Senseless (Video)

Our preaching text this week takes seriously this statement from Greeks – outsiders, questioners and seekers – who want to lay their eyes on Jesus. In their request of Peter, they don’t ask to question Jesus; they don’t ask for a press conference or even an interview to do what the Pharisees and Jewish leaders do. They approach Philip, but what does Philip do? It sounds like he says, ‘Wait here. I’ll go find out if this is kosher.’ He goes to find Andrew and after a brief discussion, they go to find Jesus.

This story plays out many times in the life of Christians all across the world. Outsiders, questioners, seekers, even antagonists, demand that we show them Jesus, and for some reason, we suck in a deep breath of fear and think:

What if I say the wrong thing? What if they think I’m strange? What if I am persecuted for my beliefs?

So we take the easy way out: we go find ‘professional’ Christians, those who are good at explaining stuff, and we leave the outsider/questioner/seeker/antagonist to wait while we figure out what we’re going to do with them.

This week, we’ll take a hard look at who Jesus calls us to be.