Each spring a friend who teaches at a private school in Atlanta invites a Hindu, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew, and a Christian to speak to his World Religion class. Several times I have been invited as the final guest, always introduced as a born-again Christian. I look forward to speaking to quite a diverse group of intelligent kids from all types of religious backgrounds. The teacher asks that I take about twenty minutes to share anything I would like about my faith and then let the students ask questions the remaining half of the period. The questions are often penetrating: “If you Christians claim to follow Jesus, who gave up everything and taught sacrificial love, how do you justify living in gated communities in the suburbs far away from the poor and hurting of the world?”
Sometimes I feel I must apologize on behalf of ‘us Christians.’ Today’s generation of teenagers has a way of cutting straight to the heart of the matter and it does no good to try to make excuse for not living out the Life of our Savior. So many judge Jesus by what they see in His followers. How we all need to see and hear Him! When we do hear Him, we must decide what to do with His radical words… and we dare not apologize for His message. When the inevitable question comes at the end of class, I always share what our King said. “So do you believe Christians are the only ones going to Heaven and the rest of us are going to Hell?” “Jesus answered, ‘I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” I pray for courage to look straight into the eyes of these kids and share that a God of love provides one way to escape the wrath that will come because of sin.
As I watch the different religions of the world discuss the devastation in southeast Asia, I anticipate a familiar question to be asked this spring: “If your God is a God of love, how could He let thousands of people die in a storm?” In a strange way I feel I have an advantage discussing suffering, having been diagnosed with a terminal disease, but no quick answer satisfies. If we could grasp the suffering God endured as He gave His own Son to be brutally tortured and killed, we might understand the horror of sin. Oh that the One who suffered more than any of us can imagine would draw all men to Himself. His blood washes away sin and gives victory over death. One who receives Life from Him can face any storm. “‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” What greater news can there be?
“Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” I Corinthians 15:54-58