I hear mainstream Christians using the saying, "all they need is Jesus"... or "Jesus is the answer" far too often. I'm not sure this is a helpful sentence to say to someone who has never heard of Jesus, let alone picked up a Bible to read about him...
It is the most truest of all statements ever to be made, sadly, to some the most irrelevant.
Jesus is no more relevant to people that don't know Him than you or I are... but maybe that's the point...
As light dispels the spirit of despair, and truth disinfects the wounds of a close friend so is the name of Jesus, the Christ, the living God.
"My boyfriend, the father of my child, the man whom I have spent the last 14 years of my life with is cheating on me"... Jesus is the answer.
"I have no food, no heat, and am being kicked out in a week... "... Jesus is the answer.
"My baby boy and husband were just killed in a car accident, I am so alone, I don't know what I am going to do"... Jesus is the answer
"I have stage 4 cancer"... Jesus is the answer.
Although true, cold is the human being that states this to a fellow human without Jesus, with such suffering... suffering... and why is Jesus relevant in our suffering? Why is the human condition showered with suffering?
"You see, they didn't understand. It wasn't the nails that kept Jesus there. It was love. "Papa?" Jesus cried, frantically searching the sky. "Papa? where are you? Don't leave me!" And for the first time - and the last - when He spoke, nothing happened. Just a horrible, endless silence. God didn't answer. He turned away from his boy. Tears rolled down Jesus' face. The face of the one who would wipe away every tear from every eye." (the Jesus Storybook)
Suffering: Jesus is the answer because He suffered separation from the Father, from God for us. Are we not to share in one another's sufferings? How could I live not knowing God? His love, His plan, the acceptance, significance, and security He holds for me...eternally. Not knowing God is not separation from Him, and yet their separation is not knowing Him. We are to walk through dark places with others and introduce them to the one that has already suffered all there is to suffer for them. Are we not to offer up glimpses of blinding light in dark places? Offer salt to unseasoned conversation, or on wounds that no longer hurt?
Jesus is the answer... but let us first hear the heart of why. There need not be arguing, God can defend himself. There need not be an exchange of intellect, although this can be entertaining. When you listen through the ears of the man that has suffered all things, when you walk amongst the dead, amongst the wounded, and see the carnage of this sick place we live in, it is impossible not to offer hope. Wisdom is known when it is heard. It is either life or death to those that want it.
Offer life with Christ Jesus. Offer it. Don't serve it up with a plate piled so high they have forgotten what they will be digesting, or with so many sides they have forgotten what it tastes like to be wanted, loved, known, open and full of Him.
Simple and pure, strait up not shaken or stirred.
Jesus IS the answer... be sure you've asked the right question.
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