Did you hear about the free-throw shooter who did eight cartwheels, twelve backflips, and moonwalked across the court before he took his shot?
It looked really impressive…but he missed the point.
I grabbed lunch with a friend a few days ago, and he explained to me the plot of a movie he had heard about recently. Without going into much detail, the story is about a few Christian missionaries who embark on a mission to a remote village under an anti-religious tyranny. The idea is basically a death trap. They make contact with another missionary in the same village, but they find that he’s been inactive for a while. Apparently, the local government had paid him off years before to renounce his faith and go silent. If he didn’t accept the offer, both he and his family would have been in serious danger. Slowly but surely, one of the new missionaries decides to take the same offer. Both men conclude that sharing the Gospel is simply impossible in such an oppressed place, so they find no reason to carry on.
As a Christian, it’s almost a reflex to read a story like this and call the missionaries out on their failure. Most would say that they just lacked the faith necessary to take on such a difficult task. Others would say that they weren’t as devoted as they should have been. My contention is this: these men (and many, many other Christians) weren’t lacking in faith or devotion—they were only faithful and devoted to the wrong things.
“For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised,” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15, ESV).
There’s plenty to discuss within these two verses, but I want to highlight something that applies to our men from the story. The missionaries who gave up on their quest did so because they missed out on the latter part of this passage—the part that reads “…but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” They were willing to risk it all when they began the trip. They genuinely wanted to see a change in a land where change didn’t seem possible. These men weren’t faking anything; however, they were devoted to ministry far more than they were devoted to a Man.
I believe that these missionaries faced the same struggle that I do on a regular basis. I’ll look at my campus green (“quad” for those of you outside of UAB) and think about what I can do to share the Gospel with my fellow students. I think about faithful discipleship and passionate worship and all of these other ships associated with ministry, but in the process, I miss the Man entirely. I’m confident that this is the primary reason why campus ministries remain stagnant, why local churches peak and die, and why believers give up when things get tough. We give so much of ourselves to living for a cause when we’re hardly fascinated with Jesus Christ Himself.
Ministry isn’t a bad thing. That isn’t what I’m trying to illustrate. However, we shouldn’t be doing ministry just for the sake of doing it—as Christians, we are to chase after the one who for our sake died and was raised. We are to fix our gaze upon Jesus and by His power be molded into the image of His glory from one degree to another (2 Cor. 3:18). The main topic of Heaven should be the source and destination of everything that we do. While it’s good to strategize how to share the Gospel, how to ensure smooth worship sets, how to bring more kids to the youth, or how to lead an effective small group, these undertakings are meaningless if Jesus is not the foundation, the floor, the walls, the windows, the doors, and the roof.
My advice: forget every reason why you want to read your Bible that isn’t Jesus. Forget every motivation you have to share the Gospel that doesn’t start and end with Jesus. Forget everything that compels you to do ministry that isn’t Jesus. In other words, decide to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2). That’s probably quite the load to drop, so you might ask, what’s left? Believe it or not, Christianity is left.
I realize this is beyond natural ability. I can’t do it. You can’t do it. Nevertheless, it’s possible because the God whom we’re devoted to lives within us. If fascination with Jesus is your new goal, take a breath, open your Bible to Psalms 27:4, and start praying. Know that God is with you, God is for you, and God is good.
