by Clarke Dixon
Would you say that Christianity is popular in North America right now? Especially among younger generations? Yet research shows that the younger generations are perhaps more open to spirituality than we think. However, they are not as open to organized religion as we might like. Mark’s account of the life of Jesus may help us here including this story:
A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. “If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean,” he said.
Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” Instantly the leprosy disappeared, and the man was healed. Then Jesus sent him on his way with a stern warning: “Don’t tell anyone about this. Instead, go to the priest and let him examine you. Take along the offering required in the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy. This will be a public testimony that you have been cleansed.”
But the man went and spread the word, proclaiming to everyone what had happened. As a result, large crowds soon surrounded Jesus, and he couldn’t publicly enter a town anywhere. He had to stay out in the secluded places, but people from everywhere kept coming to him.
Mark 1:40-45 (NLT)
In reading the first few chapters of Mark we will notice just how popular Jesus was. Word about Jesus spread rapidly. People constantly sought him out. Crowds gathered. Big things happened. Jesus tried to keep a lid on it but the excitement couldn’t be contained.
As we consider this popularity let us take note that Jesus did not need a marketing strategy. He did not work on creating brand awareness, or generating hype. In fact, his strategy was to try and keep things quiet.
The popularity of Jesus then reminds us of the popularity of Christianity today, right?
When the Gospel of Mark was written there really wasn’t a promotion of Christianity in the way we think of it today. No one was saying “take up the religion of Christianity and pick our church to attend or our denomination to adhere to.” Rather, the earliest Christians did what Mark did in his Gospel account, they simply introduced people to Jesus. In the earliest days people were not saying “the Christian religion is a better religion than mine, so I think I will join it,” but rather “I need to pay attention to Jesus who changes everything, including my religion, so I will join him.” Christianity did not become popular, Jesus did.
Perhaps that thought challenges us today. People are not into organized and institutional religion like they used to be. To be honest, neither am I. However, perhaps we can have a renewed focus on introducing people to Jesus, letting interest in religion follow excitement about Jesus.
I wonder if we sometimes try too hard to promote the Christian religion with the expectation that interest in Jesus will follow. However it might be that it is interest in theology that follows, or interest in the Bible, more than interest in Jesus.
Is it possible to focus too much on generating hype about the Bible rather than letting interest in it follow excitement about Jesus? Some think it would be wonderful to find Noah’s ark on a mountain, Egyptian chariots at the bottom of the Red Sea, the stone tablets of Moses in the lost ark, and so on. Then people would have to believe and become Christians. However, our focus is not on proving that every word of the Bible is literally true, but rather that Jesus is real. Because Jesus is real, God’s love is real.
In introducing Jesus to people today there is a roadblock; when we who claim to be excited about Jesus, just aren’t. Instead we are actually more excited about Christianity or the Bible.
Before they appear here each Thursday, Ontario, Canada pastor Clarke Dixon’s condensed sermons appear at his blog, Thinking Through Scripture.
Christianity 201 
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