The following is copyrighted
material. It is written by Philip Yancey and I recently came across it in his
book Grace Notes: Daily Readings With A Fellow Pilgrim (2009). The article is
from the entry for February 7 (it’s an annual reader). After reading it I
considered putting his thoughts into my own words, but I would rather share
what he wrote because it is both thought-provoking and well-written. Quite
honestly, I wouldn’t do well with it.
Sometimes I believe we are
professionals first who happen to be Christians rather than Christians first
who happen to be professionals. Along that line of thought I would recommend a
book written by John Piper entitled Brothers, We Are Not Professionals.
Sometimes I wonder how Jesus
would have fared in this day of mass media and high-tech ministry. I can’t
picture him worrying about the details of running a large organization. I can’t
see him letting some makeup artist improve his looks before a TV appearance.
And I have a hard time imagining the fund-raising letters Jesus might write.
Investigative reporters on
television like to do exposés of evangelists who claim powers of supernatural
healing with little evidence to back them up. In direct contrast, Jesus, who
had manifest supernatural powers, tended to down-play them. Seven times in
Mark’s gospel he told a healed person, “Tell no one!” When crowds pressed
around him, he fled to solitude, or rowed across a lake.
We sometimes use the term
“savior complex” to describe an unhealthy syndrome of obsession over solving others’
problems. Ironically, the true Savior seemed remarkably free from such a
complex. He had no compulsion to convert the entire world in his lifetime or to
cure people who were not ready to be cured.
I never sense Jesus twisting
a person’s arms. Rather, he stated the consequences of a choice, then threw the
decision back to the other party. For example, he once answered a wealthy man’s
question with uncompromising words, then let him walk away. Mark pointedly adds
this comment about the man who rejected Jesus’ advice, “Jesus looked at him and
loved him.”
In short, Jesus showed an
incredible respect for human freedom. Those of us in ministry need the kind of
“Savior complex” that Jesus demonstrated. As Elton Trueblood has observed, the
major symbols of invitation that Jesus used had a severe, even offensive
quality: the yoke of burden, the cup of suffering, the towel of servanthood.
“Take up your cross and follow me,” he said, in the least manipulative
invitation that has ever been given.
No comments:
Post a Comment