Jesus Mattered

What Did Jesus Do?

“No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14.6

Did the clean hands save anyone in the First Century? Did circumcision? Did the Law? Did the Prophets? Did sacrifices? Do traditional hymns, or contemporary Christian music, save anyone in the Twenty-first Century? Do stained glass windows and tall steeples? Does the King James Bible? Does dressing up, or dressing down?

If George Barna had been around in the First Century to poll “believers,” what do you think he would have discovered if he had asked them about what mattered to them when it came to “church”? “Clean hands.” “Circumcision.” “The Law.” “The Prophets.” “Sacrifices.”

I believe if we were to go to a typical church parking lot, on a typical Sunday morning, and asked typical church-goers what mattered to them today we’d probably get answers like the following. “The music.” (That is, traditional hymnody or contemporary.) “The stained glass and the steeple.” (That is, a beautiful building and sanctuary.) “The right Bible.” (That is, the “Authorized,” aka King James Version.) “The atmosphere.” (That is, either “High church-Sunday best,” or “Casual.”)

The thing is, First Century, or Twenty-first, I am afraid the majority of church-goers, would very likely overlook the one thing, actually the one person, who matters most—Jesus. You see, if it’s not about Jesus all the rest that we think matters so much doesn’t amount to anything at all. So many people attend, or seek, a church where they get “it” right, when the only thing that really matters turns out not to be a “thing” at all. What matters is that we get Him!

To employ some high-falutin theological language, it is impossible to get our ecclesiology (how we “do” church) right if we don’t first have our Christology (what we know about and, more importantly, how we relate to, Jesus) right. In fact, only by getting our Christology right can we get our missiology (how we as Christians relate to, and meet the needs of, the world as we glorify the Father in and through the Son in the Holy Spirit’s power). It is only when the Body of Christ has its Christology and missiology together that it can get its ecclesiology in order—only then can the Church be the Church. And there is no doubting that the world desperately needs the Church to be the Church, though the world would never say it.

Here’s the thing, at home, at work, at school, in and around our community, and especially at church, we need to start thinking, talking, and acting as if Jesus really matters, matters more than anything and everything else; because if we don’t, we have no business claiming the title of Christian. You see, apart from Jesus, his compassion, his forgiveness, his grace, his love, his mercy, we have nothing to offer the world that it doesn’t have already.

The truth is, the Father would never have sent the Son into the world, and the Son would not have established his Church in the world, unless Jesus, first, last, and always, mattered.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4