don't point to Jesus

there was a man, who we'll call sam, driving to work last week and as he curved around a sharp bend he notice a car had run into a telephone pole. this curve was notorious for car accidents and sam had seen many cars who had skid off, waiting to be towed, but never one that had been crumpled by a telephone pole. as sam slowed down to inspect the damages, he saw sitting beside the smashed car was a young man in his late twenties; his hair was wet with blood, his clothes torn, his arm dangling loosely to his side. recognizing the dire need of the young man, sam swerved his car over to the shoulder of the road sliding to a stop.

sam approached the young man with eager caution, not wanting to scare him away, but rather comfort him because sam knew he could help. as sam and the young man, who's name he soon found out was zach, began to talk, sam realized that zach was well aware what had happened. he was coherent, and seemed to be in fine mental shape. so, sam did what any person in his situation would -- he gave zach the best directions to the hospital, told him where to find the only doctor who could mend his wounds properly, and sam headed back to his car to leave. he opened the door, sat down, started his car and drove away slowly. sam would want you to know that as he was driving off he turned around periodically to see if zach was still okay. he by no means left him stranded.

maybe you're asking yourself, "why in the world didn't sam help zach into his car and take him to the doctor?"

i'm fairly certain that we would all agree that sam did the right thing by stopping, but he missed the boat when it came to actually helping the man.

i wonder, when it comes to the lost, if we are often times like sam?

in life we come across (not go to -- that takes up too much of "our time") people who are dirty, bruised, broken and cut up by the world. some choose to be that way and others are a product of a fallen world. most of the time we see them and we stop to help. doing what we can. we might tell them about God, how he can heal them, how Christ came to save them, where to look and what to say to find Him, but then we leave...

instead of picking them up off the street and showing them a physical/visible manifestation of God's Grace through our actions, we simply tell them the best way to begin heading in His direction.

do you ever see Jesus, in the Gospels, witness to people the way we do? giving them the best formula for salvation?

there is a story about a broken, short, dishonest man who Christ happens to see in a tree as he is coming into town. when Christ looks up at him, do you recall what He says? He essentially says, "come down, i'm going to your house for dinner". Jesus doesn't look up and say, "if you were to die today would you go to heaven or hell?" why do we make the Gospel unrelational?

perhaps Christ knew that investing Himself in the lost He came into contact with was more important than a regurgitation of a formula for salvation.

perhaps Christ knew that people don't crave formulas, they crave healing, peace, grace. they long for something bigger than this world, bigger than themselves.

now we can tell these people where to find this healing, where to find this peace, but is that what our calling truly is? ABSOLUTELY NOT! so why would we rather tell people about Jesus instead of showing them Jesus?

why do we expect a lost person to gladly accept our invitation to church, when we know how intimidating it is for believers to walk into for the first time?

instead of inviting people to us, where we feel comfortable-- why don't we go to them? not with the goal of getting our idea of eternal life explained in one, five minute conversation, but rather with the intention of picking them up, dusting them off, and walking with them.

as we walk with them, we can share the beauties that are held in the Grace of Christ. we can share how he changed us. we can show them what Jesus intended for all of us, by lovingly serving them.

what if we got off our butts and walked with the lost towards our Savior instead of simply pointing them in the right direction.

we are called to be men and women who lead people to Jesus, not point the way.

today

may we seek out the broken

the bloody

the bruised.

may we pick them up

dust them off

and walk with them, all along the way telling them about our Father and showering them with His Love.