Last Sunday we were gathered together singing about the powerful name of Jesus when something different occurred. The one leading the song sang the same melody, to the same music, but began to sing in a different language. He used words from his native tongue, Spanish, to express the same sentiments we had been singing in English.
What took place in my mind and heart in that moment was expansive. I was struck—more deeply than when I was singing in English—with how big and powerful Jesus is. I hadn’t consciously been thinking Jesus was an English God, but when the leader started singing in Spanish, I consciously thought about Jesus as the Savior of every tribe and tongue and nation. I thought about how He is not limited to one language or one cultural context. I contemplated how God is not racial at all. He is “…Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:1, NIV). I thought about how difficult it is for us to navigate racial tension and how in God there is complete love and justice and mercy and resolve. It was as if a window of Heaven was opened up or the prism of God’s beauty turned slightly, refracting new facets of His endless holiness.
When my wife and I lived as missionaries in Belize, Central America, we often prayed for Jesus to show up. And I distinctly remember asking that when He showed up it would look Belizean instead of American. Both my wife and I are American; we were born and raised as Americans. And we speak “American.” I am very grateful to be American, but Jesus was not and is not American. I know it sounds a little silly, but there are many stories of missionaries going out and preaching an American gospel, instead of Jesus’ gospel. We need a constant refining and filtering process in order to remain in the gospel of Jesus and not a gospel of our making.
Just like a message in the game “Telephone”, the good news about Jesus can quickly be added to or subtracted from, watered down or manipulated. When this happens, the gospel loses it power and/or worse, it can bear rotten fruit. I once heard a sermon from John Mark Comer where he tried to articulate what he called, “The Four American Gospels.” This sermon is a very challenging teaching which requires a great deal of humility and self-examination. If you would like to listen to it, I put the link below.
There is no way to avoid the contextualization of the gospel of Jesus. Anytime anyone interacts with Jesus’ life and message it comes surrounded by context. When Jesus showed up in our time-space continuum, the context was Roman domination and religious oppression. The gospel personified in Christ was young, male, Jewish, and poor. But Jesus made it clear the good news of HIs gospel is for all people, at all times through His teachings and actions. The Apostle Paul wrestled with the challenge of a Jewish-only gospel and discovered Jesus’ gospel was aimed at all nations. He said it well in Ephesians chapter 3: “…through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known…” When we—Jesus’ church—love and unite in Christ with those who are different than us, it gives the world a picture of God’s heaven.
I sometimes think of the day depicted in Revelation 7 when God’s people will stand before the tangible throne of God declaring His marvelous works in their lives. We will sing the song of His holiness with men and women from around the world and throughout time. All the saints who have gone before us will be there. And we will join our diverse realities to lift up the name of Jesus and it will be absolute joy to His ears.
I’m thankful last Sunday Jesus saw fit to give us a little taste of what’s to come, a little Heaven on Earth.
https://bridgetown.church/teaching/preaching-the-gospel/part-2-the-four-american-gospels/
David