Sun and the Wind?

I don't know if you're familiar with Aesop? He was a Greek who came up with a lot of clever little stories to illustrate real-life situations in an abstract way. One of my favourite fables of his is about the sun and the wind. The sun and the wind were always in competition with one another and were determined to prove themselves more powerful than the other. One day a man was walking along below them and the wind said to the sun, "I bet I can get that man's coat off!" "Go on then," challenged the sun, "and if you fail, I'll have a go!" The wind tried his hardest to blow the coat off the man but he just pulled it tighter around himself. Eventually the wind admitted defeat and the sun had a go. The sun shone brightly and allowed his heat to warm the man. The man got so hot that he just had to take off his coat. Who won that challenge then? The one who was cold and forceful or the one who was warm and persuasive?

So what's my point? Well have you ever been minding your own business in town and heard someone talking to the public in general? You go nearer to hear what they're saying and all you can hear are phrases like "repent or perish", "doomed to hell" and "you sinners". I can't speak for you but people like that make me feel distinctly uncomfortable and irritated and I just want to get away from them and continue what I was doing before I had the misfortune to hear them. Who are they to tell me to sort my life out? They don't even know who I am! The problem I have with these people is not their intentions as I am sure that they are (almost always) good. No, the problem I have is the message they are conveying and the way it is being said. It just reminds me so strongly of the wind in Aesop's fable. Their way of "attracting" people to the gospel is by bullying strangers. Perhaps it works every so often but I'm sure it's more counter-productive than effective.

What upsets me the most about this approach to sharing the gospel is that it does not match that of Jesus' way of communicating with the public. Far from making people feel awkward and driving people away from him whenever he opened his mouth to speak, people flocked from all over to hear what Jesus had to say. He got surrounded by strangers to such an extent that he often had to get out of their reach just to preach to them! Now who can say they've seen and heard someone like that in town?!

Yet Jesus had the same intentions and message to share as those awkward people we meet in town these days but he delivered his message in a totally different way.

Jesus had a message of love, hope, joy, forgiveness and grace. He told it like it is and his gospel (i.e. "good news") spread like wildfire. People of all times and cultures love good news and Jesus' purpose on earth was to share it. He went out of his way to be with people who were considered dirty by the rest of society and even ate in their houses! He spoke with prince or pauper and loved them all the same. Often he described heaven in terms of parties or feasts and was well acquainted with the party lifestyle himself, and was very much the most sociable member of his group... Isn't this just an illustration of his love of people, his love of God and his love of life? He was love personified! "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" he proclaims in John 10:10.

Why then do we still have people proclaiming doom and gloom to a bunch of people who are perhaps hurting enough inside as it is? Shouldn't we be looking out for one another and showing love like Jesus? "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone," said Jesus in John 8:7 as an angry mob got ready to stone a terrified prostitute. The only one there who had an entirely clean conscience and therefore the right to stone her, Jesus himself, did no such thing. Now that's an example to live by.