Sinners

One of the other loud criticisms of the Jesus commercials is the outcry over the funding behind them. While the average viewer probably doesn't know who is behind the commercials, as they claim absolutely no credit for themselves, many in the church have done the digging to link the ads to a nonprofit that has members of Hobby Lobby's executive team on its board. 

Whew. Glad we sorted that out. 

They then use this information to say that this is not the type of person that should be representing Christianity to the world, even if the ad is getting it right. This is not the type of person we want the world to be able to trace the Jesus message back to. This is a person on the "wrong side" of, particularly, the new liberal Christianity that's trying desperately to get into the world's good graces, and heaven forbid someone like this talk about Jesus in public! This type of person is exactly the reason Christianity has a bad name. (So they say.) 

Forgive me, but I'm just going to say it:

The only humans who have ever spread the message of Christ were sinners. All of them. Every single one. 

The disciples were sinners. Adam was a sinner. Noah was a sinner. Abraham was a sinner. David was the sinner of all sinners. Paul claims his own sins unashamedly (so that he can boast in the good grace of God).

There is not one word about the Lord that anyone has ever heard from the mouth of a human being that was not spoken by a sinner. And our culture that is so intent on cancelling anyone who has ever uttered anything not completely, thoroughly politically correct or who has ever had a lapse of judgment in behavior...this very same culture would cancel every single character in our Bible. (And, if you pay attention, they're trying to. They call it "textual criticism" and snuck it into academia and from there, into the church, so that they can craft the message that really, you can't trust the Bible. Just look at the fools who wrote it...or pretended to write it...or get credit for writing it even though they didn't. Whatever.) 

And, by the way, even these holier-than-thou folks who claim to try to be protecting the message of Christ by condemning it because of who is behind it...yeah, they're sinners, too. Every single one of them. These guys who spend their lives "calling out" other Christians for getting it wrong? They are getting some things wrong, too. 

They will tell you that the things they're getting wrong are not nearly as "serious" as the things others are getting wrong, others that they are calling out. What's funny is that often, they are calling others out for having too much of an emphasis on one thing over another, on one sin over another, and well, do you see the irony in that statement? They, too, have an emphasis on one thing over another...but to them, they are right. 

As we are all right in our own eyes. 

I suppose it might be slightly different if anywhere on the ad, it said, "This ad brought to you by ______," but it doesn't. It's just an ad about Jesus. Just - and even the critics confess this - a fairly good representation of the kind of thing Jesus was all about. Not perfect, but none of us is ever perfect in our understanding or presentation of God. But fairly good. 

So don't be fooled into thinking there's something terribly wrong with this message about Jesus because it was brought to you by a sinner. Every message of Jesus is brought to you by a sinner. 

A loved, forgiven, blessed, redeemed sinner. Praise the Lord.