Jesus did a lot of things backwards and by the conventions of worldly wisdom, just plain stupid. I've run a production company, a film company, and have assisted many clients in trying to market their products and services. I'm trying to get a faith-based movie out there. And I'm trying to get a new one going, doing the market research so that I can find out what the audience is wanting to hear.
I mean, really. After feeding 5,000 people, they were ramped up to make him king. We just passed 1,000 Facebook fans for "The Imposter." The word of mouth that can come from that is just amazing. Viral can happen with just a few people... say like twelve.
But Jesus took that moment to say really hard stuff. Stuff that turned people off. Didn't He know better? Isn't the point to get more people saved? Isn't it about keeping score? Like 18 people came forward after the screening of my movie? Or 2300 came down at the crusade? Or, "we just passed the 4000 fans mark on Facebook."
So, marketing wasn't His point at that moment. Increasing Followers wasn't His point. Justifying budgets with awesome numbers wasn't His point. He didn't care. "But Jesus, how can you have no compassion for the lost? Why pick that moment to push people away? You knew what was going to happen."
I may be missing it, but it looks like He has a different purpose in mind than me and most churches and ministries around. Seems that the evangelical thrust is a contemporary creation. Because Jesus, yes I know it's crazy, had more focus on training and discipling, than just decisions.
What was He thinking?
Yeah, I think that Jesus simply wouldn't hide the truth, no matter how unpopular it may seem. Think about how many behaviors we've accepted now that we NEVER would have accepted even 50 years ago. Has the truth changed? No. We have.
ReplyDeleteTruth. Jesus didn't care whether we wanted to hear it. Only that we needed to hear it.