Christ To the World

John 18:4-5a

“Then Jesus, knowing all that was about to happen asked them, ‘who are you looking for?’ Jesus of Nazareth’ they replied. Jesus replied, ‘I am He’”

These are the final words of Jesus before he was arrested. I don’t know if he was thinking about these words or if it was just his natural response to the question, but we do know that Jesus knew what was about to happen. He was about to be arrested, tried before an illegal court, beaten, nailed to a cross, and eventually he would die. One can say that with this knowledge of the events that were about to take place that presenting your identity as the person in question would be nothing but foolish! The typical person would reply, “I saw him about an hour ago in the town square!” and quickly get out of Dodge. This was not who Jesus is. Jesus is the Son of the Most High, sent to this earth for a specific purpose, “To seek and save those who are lost.”

We are called to continue in that same purpose as his followers. I am sad to say that often the church has failed to fulfill the purpose of Christ, I think back to our history with: The Crusades, Colonization, Slavery, and the likes. Today we have issues of substance abuse, pornography, slavery, sex trafficking, and the cancerous issue of apathy. This final issue is a strong declaration of why these other issues exist. I have to admit that my mind hasn’t always been geared toward social justice, it is in all actuality a more recent development for me, and I now morn for those trapped in issues caused by the apathy I once held, and still find myself caught in at times. It is the apathy that Christ was against, which is obvious from his lack of personal regard when offering his body up as a sacrifice for those who are lost.

Do we find this apathy present in our lives today? Particularly our spiritual lives? “If you are neither hot nor cold I will spit our out of my mouth.” Christ can’t stomach someone who carries his name but holds the disgusting taste of apathy upon them. He finds them useless “If salt loses its saltiness…what good is it?” to fulfilling what he came here to do. Let us be constantly asking ourselves, “Are we apathetic towards the cause of Christ? Does my heart break for what breaks God’s?”