BP 223
Do you remember the account of Jesus sailing across the stormy Sea of Galilee with his disciples toward the territory of the Gadarenes and the encounter with the Legion man? You know, the accursed cemetery man with thousands of demons infesting his bloody, naked, and torn body? I’m sure you do. Do you know what I love about that story besides Jesus calming the storm and showing his disciples that He was more than a mere prophet?
I love the fact that Jesus crossed that dark lake on that stormy night to seek out one person. He simply said to His disciples, “Let us go across to the other side.” But He had a rendezvous in mind with a broken human.
Jesus and His twelve pupils who were being tutored minute by minute and adventure by adventure sailed from the northern side of the lake to the southeastern part of the lake in pursuit of a man who was doomed to be alone forever. Rejected by humanity and condemned to be a wretched abode for the darkest of all spiritual creatures, this man had no chance of being loved. Tortured and absolutely alone, this grotesque imago Dei ripped apart chains, cut himself, shrieked among the tombs—a captive in his own body, existing in the anteroom of hell.
Like the rest of us.
Everyone else avoided this horrific semblance of a human being, ostracized him, even forgot about his existence. Not Jesus. He went after this man. He went out of His way. He pursued him. He could have left him alone, but He took His disciples with Him to remind them of what He had said at the synagogue in Nazareth: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” ~ Luke 4:18-19.
I pray that I can even slightly live my life with the same pursuing love for people . . .
I met a woman on the flight from Amsterdam to Stockholm a few days ago. Usually, I sit next to my wife when I fly, but this time she was not able to go with me. When I do fly alone, it is natural for me to just stay in my own bubble and read a book. But this time was different. I had prayed at the beginning of this trip, “Lord, here I am. Send me.” I wanted to with premeditation make myself available for anyone who might skirt the periphery of my “bubble.”
The flight from Amsterdam is not that long, only around two hours. I found myself sitting between a man on my left who looked to be from India and a woman on my right who looked Swedish from what I could tell. Initially, I enjoyed reading my book, A Hunger for God, and then a light lunch, but then knew that I didn’t want this opportunity to pass me by.
Since I had been told often that Swedish people are very private and do not like “cold” conversations, I decided that I would ask this Swedish woman if that was true. The only problem was that her eyes were closed, and she was leaning against the window with her earbuds inserted. Talk about inaccessible. When she reached over for her coffee, her earbuds still inserted, I just started talking. At first, she just closed her eyes again and leaned back toward the window.
But then she unexpectedly turned to me and saw my lips moving. She immediately took out her earbuds and heard my question, “Are you from Sweden?” As far as icebreaking questions go, it may not have been the most amazing, but it did start the conversation.
We talked for 40 minutes. I asked all the questions. She had a lot of words for being a guarded Swede. Her face had the wrinkles of someone over 50 but her eyes were young and alive, if sad and a little tired. She seemed like she wanted to talk. She was animated and smiled a lot. She covered a lot of ground—weather, good restaurants and parks, life with her husband in Amsterdam.
Toward the end of our conversation, she revealed that her middle sister had recently died in Stockholm, and she was going back to her hometown to tie up some loose ends and get some closure.
She was so vulnerable that she spoke about how difficult it was going to be to go to her sister’s apartment for the last time and do a final walkthrough and turn in the keys to the landlord. I felt sad as she shared and told her that I had never experienced the loss of a sibling. She said that this whole journey of her sister’s death felt so “final.” I now knew why her eyes spoke of sadness.
As we were talking about her sister (who sounded very much like one of those very private Swedes I had been told about), the plane landed, and we taxied into the airport. Our conversation was over.
When we were getting off the plane, I pulled something out of my wallet—appropriately, my Designer Therapy for Life card, and handed it to her and told her she could read some of the articles if she wished. I left her with 200+ posts she could read about faith and psychology, about humanity and Jesus. Not sure if she will ever read any, of course, but she has the card and my email address if she wishes to reach out to me with any questions. Who knows–hopefully she will even read this post!
So, I didn’t have quite enough time to share the gospel face to face, but I did give her a resource that would take her there.
As I write about my encounter with this Swedish woman, I think of Jesus’ encounter with the rich young ruler: “And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: “Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.” And he said to him, ‘Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.’ And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’ Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions” ~ Mark 10:17-22.
In this story as in Jesus’ encounter with the Legion man in chapter five, the rich man came running up to Jesus and knelt before him (the demon-possessed man “fell down” before Him). What a touching moment in the encounter when Mark writes, “And Jesus, looking at him, loved him.”
Jesus loved the young man so much that the next words he spoke were a truth that broke the man’s spirit to the point of being “disheartened.” But the man needed to hear the words that would expose that possessions were his god, not Yahweh. If he was never convicted of the state of his heart, how could he ever reverse his ways? How would he know that he was in love with fleeting treasures when he could have the eternal God as his best friend?
My point here is that just as Jesus loved that rich young ruler, so I loved that woman on the plane who I had never seen before and most likely will never see again. Sadly, I didn’t get to speak the words of truth that Jesus did. Ideally, I would have said to the woman on the plane, “Death is so final, but with Jesus death is simply a doorway to life.”
I was able to invite Evie (not her real name) to this blog, of course. But even more importantly, I am now praying for Evie. I trust that Jesus will hear my prayers for this woman and that if she reads my blog posts, she will learn of the love of Jesus and turn to Him in faith. But even more than that, I pray that Jesus will bring other people across her path, or books, or memories, or movies, or visions or His word or a church that will plant and grow seeds of faith in her soul. I pray that I will see Evie in heaven one day. Not because of me but because of Him.
So, is this a post on evangelism? Obliquely, yes. I might say that it is more about love: sensing God’s amazing love for us so deeply that we want to love others by sharing what He has done for us, what He has given us—Himself. I would think that is a good definition of evangelism. Is not evangelism at its very core about love? Love from God and love for people? Some will hear the gospel through preaching. Some through teaching. Some through a dream. Some through a conversation with someone who loves others because Jesus first loved him or her.
Jesus moved toward people. He got close to them. He touched them. He loved them. He even died with them. Think of the woman at the well or the Legion man or the rich young ruler or the woman caught in adultery or the thief on the cross. Are you willing to give a reason for the hope that is in you to other people even if you must go out of your way to do so? Are you praying and looking for these opportunities? Be a person who prays for chances to share Jesus with others.
I will leave you with one tool today: Love, Look, Listen, Learn, Liberate. Go out into the world continuing to practice Jesus’ loving presence in such a deep way that you will love others. Look for people to love. Seek a person out and listen to his or her heart. Feel around the rim of their souls. Listen well enough to ask good questions. Make a real connection. Learn about them—such as I did about the death of Evie’s sister. Get to know who they are—what they think, feel, desire, and where they hurt.
Don’t love, look, listen and learn because you should but because it is your heart’s desire in obedience to Him who loved you.
Lastly, liberate. Love the people you meet toward the One who will liberate them from mundane lives, from enslaving sin, from lies about who they are, from settling for mud pies when they could have the holiday by the seashore. Shine as a light in the cosmos for them so they will see that the darkness is not all there is, that there is Someone far better than they realize who will fill their emptiness and loneliness and wash away all their shame and badness.
Here is the gospel of Jesus Christ: Immanuel, God with us. Jesus came for us, to be with us. He loves us so much that He will speak to us the bad news and the good news, specifically, that we are sinners separated from Him but that He has come individually for us like the Legion man and will love us like the rich young ruler.
Evie, my prayer is that you sensed something different in my attitude toward you in that plane, that you felt that I approached you as a person seen for who you are individually–in both my questions as well as my caring attention. I pray that you saw a glimpse of Jesus through me that night that will later grow to a full view of His face and His salvation. You are special to Him, daughter of Eve. I pray that one day soon you will not just be a daughter of Eve, but will become a daughter of the King of kings who came for you by name!
Jesus, only you can cause that spiritual rebirth in her heart. Only your Spirit can open her eyes. Please save this woman for the sake of your glorious name!
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” ~ Revelation 3:20
“The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing” ~ Zephaniah 3:17