Theology Made Simple

The Concerns of Jesus, Part 3

When a company is willing to pay two and one half million dollars for thirty seconds of TV time, it graphically tells you what drives our society. The company obviously expects the expenditure to pay off, which means that Americans have their tastes and concerns largely determined by the power of television, which panders to the lowest standards of our society. Surrounded by this media blitz, people become robots reacting to the mass movement of the herd, and losing all semblance of individual responsibility and identity. Even the church has been caught up in the rush to become bigger, and richer, and more attractive to the people of worldly vision.

Contrasted to all of this is the life of a single individual, who lived His life in an out-of-the-way Roman province, half-way round the world, twenty centuries ago. Without the glare of the spotlight, nor the advantage of Super Bowl ads, He changed the course of history, and set a new standard for mankind, which blesses all who find it. The formula was simple: Don't play to the masses, nor look for glory and self-satisfaction. Instead, focus on the individual, and speak to his inner needs. Change the heart of the person, and give him something to live for which gives dignity and purpose to his life. Eliminate his fears with faith, and his despair with eternal hope.

Jesus was never concerned with mass response. He once asked the disciples to tell Him who men thought He was. After their reply, He simply said, "Who do you think I am?" He always centered on the individual, never the masses. Lost in the mass, a person loses all sense of personal worth, and therefore all sense of personal responsibility. Jesus took each individual out of the mass, and told him he was a child of the King. He restored dignity to the person, and with it the power, and necessity of changing his inner self into a soul fit for heaven itself.

As we approach the great Sermon on the Mount, we will find that the concerns of Jesus were the very antithesis of modern man's desire for personal glory, being better than others, and winning the competition. In each of the principles, so simply taught, He struck at the inner man, and urged him to find his worth in goodness and mercy, rather than control of others to one's own advantage. He totally reversed the philosophy of men by saying the servant was the greatest, not the master. Men rejected such an idea then, as men still do, but it changed the world.

To bring the concerns of Jesus into our modern consciousness, reflect on this for just a moment. The Super Bowl heroes of yesterday danced on their temporary stage, cheered by millions. They will hold their gold trophies high for a moment, and bank their money. But when all the hoopla dies away, and their names are soon forgotten by the same masses that cheered them, I ask, "What kind of husbands were they to their wives, and what happened to their children? What kind of lives did they live as they moved inexorably toward the grave." For they will all die, and the greatest question then will not be, "Did you win the Super Bowl?", but, "What kind of person were you as you lived your life?" This was the concern of Jesus, and if we are to have meaning to our lives, it must be our concern also.

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