I’m a huge fan of setting ablaze 99% of church signs with the removable letters. You know what I’m referring to – the signs with the silly sayings:
A Scripture a Day Prevents Truth Decay.
Repent Now to Avoid the Rush on Dooms Day.
Stop Drop and Roll Does Not Work in Hell.
Last night as my wife and I were driving to have dinner with some friends, we came across one that read, “Try Jesus: If You Don’t Like Him the Devil Will Take You Back.”
Let me just vent my frustration with this…
We don’t get to just “try Jesus” as if he’s marijuana (C’mon, everyone’s doing it! If you don’t like it, you can go back to the lighter stuff!). Or if not drug dealers, it’s the model of corporate America exemplified most stereotypically in the used car salesmen (This baby comes with an eternal life-time warranty!)
In contrast, the model of Jesus is that you’re all in or all out. You’re giving your life or you’re saving it. You’re pursuing Justice or you’re part of the problem. You’ve set your hand to the plow or you’re going home where it’s safe and comfortable.
There is no trial run with Jesus.
You don’t get to take him back to the customer service desk and ask for a refund.
Bringing the corporate America business plan into the church’s understanding of salvation is incredibly dangerous. We, as the church, are part of a covenant community, not a contractual community. Covenants are irrevocable and completely binding (which is why there were signified by circumcision in
the Old Testament). Contracts assume that if “I don’t get mine then I’m out of here. I’m in this for me and mine and if you refuse/can’t provide what I want in the future, then you have violated the terms!”
This sign assumes the same thing, “If I don’t like Jesus” (that is, if Jesus doesn’t fulfill me in some way or fulfill his end of the “bargain”) then I can trade him in.
In modern American you can do that with a car, a puppy, or even a spouse, but you cannot do that with Jesus.
Jesus isn’t like marijuana, folks. Not everyone’s doing it. And you can’t just “try” him out for kicks. That’s not how it works.
