What’s the story?
[The following was inspired by a recent answer someone posted on Quora to the question: Can you convince me to become a Christian?]
Throughout history, humans don’t have a great track record of convincing non-believers to voluntarily take up any particular religion. So it’s fortunate that convincing someone to become a Christian, ultimately, is God’s job, not ours. But I can tell you the basic story of Jesus and the good news he brought when he came to live among us.
As most non-believers are aware, Jesus is at the core of Christianity, and therefore, Christians tend to talk about him a lot. His life, his ministry, his disciples, his “gospel” of love and forgiveness, his death on the cross, his resurrection. As Christians, one of the things we’re called to do is be ambassadors for Jesus. His representatives. We also hear the term “gospel” a lot in connection with Christianity.
What is the Gospel?
The word “gospel” translates as “good news.” In this case, the good news is about and from Jesus. The good news is that God loves you, and your life is meaningful. It’s been said that “you will never look into the eyes of someone God doesn’t love.” Think about that. Think about the enormity of that. Despite our shortcomings, mistakes, and faults, God loves each of us much more than we’ll ever know.
When presented with the idea of becoming a Christian, many people will say: “I may not be a Christian, but I’m a good person! I try to always do the right thing. Lots of people love me and think well of me.” Good for you, that’s great!
However, each and every one of us is lacking, including Christians. Don’t ever allow a Christian to make you feel less than. All human beings, no matter who they are, have done/said/thought things they shouldn’t have. Even Mother Teresa? Yes. Even the Pope? Absolutely. If you’re human, you’ve screwed up — what Christianity calls “sin.” There are no exceptions.
The difference with Christians is, when we do/say/think things that disappoint God, we can ask him to forgive us and his promise is, he will. God is not an angry tyrant who delights in punishing us. He’s more a loving parent who wants only the best for us and loves us beyond all imagining. How much does he love us?
The Good News
God loves us so much that he donned a human suit (so to speak), said goodbye to his beautiful Heaven, and actually became a Middle Eastern Jewish peasant back in Biblical times, just so he could live here with us, talk to us, and teach by example. His human father, Mary’s husband Joseph, was a carpenter, so Jesus worked with him as a carpenter while he was growing up, then started his ministry at around 30 years old.
During his roughly three-year ministry, Jesus walked to different towns in the region, teaching everyone about God. He wanted to show us and tell us what God is really like. He performed miracles, fed the hungry, and healed the sick. Jesus paid special attention to the people whom the rich, powerful, and religious leaders of the day ignored, or openly despised. He was gentle and loving, but he also spoke truth to power and disregarded human-made rules to do the right thing.
As you can imagine, eventually he made enemies. Powerful enemies who began to see him as a threat to their authority. Uh oh… not good. His enemies were wealthy and influential and though they knew Jesus was doing good things for people, they still viewed him as a threat. So they decided to get rid of him. They conspired to have him executed, as if he were a criminal.
At that time, a common means of execution was crucifixion. Whatever you’ve heard about death by crucifixion, trust me, it’s a thousand times worse. The Romans, who were in charge back then, used crucifixion not just as a horrendously cruel form of execution for their worst criminals, but also to terrorize the population.
[I’ve often wondered why Jesus didn’t lobby to come to our world nowadays, when many countries have more humane modes of criminal execution, such as lethal injection or even firing squad. While admittedly still not pleasant ways to go, just about anything would be preferable to crucifixion.]
Anyway, back to our story…
The Best Good News
So Jesus was executed, but he didn’t die for nothing. He loved us so much that he took all of our human wrongs with him when he died. What God would view as “sin” — our wrongdoings from the past, as well as the future, including, but not limited to: wars, rapes, theft, murder, corruption… you name it. Everything. All of our human wrongs went with him to his grave. This was actually God’s plan all along, that Jesus would be executed for our wrongdoing. He chose to die in our place — that, my friend, is love!
His body was placed in a tomb for three days, but that wasn’t the end of it. Even death couldn’t defeat him. On his third day of death, Jesus came back to life and walked out of the tomb. No, really, he did. Hundreds of witnesses reported seeing him, alive, walking around, and talking to people after his dead body had been sealed in the tomb.
What was the point of all that?
Here’s the point: God loves you so much that he chose to come live among us, poor and homeless, in human form, so we could get to know him and he could teach us how to live. He chose to allow his own horrific execution so that everything you’ve ever done that was wrong and makes you cringe with shame, he could take with him to the grave and leave it there for you. Now, since he did that for you — if you believe he did that for you — you can look forward to your own resurrection. Jesus showed us what’s possible through him.
But wait, there’s more! If you choose to follow him, Jesus can teach you now, today, how to live your best life. You just have to ask him and be open to him. Christianity is not a spectator sport; it requires your full participation, and a willingness to allow him to change you for the better. Christians are always a work in progress, with Jesus as the artisan.
