A Powerful name... or offensive? ............. Parables 756

(No date)

God is okay. Jesus isn’t, at least according to network television.

While surfing channels, I happened upon a popular woman’s show on a major network. One woman was telling a group of women how she had been on another network show and as she was describing her recent weight loss, she blurted, “Thank you, Jesus.” To her astonishment, those words were cut from the final broadcast.

Another woman (this was not a religious program) said she often makes her faith public, and seldom receives flack for it. The others felt the first case was more typical than the second. Apparently you can mention faith in God on television, but not faith in Jesus.

Those who think Jesus was a benevolent do-gooder and a wise teacher, will not acknowledge His deity. They might cry a “thank you” to God or pray to Him if they are in trouble, but the name of Jesus is more often a cuss word. Why? They do not believe Jesus is God.

Jesus Himself encountered those kinds of people. When certain religious leaders challenged what He was doing and who He was, He replied, “You do not know me or my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also. . . . If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God. . . . I and the Father are one” (from John 8 & 10). With that, they understood He claimed to be God, so they picked up stones to try and kill Him.

For a while, Jesus’ disciples were also unsure of who He was. Philip asked, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus replied, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. . . . Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”

In same conversation, Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father also.”

According to Jesus, God is approachable only one way. A personal relationship with the Father is impossible without going through the Son, and acknowledging Him.

However, acknowledging Jesus Christ goes far beyond saying He was a good man and a wise teacher. Even a brief examination of His life shows He was far more; He healed the sick, cast out demons, controlled the weather, turned water to wine, did things only God can do.

Yet few avoid Jesus because of His power. Instead, they are offended by the purpose of His death. He came to die for our sins, sins that we are reluctant to admit or abandon. If we are going to acknowledge Jesus, we must acknowledge our sin and our need for forgiveness. He came, not to help us shed extra pounds but to satisfy the wrath of God against sin and to remove the burden of our sin and the weight of our guilt.

So if we mention Jesus, at least where this gospel message is rejected, and those who do not care to admit their sin will start throwing rocks. For them, God is okay because they assume He can be kept at arms length.

Actually, He is not even that close. Isaiah said “God’s arm is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear, but your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”

The woman on the talk show admitted that she didn’t realize what she was saying. It appears “popular” to pop off a “Thank you, Jesus” even without acknowledging sin or having a personal relationship with Him. Yet she discovered something; when an effort to be popular by acting religious is pitted against a determination to avoid Christ, that resistance will win — and immediately try to erase all mention of His name.