the fact that our salvation means as much to Him as it does to us.
And because He is concerned about us personally, He believes in us and has our best interest at heart, He spent more time sharing the solution to our faults (He knows them all) rather than hammering us with guilt.
Not only does He weep when some don’t get it, He and all of heaven celebrate our salvation as intensely as we do when it does happen.
He wants everyone to be saved and He cries when his efforts are ignored.
Focusing on issues creates turmoil. Focusing on people is one way to limit that.
THINK!AboutIt
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