The Great Disconnect (Wait.. who is Jesus?)

As some of you know, I spent this past summer at Camp Barakel as a summer camp counselor.  It was a fantastic experience that I enjoyed very much, but there was something troubling that I discovered.  Every week, I had the opportunity to meet with each of my campers on what is known as a ‘one-on-one’.  It’s a chance to talk with them about their life, interests, and faith.  Partway through the summer, I began asking a question.  “If I were to ask you, and I didn’t actually know, ‘Who is Jesus?’ what would you tell me?”  I liked this question because it’s very unassuming.  It doesn’t ask what the right answer is, it only asks what they know.  What I heard, on the other hand, I did not like.  I expected that I would have un-churched kids who didn’t really know what the Bible taught, but I think I only had two of those the whole summer.  The majority of our conversations went something like this: “If I were to ask you, and I didn’t actually know, ‘Who is Jesus?’ what would you tell me?”  “Well, uhm.  I would say that he’s our savior.”  “What else, like, is he God?”  “No, well, maybe?  I don’t really know.”  That is just an example.  The answers ranged from ‘I think so’ to ‘No, he was just a good guy’ from kids that claimed to go to church at least EVERY WEEK.

The first couple conversations I had like this just made me think, ‘Oh, okay, they just haven’t really put all the pieces together.’  But as the summer continued, and almost every one-on-one ended up like that, it caused me to start looking for answers.  I found some.  I started paying more attention to details in sermons and the way things were said and how they would come across to someone who didn’t know better.

“God loved us so much that He sent His son to be the sacrifice for our sins.”  That’s the gospel right?  There’s nothing wrong with that statement.  But there is.  God loved us.  So He sent Jesus.  If you don’t expand it and talk about it, it comes across as this God who’s up in Heaven, and He loves us, but He sends someone else to pay for our sins.  He doesn’t get His hands dirty.  What kind of love is that?  And does Jesus love us?  Was his sacrifice voluntary, or did he just do it begrudgingly because God told him to, like a child does his earthy father?  This may seem a little extreme, but it’s what I’ve seen.  It’s not a line of thought that isn’t proven.  I’ve heard the evidence.

Where does this line of thinking lead?  If Jesus doesn’t love me, he just died because he had to, then the cross loses its potency.  It’s not an incredible sacrifice that leads us to love Him more, it’s legalistic.  Theologically, if Jesus wasn’t God, then his death wouldn’t have been effective.  He had to be both God and Man.

That is the Great Disconnect.  We teach that God loves us.  We teach that Jesus died.  But do we cross the gap to make the connection?