How Did Jesus Engage Culture?
In Luke 19:10 Jesus said, "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." In and of itself this verse speaks volumes as to Jesus' methods for cultural engagement, but it is even more remarkable to remember that this verse is found right after Jesus called Zacchaeus down from the tree.
Zaccaeus is introduced in verse 2 by saying that he was the 'chief tax collector and he was rich.' In a culture of poverty Zacchaeus was rich, but far worse was the fact that he was a tax collector which means that he would have gained his riches by working for Rome and cheating his own people by charging them extra money in taxes. Zacchaeus would have been despised as a traitor. The most amazing part of the story is that Jesus seeing Zacchaeus in the tree calls him down and says, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today."
Jesus calls out to and invites Himself over to this sinners home. After Jesus' incredible display of grace and willingness to meet with this sinful man right where he was at, Zacchaeus repents. This is the context to which Jesus said, "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."
It wasn't as if Jesus was pardoning someone from cussing or drinking too much, this man was the worst of the worst, even turning against his own people just to make money. As Timothy Keller notes in Counterfeit Gods, "If you want to get a sense of how these functionaries (referring to Zacchaeus) were regarded, think of what people thought of the collaborators who, under the Nazis, oppressed their own people during World War II; think of drug lords who get rich enslaving thousands of the weakest people of the inner city, think of modern-day "robber barons" who buy out and then destroy companies, or sell common people mortgages they cannot afford, while making millions for themselves."
When put in that light I hope we can see the true depth of what Jesus is saying, He came to seek and save even those that sinful society has deemed vile. Considering Jesus had to call Zacchaeus down from a tree we should also notice that Jesus was the active seeker in this case. Jesus didn't merely walk by and hope that Zacchaeus would ask questions that would indicate that he was seeking forgiveness. Jesus called him down and invited Himself into this man's home. Jesus' method of cultural engagement would probably be considered by many evangelicals today to be dangerous or possibly even an unwise action that could be a 'stumbling block' for others.
Why is it that many believers today would never be caught dead in a situation that would put them anywhere near a sinner of Zacchaeus' caliber?
Not that I am advocating for Christians to make a habit of searching out the residence of the local drug lord and inviting yourself over for tea. However, it seems that many Christians today expect that the unbelievers should just naturally fit into our church culture, and if not then they are 'unrepentant' and so we should just pray for them.
In his book, "Planting Missional Churches" Ed Stetzer said, "Many people feel they're entering an alien culture when encountering evangelical Christianity. But it's not the job of the unchurched to enter our culture; its our job to invade theirs.... Evangelism must adopt "Jesus type" methods. We must go to people in culture in order to reach them."
I remember going downtown Portland with groups of friends, we would huddle up with some acoustic guitars and play worship songs for a couple hours and feel as though we had done our evangelistic service. Not that this is a worthless activity, but notice that this is not invading their culture by any means. Though our heart was to be a light in the community, we were taking an alien culture to them and expecting them to respond to it.
Stetzer also says, "Our job is to reach the lost world and bring greater glory to God. Yet, rather than engaging the new cultural change, the most prevalent Christian response is to pretend that there's been no shift. The church continues to function as it always has - protecting its youth in summer camps, keeping its members listening to Christian music, and as a whole, staying away from change."
I don't know if that hit you like it did me when I first read it, but what an accurate picture of our Christian lives today. We have become so detached from culture and so unable to adapt to the changes going on around us that we have taken a 'head in the sand' posture.
How can we hope to 'seek and save the lost' if we are scared and retreating from the culture around us? We need to realize that culture is ALWAYS moving and changing, and we cannot take a passive approach if we desire to be effective at reaching the lost around us today.
Jesus' ministry was spent with the people around Him. Everywhere He went He engaged the culture right where they were at. If Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, and if He commissioned His followers to do the same, then we must stop fleeing from the changing culture around us. Culture is constantly changing, but the world's need for a Savior will not change, and we have been called to be the ambassadors that carry the Good News of this Savior's message. We are to proclaim this gospel message of the Sovereign King that humbled Himself to be the Suffering Servant. Though He created everything and everyone, He willingly died to pay the price for our sins so that we would be witnesses of His mission to seek and save the lost.
Zaccaeus is introduced in verse 2 by saying that he was the 'chief tax collector and he was rich.' In a culture of poverty Zacchaeus was rich, but far worse was the fact that he was a tax collector which means that he would have gained his riches by working for Rome and cheating his own people by charging them extra money in taxes. Zacchaeus would have been despised as a traitor. The most amazing part of the story is that Jesus seeing Zacchaeus in the tree calls him down and says, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today."
Jesus calls out to and invites Himself over to this sinners home. After Jesus' incredible display of grace and willingness to meet with this sinful man right where he was at, Zacchaeus repents. This is the context to which Jesus said, "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."
It wasn't as if Jesus was pardoning someone from cussing or drinking too much, this man was the worst of the worst, even turning against his own people just to make money. As Timothy Keller notes in Counterfeit Gods, "If you want to get a sense of how these functionaries (referring to Zacchaeus) were regarded, think of what people thought of the collaborators who, under the Nazis, oppressed their own people during World War II; think of drug lords who get rich enslaving thousands of the weakest people of the inner city, think of modern-day "robber barons" who buy out and then destroy companies, or sell common people mortgages they cannot afford, while making millions for themselves."
When put in that light I hope we can see the true depth of what Jesus is saying, He came to seek and save even those that sinful society has deemed vile. Considering Jesus had to call Zacchaeus down from a tree we should also notice that Jesus was the active seeker in this case. Jesus didn't merely walk by and hope that Zacchaeus would ask questions that would indicate that he was seeking forgiveness. Jesus called him down and invited Himself into this man's home. Jesus' method of cultural engagement would probably be considered by many evangelicals today to be dangerous or possibly even an unwise action that could be a 'stumbling block' for others.
Why is it that many believers today would never be caught dead in a situation that would put them anywhere near a sinner of Zacchaeus' caliber?
Not that I am advocating for Christians to make a habit of searching out the residence of the local drug lord and inviting yourself over for tea. However, it seems that many Christians today expect that the unbelievers should just naturally fit into our church culture, and if not then they are 'unrepentant' and so we should just pray for them.
In his book, "Planting Missional Churches" Ed Stetzer said, "Many people feel they're entering an alien culture when encountering evangelical Christianity. But it's not the job of the unchurched to enter our culture; its our job to invade theirs.... Evangelism must adopt "Jesus type" methods. We must go to people in culture in order to reach them."
I remember going downtown Portland with groups of friends, we would huddle up with some acoustic guitars and play worship songs for a couple hours and feel as though we had done our evangelistic service. Not that this is a worthless activity, but notice that this is not invading their culture by any means. Though our heart was to be a light in the community, we were taking an alien culture to them and expecting them to respond to it.
Stetzer also says, "Our job is to reach the lost world and bring greater glory to God. Yet, rather than engaging the new cultural change, the most prevalent Christian response is to pretend that there's been no shift. The church continues to function as it always has - protecting its youth in summer camps, keeping its members listening to Christian music, and as a whole, staying away from change."
I don't know if that hit you like it did me when I first read it, but what an accurate picture of our Christian lives today. We have become so detached from culture and so unable to adapt to the changes going on around us that we have taken a 'head in the sand' posture.
How can we hope to 'seek and save the lost' if we are scared and retreating from the culture around us? We need to realize that culture is ALWAYS moving and changing, and we cannot take a passive approach if we desire to be effective at reaching the lost around us today.
Jesus' ministry was spent with the people around Him. Everywhere He went He engaged the culture right where they were at. If Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, and if He commissioned His followers to do the same, then we must stop fleeing from the changing culture around us. Culture is constantly changing, but the world's need for a Savior will not change, and we have been called to be the ambassadors that carry the Good News of this Savior's message. We are to proclaim this gospel message of the Sovereign King that humbled Himself to be the Suffering Servant. Though He created everything and everyone, He willingly died to pay the price for our sins so that we would be witnesses of His mission to seek and save the lost.
“Engaging" the culture and “Changing" with the culture are not the same. Jesus “did" engage the culture which you have so well pointed out.....but he didn’t become a tax collector to reach a tax collector nor did he set down and talk taxes with him for a month, a week or even a day for that matter.
ReplyDeleteThis is a major problem with the thought process of the church today. We think we have to become like the culture to win the culture. No....Jesus went to his house and talked about the heart of the matter (pun intended).
Nowhere in this passage do we see where Jesus had taxes on his mind when he called out to Zacchaeus’s .....the man had a change of heart simply because Jesus was willing to rub shoulders with an outcast.....yet today we spend millions trying to win the culture to Christ with things they are familiar with when all they really need to see are people who are actually different than themselves and have something authentically real and different to offer.
The fact is that it comes with a high price and most christians today aren’t willing to pay that price.
Holiness and purity are costly so we just settle for hype and programs.
I completely agree, Christians and churches absolutely must not become like the surrounding culture. Sadly, evangelical churches' bending to and borrowing from culture has a long history with devastating results as David Wells so potently traces out in his book No Place for Truth.
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