A Little Jesus

One day, I was just sitting on a bench on a street in Jerusalem and an Orthodox Jewish man came up to me and said, 

 

“Excuse me, are you Jewish?”

 

I told him I was not.  (Truth be told, I was secretly flattered that he would think I was native to Israel. This was not the first time I was on a trip and a local person thought I was indigenous.)

 

“Oh, because if you were, I was going to ask you if you would agree to think about God for one minute per day.”

 

Now, as I look back on this conversation, there were about a half-million things I wish I had said, but what actually came out of my mouth was, “One minute? Sure, I can do that!”

 

As I write this, there is a thing going on across the nation where people are giving little one-inch tall plastic Jesus figures to other people. People give them to store clerks, people they meet on the street, people they meet at events… just anyone. The gift is usually accompanied by saying something like, “Hey, I thought you might like a little Jesus in your life.”

 

That’s it. 

 

No twenty-minute sermon, no judgement, no condemnation. Just, “Here’s a little Jesus.”

 

I think it’s marvelous. 

 

There are those who disagree with me, and I get that.

 

The Second Commandment (Exodus 20:4) should most certainly not be ignored. We should always remember that God gets to be God and we absolutely should not go around worshipping man-made idols of cows or bulls or calves or Asherah poles or money or cars or sports figures or pop stars or food or things that are most certainly NOT God.

 

It’s also a legitimate point to say that reducing a holy, infinite, and mighty God to a tiny plastic figure rubs them the wrong way.

 

That’s a good point. Another good point is that people don’t need a little Jesus, they need a total, amazing, life-changing, infinite Jesus to change their lives forever. 

 

But, here’s the deal: If the tiny Jesus I hand them with a smile (and I’ve never had anyone refuse a tiny Jesus or react negatively) causes them to spend one moment thinking about the real Jesus, that’s more than enough because now the Holy Spirit has an open door into someone’s soul –and that’s all the infinite, amazing, life-changing Jesus I know needs to start with.

 

Sometimes, that tiny Jesus opens a door for me to tell someone about the Gospel.

 

So, if you disagree, I understand and I’m not here to try and change your mind.

 

I just think that even the small ways that God uses to grows His kingdom are marvelous and wonderful.

 

 

Today’s Praise

Mark 9:38-41

John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us. For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.” (ESV)

 

 

Photo by Dennis Anderson. Used by permission.