JESUS CHIPS (Now with no Transfat)

SCENE 1: Woman is running frantically around the house in the early morning. She’s obviously strung out, stressed, and her day has hardly begun. Her hair is a mess, her shirt is untucked, and she’s apparently looking for some article of her work clothing with little success. She’s in a terrible spot. She needs a drastic change, not just today but in her whole life. She’s missing something.

What is it?

Shampoo.


SCENE 2: Same woman in the shower massaging Herbal Essence into her hair with a bright smile on her face and sounds of great joy emanating from her mouth.


SCENE 3: Cut to the woman [now 20 pounds lighter] walking into a courtroom in impeccable dress, tossing her lush hair about, and giving a sly glance toward the opposing male lawyer [similarly sexy and attractive] who returns her devious look. Fade to announcer guy...

I think this is a wonderful example of what’s wrong with how we often think of (and sometimes present) the gospel. But we’ll come back to what I mean by that in a moment.

Have you ever heard (or used) a presentation or description of the gospel that goes something like the following:

We all have this circular shaped hole in our hearts. You’ve been trying to fill this hole with the square shaped pegs of sex, school, friends, music, drugs, etc. but none of those can fill the hole. So what you need to do is come to God and He will fill that hole because only He is the right shape and size to fill it.

Sound familiar? I’ve heard this a lot and I guess it works for some people (because they use it so much). I think the problem with it, though, is that it just isn’t true. I mean it’s a complete commercialization of God. It’s based on the same premise as every commercial you see on TV, right?

Commercials tell you that your life is in a horrible mess and if you’d just buy the right shampoo or the right dish soap or the right car, your life would be perfect, your family would be happy, and, of course, a great number of people will want to have sex with you (let's just be honest).

But here’s the problem. What happens when you buy the shampoo and you don’t lose 20 pounds, you don't become irresistible to the opposite sex, and your family life is still crazy? Don’t you feel disappointed? Lied too? Swindled?

Now I think we’ve gotten used to being lied to by the people on TV, but what about when we present the gospel like that to our friends and family?

When we talk about Jesus as if he’s a product isn’t it demeaning to Him and deceptive to our hearers? I mean, since you’ve become a Christian have you ever been hurt, depressed, upset, disappointed, angry? Not that your life hasn't become much better since you've begun following Jesus, but does Jesus live up to the promises of our commercial?

What does this say to people when we present Jesus as if He’s going to magically solve all of their problems (and help them lose 20 pounds)? What do you think about a product that doesn’t live up to its expectations? It’s a bad product, right? You got ripped off.

Is this what we’re conveying about Jesus? That He’s defective merchandise?

What I’m saying is that the gospel isn’t less than all of this, but it’s most certainly more! Is it not?