Week 37—Wednesday Luke 3:4-6
Luke 3:4-6
JESUS NEVER USED THE WORD RELIGION
We said yesterday that the making of Christianity into a system of theology instead of the Word become flesh was the most disastrous break with Christ. It led to a study of comparative religions, matching ideas with ideas. And the one that had a superiority of ideas was superior. But that was the Word become word. And those trained under the comparative religious regime have little or no message—they proclaim a few superior ideas and that is their message—and it is no message.
Jesus never used the word “religion.” He never conceived of his coming to start another religion alongside other religions, a little superior, more moral. No, he came to set his gospel over against human need, whether that need be in this religion, that religion, no religion. And he was the gospel, the Word become flesh. That means a head-on confronting of human need by Jesus Christ, the Word become flesh. There and there alone lies the uniqueness of our gospel. It is not a word uniqueness, but life uniqueness. To abandon the vital in favor of the verbal was the greatest and most disastrous break of Christianity with Christ.
And the converse would be true. As the Hindu said, “What a world awakening would come if Christianity and Christ should come together again.” He was profoundly right. And the coming together must not be here and there, a patched-up reconciliation. It must be a complete reversal, a repentance—a repentance from the Word made word to the Word made flesh.
I was talking to the president of India, Dr. Radhakrishnan, and I told him of the four things Mahatma Gandhi had suggested to us as Christians, and I asked him what he would suggest forty years later. He replied, “The same thing—practice your faith.” A Russian bishop went to see Stalin to ask him to become a Christian and Stalin replied, “I will, if you can show me one.”
O Lord and Teacher, teach me for you are Lord. You possess me so now teach me. I am teachable. I am ready to put into operation whatever you teach me. I will learn by doing. I am in a state of Yesness to you. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I stand at attention, like Ananias, and say, “Here am I, Lord” (Acts 9:10).