ENGAGING THE WORLD LIKE JESUS DID

Pharisees by James Tissot

Today, Christians tend to relate to the world either as separatist Christians or as cultural Christians. Neither way works well and these approaches have been seen before.
Pharisees insistently enforced rigid obedience to God’s Law and developed additional traditions in order to protect Judaism against the impact of Greek culture. Pharisees held on to their Jewish identity at the expense of relevancy, (Matthew 15:8-14).
Sadducees contrarily clutched relevancy at the expense of their identity, seeking to assimilate with culture, even if it meant surrendering some doctrine. Resurrection was objectionable to the Greeks so the book of Acts reveals that Sadducees threw it out, Acts 17:3; Acts 23:7-8; Matthew 22:23. Into this religious climate Jesus came.

When Jesus was on earth, how do you think that he engaged with the culture of his time? His exposure most certainly was predominantly to the Hebrew community. He was Jewish and he frequented the temple and the synagogue and had occasional connections with non-Jews. He was definitely not ascetic in the sense of living like a hermit. When Jews despised Samaritans, Jesus took time to speak with a Samaritan woman whose life was a history of failed relationships with men. He gave her a new life. So it appears to me that if we want to imitate Jesus, we do not separate from the world nor do we simply blend into it, but rather, we engage it responsively. That’s a combination between two extremes and amounts to a fresh approach to investing in the world a taste of God’s kingdom. Christian faith comes alive when those who espouse it actually live so attractively and honorably, that everyone feels fortunate to be associated with them.