daily java

Daily Java: If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.  (1 Corinthians 15:19)

I talk occasionally to people who believe that the main job of a Christian is to make things better for people in this world. They believe that a Christian’s job is to help the poor and fight social injustice, to make life a better place here.

Those are things that a Christian will do. But they were not what Jesus came to do primarily.

When Jesus came, he came, he said, to the poor, those who were disenfranchised in society, those who were on the underside of life. He fed people, he healed, he taught. In fact, in Matthew 11, the disciples of John the Baptizer came to Jesus for that very reason.

John was in prison and was facing death. He had a moment of doubt. He sent his disciples to ask Jesus, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?"  He really knew who Jesus was, but after all, he was about to die. He just wanted t make sure.

Jesus answer was compassionate. “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.” (Matthew 11:4-6)

Jesus doesn’t berate John for his lack of faith, or holler at John, saying “After all, you are the voice of Elijah. What did you expect?”  He says, instead, these are the marks of one who comes from God: he heals and talks to people who don’t have any money.

It was and is easy to find people who love money. They will preach for a church if the church pays them a lot of money.  They will do things if they get the recognition they feel they deserve, the TV exposure, the fine clothes, the expensive cars, houses, stuff.

Jesus said, look at the people to whom I come. I come to people who can give me nothing in return and I love them.

But, for sure, I preach the gospel to them. Without the gospel all of the working for social justice is worth nothing more than this life. If all you believe Jesus does is change society, your Christianity is worthless.

For Christianity to be worth anything, it has to change lives and it has to point to something better than here. Life is crummy and then you die. Whether you make society better or not, if you do not show them God in the process, you have wasted your time.

It’s like painting and fixing up a car with a broken engine. You can paint it, and change the upholstery, fix the radio, put new tires on  it, but if the engine doesn’t work, the car is worthless.

The engine is the kingdom of God. The car is this world. You can do all you want with the world, but unless you see the kingdom of God, it is all for nothing.

Because no matter how hard you change and try, sooner or later, everybody is going to die, someone else is going to come into power and society will be right back where it was.

Jesus did not come to make a better world, he came to make a better person. He came, Luke 19:10 said, to seek and to save what was lost.

We were lost. Jesus came to find us and bring us back to God. In the interim, we will work for social change, we will feed the poor, we will clothe the naked, but that is not our job. That is the response of our hearts in teaching.

If we don’t do these things, we have missed the point of our mission. But it is not our mission.

Yes, God will look at that. Matthew 25: I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. But that is the response of our hearts, not the point of why we are here.

Any Christian who truly loves God will do these things.

But if that is all we do, we are missing the point.