Why Good News people live Bad News Lives

Imagine officials from the Publishers Clearing House showing up at your door, with the exciting news that you have won $5000 per week for the rest of your life! You will be flabbergasted, exuberant and excited. You will start thinking about all the changes you are going to make in your life, and the dreams you are going to pursue with such a guaranteed financial windfall of a lifetime.

In the spiritual realm, we are supposed to be receivers of the “good news” of Jesus Christ. But I don’t see much excitement in the lives of most Christians or an action plan based on that good news.

There are more than 300,000 churches in this country. Our leaders often describe it as a “Christian nation.” Nearly 70 percent of Americans identify themselves as Christians.

Why do so many Christians, who claim to have received the good news of Jesus, behave so badly, personally and nationally? This question has always nagged me.

If we claim to be people of the good news, why is our country and the world largely a “bad news” place? Why do we have poverty, racism, war, hatred, killings, divisions, disunity, homophobia, and selfish partisanship? Why are some of the richest Christians in this country against a minimum wage of $15 for poor workers? Why the US Congress which is filled with Christian legislators, won’t advocate healthcare for all?

Why would those who claim to be followers of the one who said, “If someone slaps you on one cheek, show him the other cheek,” amass guns and assault weapons whose only purpose is to hurt and kill? What are they afraid of, if they claim to understand the message of the risen Jesus who said: “Be not afraid?”

Many 20th century atrocities such as the Holocaust, the Spanish Inquisition, the Rawandan genocide, and Apartheid took place in predominantly Christian countries.

The Christian nationalism promulgated by the evangelical Christians is antithetical to the good news of Jesus Christ. The MAGA mentality of being “warriors for Christ” is totally incompatible with the teachings of Jesus. In an article titled “The Christian Radicals are Coming,” in The Atlantic, Stephanie MCrummen writes: “God appointed Christian warriors to do whatever is needed in November and beyond.” Abusing the name of Jesus to gain political power by violent means is both abhorrent and appalling.

So, good news people can behave badly on a national level. They can do that on a personal level too.

If you are living your life — angry, upset, unforgiving, depressed, and unpleasant to be around, you are living a bad news life.

If you wake up worried and weary, and look at the world with negative lens, you are living a bad news life. If you are stressed out about everything, and experience a lot of anxiety and fear, you are living a bad news life. If your life is devoid of abiding joy, you are living a bad news life. The good news of Jesus has not permeated your life.

When we are bad news to ourselves, it is hard to be good news to others. Each of us is capable of being bad news to the people around us, the people we live with, work with and interact with.

Hurt people hurt people.

So again, my question is why so many Christians, who supposedly have received the good news of Jesus, live their lives as if they have received bad news?

My theory is that most Christians have no clue about the “Good News.”

What is the good news of Jesus? Few years ago, I posed that question on Face Book. I had 391 Face Book friends then. Only 9 of them offered an answer.

The gist of the answers was: “Jesus died for our sins thereby giving us eternal life in heaven after we die; our salvation is guaranteed in Jesus.”

I shared that answer with my wife Judy. Her initial response was: “How is somebody’s death, “good news?” Besides, Jesus died 2000 years ago; I was not even alive then. So, how can he die for my sins that I was not even around to commit? How can his death “then,” benefit my life “now?”

If Judy who is a baby-boomer thinks like that, can you imagine what the millennials are thinking? Actually Millennial are old now. I have to ask what the Gen Zs are thinking. I don’t think they are thinking much about anything, let alone serious theology. They don’t even attend church. According to surveys, they are the least religious generation.

When asked about the good news of Jesus, most Christians basically repeat the phrase: “Jesus died for our sins” without understanding it.

Breaking news: “Jesus died for our sins is NOT the good news!”

To find out the good news of Jesus, look up the first words Jesus spoke at the beginning of his public ministry:

“After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said:

“The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”

The fact that the kingdom of God is NEAR is the good news.

Mathew and Mark don’t explain what the Kingdom of God is. In Luke, we get an explanation. Jesus does not use the word “kingdom” in his inaugural speech in Luke 4. He describes what God’s Kingdom looks like by reading from the book of Isaiah during his first appearance in the local synagogue.

“The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor.”(Luke 4:18–19)

The good news is that Jesus has come to “proclaim freedom for the prisoners.”

The good news is that Jesus has come to bring “recovery of sight for the blind.”

The good news is that Jesus has come to “release the oppressed.”

The good news is that Jesus has come to “proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

So the good news is that if you are a prisoner to your addictions and narrow mindedness, your prejudices and hatreds, your one-track mind, your arrogant nationalism, your thinking that everybody who disagrees with you should be destroyed, Jesus has come to help you change that.

The good news is that if you are blind to the beauty of God’s creation around you, if you are blind to the goodness of people in the world, if you are blind to the blessings you already have, if you are blind to the poverty and suffering around you, if you are blind to the needs of others, then Jesus has come to heal your blindness and open your eyes.

The good news is that the Kingdom of God is near. It is not a far away location beyond the clouds, but a reality right here in the midst of your world: a kindom of love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, equality, equity and well-being.

The good news is that Jesus has come to proclaim the “Year of the Lord’s favor,” when debts are forgiven, strangers are welcomed, the outcasts are embraced, mercy is shown towards the poor, compassion is manifested and peace and harmony prevails among people.

The person of Jesus is the good news.

Look at the birth announcement from the angel: “I bring you good news of great joy…today in the town of David a savior has been born to you.” (Lk 2:10)

The good news of Jesus is his “life,” not his “death.”

Preachers and teachers have focused so much on the “death” of Jesus that they forget the “life” of Jesus, the message he preached, the kind of life he lived, the boundary-breaking love he showed, the forgiveness he practiced, the mercy he manifested especially for the lowly and the downtrodden.

If you read the gospels carefully, you will find that Jesus never called us sinners. Jesus never said that he came to die for our sins. Jesus never said he came to take us to heaven.

The good news of Jesus is that the Kingdom of God is at hand, that the Kingdom of God is within you. Once you experience that kingdom within, the values and priorities of the kingdom without will be seen and experienced very differently.

So to experience the good news, we have to get to know the historical Jesus and follow him.

Most Christians know only the Christ of Faith, not the historical Jesus. They know him as the Son of God, begotten by the Father, and born of the Virgin Mary. He died on the cross, rose again, ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of God, and will come again to judge the living and the dead. He is also the second person of the Holy Trinity.

According to David Galston, author of Embracing the Human Jesus, Christ of faith has an “impressive resume,” but not a relatable life-story!

Focusing on the divinity of Jesus has very little impact on our humanity. We will worship him in church and leave, but how can we follow the “Second Person of the Trinity” who “sits at the right hand of God?”

We have to discover the Jesus in the pages of the gospels who has the power to transform our lives as he did the lives of Nicodemus, Zacheus, Jairus, Nathaniel, and many others. We have to encounter Jesus and follow him rather than put him on a pedestal and worship him.

Pedestalization of Jesus is the pathology of Christianity.

We cannot be like Jesus unless we find out what Jesus was like.

We have to change our whole mindset about what it means to be a follower of Jesus, not a fan of Jesus.

We have to think like Jesus, feel like Jesus and behave like Jesus. When we do that, we will become bearers of good news for others.

Question: Are you happy about being a Christian or just happened to be one?