Seven years ago, when I was elbow deep in Bible school, a man stumbled into my place of work. He was drunk. Like,smashed and probably had been for a long time. With my sense of self and faith, I walked right over to him where he sat, slumped really, at one of our tables. Over his own mumbling I told him, “Sir, you just need Jesus.” Yep. That’s what I said.
“Excuse me,” a lady scolded, “This man does not need Jesus. He needs help getting sober and a place to stay for the night.”
Needless to say, that shut me right up. Obviously, the guy did need a savior or he wouldn’t be where he was. But what the lady told me jarred me right into reality and I don’t think that her words were uttered for no reason; they certainly have stuck with me like super glue ever since.
Sometimes, I feel like Christians today have their heads too far up in… the clouds. We use Jesus like He’s a pill that we can take and within a tv episode’s length, all of our problems will be solved. And if not? Then it must not have been God’s “will” to help us or something is wrong with us enough to justify our sufferings. This makes my stomach turn just writing about it. I don’t think anything could be farther from the truth.
What good does it do to offer a man a sliver of faith and no real help that he can attach himself to?
Jesus told this story. “There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead.
Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.
“A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I’ll pay you on my way back.’
“What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?”
“The one who treated him kindly,” the religion scholar responded.
Jesus said, “Go and do the same.”
The whole foundation of Christianity is reality. God saw our sin (saw it and acknowledged it), knew that we needed a savior (not just an abstract, theorectical one) and provided Him. Jesus actually came down to earth, in real, human form and died on a real, bloodied cross. YES, people need Jesus. But they also need our tangible help.
When I was at my lowest point in my walk with Jesus, I was grappling for help for something that I could attach myself to and remain there for dear life. And what hurt me the most was when a “Christian” would tell me, “Just cast your burden on Jesus.” And I wanted to scream backHooooowwww?! Don’t get me wrong, those words held absolute truth, but they did nothing for me. I didn’t know how to cast any part of the burden I had. You know what would have helped? An hour of talking and crying and empathy. Even if there were no answers to my questions.
Those “religious leaders” are today’s Christians that give us a bad rap.
What I’m specifically referring to is this: I would rather be a Christian that is grounded in reality and still clings to Jesus. So that when someone who may not know Jesus or may not know Him well, can come to me when they’re sick or in a rough place and KNOW I will not give them some “super spiritual” answer along the lines of, “You’re sick? Oh, you must have sin in your life!” (read: I’m waaay more spiritual than you, since I don’t have cancer.)
OR
“You’re depressed? You have serious issues in your life? Honey, just cast your cares on the Lord.” (read: I have no real answer for you, so I’m going to give you an answer that sounds pretty good but provides no real help.)
OR
Telling a homeless, drunk man on the street that He just needs Jesus. NO! He needs a place to stay, help recovering from his addiction and ALSO Jesus.
This is the “super spiritual” I am talking about. Those people are all soft soap and nothing solid.
They preach love but have no real concern for the PEOPLE who look to them, hoping to see that outstretched arm that points to JESUS.
I couldn’t care less about seeming to people that I have it all together- I want to show that I am just as human and struggling in this fallen world as anyone else is. The only difference is that I have The Rock to stand on and I have a foundation that is firmly planted. I just want to be the kind of Jesus Follower that proves the stereotype wrong. The kind of Jesus Lover that my friends see and know there is a solid difference.
Really, I could type a few blogs about the different aspects of this issue. Maybe I might…