Toward A Biblical Theology of Show and Tell | Born To Be Wild (2)

I don’t know what it does to you when I suggest that, as a Christian, you have been born to be wild, but it produces a sort of dual response in me.  I imagine myself sitting in the passenger seat of a top fuel drag racing car (if it had a passenger seat).  The lights begin to flash, the rpm’s soar like a rocket, the noise rips into me like a predator, a rush of adrenaline ignites in my chest and generates exhilaration.  While at the same time I’m overwhelmed by trepidation as I realize that 9000-plus horses are about to be unleashed to cover a distance of 1000 feet in less than 3.8 seconds at a speed well over 300mph and my body is about to be crushed by 4 times the weight of gravity (4 G-forces) and the needle on nearby Richter scales will tremble between 2 and 3.

Okay, maybe that’s a bit extreme, but it gives you a sense of the spectrum of response to the reality of being born again; not unto a tame, common, and typical life of status-quo feet-up take-it-easy-ness.  But rather, unto a wild, uncommon, and counter-cultural life that stands as an agent of reconciliation against the rushing mainstream of disharmony, rebellion, and pain.  It’s exciting and fearful at the same time.

See, we’ve been born again, but we have not been born again without purpose in mind…a wild purpose to be sure.  In 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 Paul says: 

“All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”

Check out the words I put in italics there.  The word “ministry” is from a Greek word pronounced diakonia, which means active service.  Simply put, reconciliation has hands and feet on it; there is an aspect of showing going on.  Then that next word, “message,” is from a Greek word pronounced logos, which certainly means message, but perhaps is better understood as a word or symbols, like what we use to communicated to each other every day and all the time.  Here reconciliation goes audible; there is an aspect of telling going on.  And both of these – the show and the tell – are given and entrusted to us, literally placed in us, by God when we are born again.  But it’s wilder than that.  Verse 20 of the same chapter says: 

“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.  We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” 

Hold up!  What did he just suggest?  God is making an appeal through me?  Yeah!  Now settle down.  Go find the nearest mirror.  Try to act casual.  Don’t cause a scene.  Look around and wait until you’re alone so no one thinks you’re crazy for what you’re about to do.  Then look at yourself in the mirror and say, “God is making his appeal – the appeal of the gospel of the Kingdom revealed in Christ Jesus – he is making his appeal through you!”  And say it with some astonishment in your voice.  Floored?  There you are in Scripture, right there as an agent of reconciliation.  You are a necessary instrument through which God is reconciling the world to himself.  The appeal or the impassioned urging in Christ’s name is the link that brings people to the cross of Jesus Christ. 

But it is an urging of duality; a show and tell time.  Remember the ministry and the message; the showing and the telling.  The gospel of the Kingdom of God revealed in Christ Jesus requires them both.  It is silly to assume, not to mention silly to imagine, your neighbors will come to Jesus because you’re shouting the love of Jesus to them from your kitchen window.  Equally silly is the assumption that they will somehow come to Jesus by you mowing their lawn once a week.  So God entrusted to us both the ministry and the message of the reconciling work of Christ Jesus on the cross and through the resurrection.  And that becomes our appeal.

And not a quieted milk toast appeal.  As the text suggests, this is an impassioned plea, borderline begging even…  “Listen, neighbor, you gotta see this; you gotta hear this!  I have been to the cross and beyond.  It is solid.  You gotta come.  Here, I’ll carry that.  Just come…come ‘on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.’”

Does that feel a bit wilder than what you may have assumed evangelism to be?  It’s not door to door tract passing.  And it’s not good deeds in the (often unspoken) name of Jesus.  It’s an off-your-butt movement of show and tell; an urgent appeal accompanied by real sacrifice.  Sacrifice?  Yup.  And this is about as wild as it gets.

Look at verse 21:  “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Skipping all the theological and linguistic difficulties with this passage, there is here at least the “how” issue of being agents of reconciliation.  Christ Jesus became the object of God’s wrath and bore the penalty and guilt of sin as our substitute so that we might be born again and declared to be righteous and good in the sight of God himself.  In other words, Christ Jesus did for us what we were unable, even unwilling to do for ourselves.  And that is precisely how we, having been born again, are to be agents of reconciliation. 

We’ve been born to be wild and straight up, there is nothing wilder, nothing more on the edge and urgently pressing, than doing for others what they are unable to do for themselves.  We are acting as agents of reconciliation when we bear the burden of other’s sin in leading them to Jesus.  This is not about resolving people’s conflicts or settling disputes.  This is not about righting people’s wrongs for them.  This is about noticing the beaten up neighbor in the ditch, putting them on your donkey while you carry their pack and drop them off at the foot of the cross where mending takes place.

We’re talking about showing and telling the good news of the Kingdom of God.  We’re talking about deeds and words that are so distant from commonplace niceties that people are disarmed and confronted with the reality that you’re not just different, but you are an agent of reconciliation urgently appealing to them on behalf of Christ himself. 

Sometimes we get what we ask for or deserve because of sin.  Other times the effect of sin in the world enters our lives as burdens on levels that we can’t make heads or tails of.  Well, the same is true for our neighbors.  An agent of reconciliation carries those burdens for them while leading them to the cross of Jesus Christ.

Like the guy who noticed the local Mama and Papa Grocery Store was in need of paint and that the owners were not in a place to do it themselves, so he rallied together the community and got it done.

Like the troop of emerging adults who gave up a Thursday to help a widowed lady pack up and leave her homestead to move into an assisted care facility. 

Like those who give up Tuesday nights with family or friends to make sure a dirty bunch of homeless and poor folks get a hot meal.

Honestly, these and other burdens aren’t hard to spot.  Look around and notice the needs of others, the things they can’t do themselves, and do those things for them.  It is in this that we show the gospel of the kingdom of God; we show others that there is a God who, in Christ Jesus, did for them what they are unable to do for themselves.  Every time we step up and stand in the gap for those beat up by the cultural and the common and the typical; that is, beat up by the sin that pervades our world, bearing the burdens of those who can’t bear them themselves while leading them to the cross of Jesus Christ, we are being agents of reconciliation.

The wild part is that this is not a safe venture.  Living to bear others burdens is not tame living.  It is wild.  It is untypical and counter-cultural.  We carry their pain.  We experience their hurt.  We die a bit when they die.  But this is what makes it wild.  No one else is doing this!  And this is what we have been born again for – to be agents of reconciliation.  We have been born to be wild…really wild.  And I was just noticing more closely chapter 6:1-2 of this same context this morning…

“Working together with [Christ Jesus], then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.  For he says, ‘In a favorable time I listened to you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.’  Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

So I guess we best get our motors running…get out on the highway…looking for adventure…in whatever God brings our way.