As a missionary, it is your job to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to anyone and everyone you meet. It is almost an automatic topic of conversation or becomes an inadvertent pressure. The feeling of, “if I don’t talk about Jesus and share about His death and resurrection and what that means for the world and that person individually, then I have failed.” That feeling is all too familiar for me and I’m sure for many other fellow Christians. As if there is one way to share the good news of Jesus’ ultimate atonement for our sins and justification in the eyes of God through this, and only this, one sacrifice. It’s a feeling and thought I hope to put down.
Don’t get me wrong, it is great to have a conversation about Jesus and inform people on what His death means for us all willing to accept, believe, and follow the example He set before us. However, most people don’t need to learn about Jesus in America. Most people don’t need tge head knowledge of what He has done and said. Most people know that He is love and peace, but have they ever felt that before? Have they ever known what it is like to feel accepted and loved from a group of other Christians? Or, have they been burned one too many times by “Christians” to care to listen when someone mentions the name Jesus?
I have learned a difficult lesson while consciously ministering to people in America both on and off the streets. The name Jesus and what He truly represents doesn’t always work.
Most people already have an idea of what He looks like in their heads. Jesus is my neighbor who still has my crockpot from when they “borrowed” it. Jesus is my old boss that fired me because someone better came along. Jesus is the bully at school that told me the world would be better off if I weren’t in it. Instead of reading and listening to the true character of Jesus described and illustrated in the Scriptures, we give him the face of someone in our lives who has wronged us. Once we have that false identity we continue with it and add to it as more Christians continue to wrong us. When you encounter someone who has a mask over Jesus’ face, they don’t necessarily need to hear about Him. They need to feel His love. They need to feel seen. They need to understand that they matter in His eyes.
It is hard to know what someone’s qualities are behind the mask when we have never met them before. We assume what is on the surface is what lies beneath as well. Yet, when you know the person prior to the mask, we can more easily see them for who they are. We already know their facial features and the smile that is behind it. The mask doesn’t hinder anything because the character is already obvious. So, let’s make it impossible to miss the features that lie under the mask. Let’s shower our community with the acceptance and love that has been freely given to us from God through the lone sacrifice of Jesus. Let’s make it impossible for the mask to hide His true qualities.
