What would Jesus say or do? .......... Parables 668

May 9, 2000

Madeline O’Hare, Shirley McLean and Jesus Christ are sipping lattes at Starbucks. To open the conversation, Ms. O’Hare (the most forward of the three), stoutly proclaims, “There is no God.”

Ms. McLean cringes. How can she say that? It simply ruins everyone’s self-esteem. In rebuttal, she sternly declares, “No, that is not right. You are God. I am God. We are all God.”

At that, Jesus leans back in His chair, smiles and then . . . what do you think He would say or do?

One option might be a storm cloud that fills the coffee house with thunder and lightning, stunning these two with His power. The New Testament describes a time He was in a boat with His disciples. He was having a nap while they rowed across the Sea of Galilee. As it was prone to do, the weather suddenly changed. Some of the disciples were fishermen, used to quirky storms but this was the mother of all storms. They were terrified and shook Jesus awake with, “Don’t you care that we perish?” At that, He rebuked their “little faith” and commanded the rain and wind to cease. It did. Certainly if He can stop a storm with a word, He can also start one.

Another option might be a display of His glory. He did that on a mountain with Peter, James and John as witnesses. They were struck dumb by what they saw (only Peter, who had perpetual foot-in-mouth disease, offered a few comments). All three fell to the ground in terror.

Or Jesus might respond with a sermon. He often preached from mountainsides and fishing boats, so a coffee shop is not out of bounds for a pulpit. We could guess a topic, perhaps the demands of His Law that asks for our perfect obedience. He might explain how no human would invent the Law of God because we have no reason to hold up a standard we cannot reach. Surely Jesus would include God’s grace and mercy . . . although “sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin . . . when we were still sinners, He died for us.” With that, He would explain how God loves sinners but hates sin and demands it be punished. In love, He send His Son to earth to pay our penalty for sin. Those who believe in Him are spared but those who reject His offer of salvation must themselves pick up the tab for sin.

Then again, Jesus might not preach or do a miracle. He might not reveal Himself, at least not to these people. One is an atheist who denies there is a God. For her, there is no value to faith nor is there need to consider her soul or spirit. She also denies spiritual realities such as miracles. Anything Jesus might do she would attribute to human skill and an FX crew.

The other one believes in pantheism, a belief once held by primitive people but now adopted by the sophisticated westerner. Pantheists believe that “God is all and all is God.” Each level of existence is simply a different level of God, whether it be mind, mosquito, or mud. For her, God is energy not a person. Even though she would agree that Jesus has the energy of God, even agree that He is God, it would not be because He is God but because all of us are. She would attribute whatever Jesus might do or say to the same forces that she herself lives by, but not to the power of a real and holy God. Pantheists prefer a god they can see, touch, understand, control, and that does not require admission of sin. By making “all” into god, they can worship anything they want. They may not stoop to mud and mosquitoes, but only because their favorite “god” is themselves.

Jesus might smile, finish His latte and walk away. After all, He has already spoken to these issues. Psalm 14:1 begins, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’” and goes on to explain that no one seeks God because sin hardens our hearts to the truth of God.

The Bible points out that we know about the Creator in our hearts but if we persist in denying our conscience, we crowd Him out. Then, because we are spiritual beings, we fill the void with lesser gods and the true God becomes an unknown.