When Under Attack

Spending a week in Victoria at the height of the Andrew Thorburn Essendon saga has reminded me that Christians, Christianity, Jesus and the church are often the victims of the outrage. Over the past few years there have been multiple firestorms and media frenzies as Christians express their views in the public square. These firestorms sometimes remain in the world of social media (Twitter is no longer for the faint-hearted), but sometimes they hit the streets, and often they make their way into our workplaces, homes and onto the agenda of our dinner table conversations. 

Now before you throw your hands in the air, shout “typical” and become outraged at the outrage, please just pause. A Christian I follow on Twitter called his adversaries snowflakes and cowards in a public post yesterday and I could not help but see the irony in outraging and venting against outrage. There must be a better way of responding!

In the midst of such firestorms Christians usually either return serve or retreat. I want to suggest another way.

Ed Stetzer, an American writer and researcher helped me see John 20 as a great paradigm for our response. John is describing the days after the crucifixion when the world was outraged and the disciples were terrified. Were they going to be next on the cross? Would they be safe in the world? Then Jesus turns up and says, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” (John 20:21)

Jesus didn’t go sit in the locked room with the disciples to make them feel better. He went in to get them out, to get them on mission, to send them into the chaos and anger from which they had locked themselves away.

But he does not send them out to fight; he sends them to proclaim the Gospel. In the same way, the outraged world does not need us to argue with them. The outraged world needs us to evangelise them. They need to know Jesus and our task in the present is to live as resurrection people who find our identity and future firmly fixed between Easter and eternity. For this reason we ought to see ourselves in a constant state of worship and mission. 

Spurgeon said that Christians who do not engage the world with the Gospel are like those who have a treasure but hold onto it. “The world is starving and they hoard the bread of life.” Hearts that do not bring Christ to the world prove they do not actually love Christ. “If they love Christ they must love sinners; if they love Jesus they must seek to extend his Kingdom!”

We are not commissioned to retreat into our buildings, to form holy huddles and talk about the good old days. We live in a broken and fragmented world in need of the Gospel; and the God who did not spare his own Son for us has given us a mission focussed on the outraged. 

Outraging against outrage and retreating from outrage are not Gospel options. Proclaiming the Gospel is what is needed. But how? We’ll think about how to do that over the next few weeks.