A Lifestyle Or Life
A Lesson For The Church From “The Passion Of The Christ" - Part 2
'We can measure how far we've moved from a Christian worldview by the way we treat money, and our preoccupation with lifestyles... Jesus did not say, "I came to give you a better lifestyle."'
 Mel Gibson's movie 'The Passion of the Christ' is on its way becoming one of the highest grossing movies in history.
As you would expect with a movie like this one, people leave the darkened cinema with very different feelings and opinions. I heard of one man who, leaving the theatre, chuckled to a friend, 'Some of those Roman scourgers enjoyed their work just a little too much!'
For most people, I think, the movie touched them on a more profound level that that. But whatever your view of the film, there are several important lessons for the Christian church - not just much from the way the movie was produced, but from the reactions it provoked.
The first, as we saw in part one, is this: there is a chronic need for the sharing of a Christian worldview in our society.
One of the most common responses to the movie, among secular viewers, is 'Why?' It's a question reflected in the cover story of a recent TIME Magazine: 'Why did Jesus have to die?' From responses like this, it is clear that people no longer hold to a Judeo-Christian worldview.
As Christians, we can no longer assume that people around us understand the assumptions that underlie our faith.
Christianity offers an entire framework through which we can explain the fundamental questions of the human psyche: 'Who am I? Where did I come from? Where might I be headed?'
The Bible's worldview is based on four great themes: creation, the fall, redemption and restoration.
In Europe today - in the West generally - we have moved quite a distance from the Christian worldview that historically underpinned our civilization's development.
We can measure how far we've moved from a Christian worldview by the way we treat money, and our preoccupation with lifestyles.
Once upon a time, even people who professed little faith in God believed that human beings achieve purpose and happiness by improving the lives of others. Today, people seem to think that life is improved by concentrating on self.
Instead of looking for opportunities to serve and give, we focus on tacking material things, or the experiences that money can buy, onto our daily routines and environment.
We say to ourselves: 'If I can add to my environment a better style of house, or car, or holiday, I will have a better life.' So, we have magazines and TV shows that proclaim the gospel of lifestyles. We have doctors, fitness gurus and dieticians who preach about lifestyles.
In our desperate desire to discover the right lifestyle, we show just how far we've moved from the Christian concept of the fall. We've forgotten just how morally lost and how spiritually dead we are without Christ.
Jesus did not say, 'I came that you might get a better lifestyle.'
According to Jesus, if you don't put your faith in him, you don't even have life, much less a good lifestyle.
Trying to improve your life without Jesus is like a bald man trying to improve his looks by going to a top hairdresser. If you have no hair, it's silly to think that a new hairstyle will help you. If you don't have the fundamentals of life in place, it's silly to think that a new lifestyle will help you.
True heroes of faith are not celebrated for their lifestyles. They're remembered for the way they imparted life.
People don't remember John Wesley for the horse he rode around on. People don't celebrate David Livingstone for the house he lived in; or Catherine Booth for the cut of her hair; or Martin Luther King Jnr. for the suits he wore; or Mother Teresa for the smoothness of her complexion.
In all the fuss about lifestyle, money has become what Jesus called 'Mammon'.
In the way we interact with money, we show that we've forgotten about Christian redemption and what it really means. We seem to believe that personal redemption is found in the possession of things, that true happiness is found in controlling our environment by laying up treasure for our future.
We've lost sight of the fact that the redemption we need is far greater than money can buy. We fail to recognize that our own consumerism cannot save us.
Why did God spend so much time in OT introducing himself by various names? He did it partly to reveal his nature and to give us a basis for faith. But he also wanted to ensure that, in our minds, he has Personality and not just Utility.
God is not just an Idea to be embraced or discarded whenever it suits us. God is a Person: he has a Name!
In God's order, there's a difference between things created for utility and those created with personality. We shouldn't confuse the two. We shouldn't personalize things and we shouldn't utilize (use) people.
On several occasions, Jesus spoke about money in very personal terms, using a word with a capital letter variously translated as 'Mammon' (in the KJV) or 'Money' (in the NIV). (See Matthew 6:24-25 and Luke 16:13.)
Jesus warned us that money can become much more than a utility, a tool for our use. When we place our faith in money more than God, money takes on a personality of its own. When that happens, money does talk. It says, 'I can clothe you; I can feed you; I can give you drink.' It robs us of the opportunity to trust God and to honour him.
Can you have money and serve God? Definitely - in fact, if you're going to achieve something great for God you will need money to help you. Can you 'have' God and 'serve' money? Definitely not...
© Mal Fletcher 2004
Photos by Philippe Antonello. © 2003 Icon Distribution Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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