A Fake Jesus Children’s Ministry? Part 1
Walking through the squeezed-in streets, some wide enough for pedestrians and others wide enough to be a “two wagon” road, a Roman citizen begins to observe a normal day in the streets of Rome, Italy. The magnified aroma of incense mixed with various animal sacrifices clouds up to blend with the sights of the marketplaces filled with small figurines representing the gods and goddesses of the time. Each citizen attends to his or her responsibility. Some worshipping the idol and others buying and selling goods. The area is filled with the morning noises of conversation, traders, buyers, mother’s looking for her children, heavy animal breathing from pulling the farm carts in from the nearby village fields and the old guy yawning as he passes by.
Blacksmiths are hard at work, clanging their hammers at the new metal mold of a sword for the soldier and steaming the coals for the upcoming farmer’s tools. In the hearts and minds of each citizen lurks the need to worship an idol in order to appease the gods, gain good status to prosper for the day, repay debts or find satisfaction beyond the dreary earthly life. The exchange of emperor engraved coins for payment strikes memory recall that the Emperor is ever so close, one of the gods, to be worshipped and ready at any moment to unleash a vicious attack toward any siege against his empire. The gods seemed real, alive, powerful but sometimes extremely distant to citizens. No matter how real, the end result of the Roman Empire proved that the gods were not real, alive, powerful or anywhere to be found. Will our children live to see the downfall of their life like the Roman Empire, to have only concluded their Jesus was fake – never real, alive, powerful or anywhere to be found?
Walking through the squeezed-in streets, some wide enough for pedestrians and others wide enough to be a “two wagon” road, a Roman citizen begins to observe a normal day in the streets of Rome, Italy. The magnified aroma of incense mixed with various animal sacrifices clouds up to blend with the sights of the marketplaces filled with small figurines representing the gods and goddesses of the time. Each citizen attends to his or her responsibility. Some worshipping the idol and others buying and selling goods. The area is filled with the morning noises of conversation, traders, buyers, mother’s looking for her children, heavy animal breathing from pulling the farm carts in from the nearby village fields and the old guy yawning as he passes by.
Blacksmiths are hard at work, clanging their hammers at the new metal mold of a sword for the soldier and steaming the coals for the upcoming farmer’s tools. In the hearts and minds of each citizen lurks the need to worship an idol in order to appease the gods, gain good status to prosper for the day, repay debts or find satisfaction beyond the dreary earthly life. The exchange of emperor engraved coins for payment strikes memory recall that the Emperor is ever so close, one of the gods, to be worshipped and ready at any moment to unleash a vicious attack toward any siege against his empire. The gods seemed real, alive, powerful but sometimes extremely distant to citizens. No matter how real, the end result of the Roman Empire proved that the gods were not real, alive, powerful or anywhere to be found. Will our children live to see the downfall of their life like the Roman Empire, to have only concluded their Jesus was fake – never real, alive, powerful or anywhere to be found?
Have you seen them? The children who grow up in the church’s children’s ministry only later to be known in the adult world as: “backslidden”; a businessman who used to go to church but now pressed for time to work in order to pay the bills from all of the possessions; a mother burdened by the horrific scenes of the car accident that killed her son only to replace the “Jesus Loves Me” song; a college student being ripped apart and led to devastating doubt of God via the university religion class; an athlete gone big time enjoying the wilds of life that feel more appeasing than having been yelled at as a kid because “God wasn’t pleased with how he dressed at church”; a father going through midlife crisis because of the unforeseen onset of childhood abuse memories incurred by the “godly” role model in his life; the “good” kid trusting salvation to be in his own “goodness” and to good for “non-good” people; or the pregnant teenager frantically asking “what now” as her parents blame her for bringing “shame” upon the family, especially “God’s family”- the church, limiting her to seek removal of the pain through abortion.
When life comes fast, responsibilities stack up, successes become powerful motivators and trials burden one to a mere functional life, what are our children (or the adults who use to be children) do? They begin to ask themselves in various ways: Why have the flannel graph Jesus instead of the enjoyable house, two cars, vacations, friends and health? Why have the Jesus who only loves me on Sundays when I sing “Jesus Loves Me” instead of feeling loved by your boyfriend Monday thru Saturday? Why have the judgmental-dress code Jesus instead of the kind, tolerant, fun in the sun successful sport’s team? Why have the all smiles, positive reinforcement Jesus instead of the alcohol numbing the negative pain of losing a child? Why have the holier than thou-code enforcing Jesus instead of the lawless, unashamed, free clique? Have they been led to believe in a fake Jesus – a Jesus full of illegitimate rules, unreasonable moral standards, ungracious to sinners, a figurine to color during arts and crafts or deceiving us into a good earthly life?
In order to avoid such a futuristic catastrophe, a man writes to a church in which he prologues the letter by distinguishing the only-non fake man, emperor, God, one to be worshipped, one who is alive-real-powerful and has become ever so close to the sinner! The Gospel of Mark was written by Mark to the church in Rome to compare and contrast the only true God-man from Europe’s fake gods just a few decades after Jesus ascended into Heaven.
Let our children see more of our beautiful savior through “the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1)! Pray for them to place their faith (assurance, confidence, trust, value, affection, knowledge, life c.f. Romans 4:3; Hebrews 11:1) not in themselves, parents, leaders, relationships, securities, comforts but rather in Jesus! Work to make the true, not fake, Jesus known!
To be continued …
Further Reading: The Trellis and the Vine
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This is part of the blog posts series from Missional Education on the gospel in children’s ministry.
