The Gospel is news.  I know the word means “good news,” but I’m only lately meditating on what it means to be news at all.  News is a report on what is happening (or has just happened).  News is right now.  News is going on.

Preaching the Gospel or sharing the Gospel or even living the Gospel in my Christian experience has always been about the retelling of timeless truths.  Recounting the story of man’s sinfulness, the cross and the empty tomb.  That’s what I’ve always believed the Gospel message to be.  So whether you express it through the Four Spiritual Laws or the Romans Road or a bunch of 15 year-old kids acting out scenes, with "The Champion" by Carmen, playing behind them, we’re talking about the retelling of the old, old story - how the Savior came from glory.  Before going further, I must say that there is nothing bad or wrong about this.  I’m sure we need more of it, not less.  But it is also striking me that this is not what Jesus did at all.

He did not tell of timeless truths.  It is clear he could have.  Jesus could have been an Old Testament professor.  But instead of retelling the old, old story Jesus was always talking about what was happening right now.  Even when he spoke from the platform of the Old Testament scriptures (Luke 4) it was to say, “This is happening right now.”  “The kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”  “Before Abraham was, I Am.”  It’s all right now.  This is lost from my Gospel.  I’m not telling people about right now.  I’m telling them about back then and trying passionately (maybe desperately) to bring that old, old story into their lives today.

Is this the way you feel about your share of the Gospel too?  Do you feel stuck with this old story and are you finding it harder and harder to share it with the people you think need it the most?  When do you have the right setting or opportunity to talk to people about where they are going to “spend eternity?”  When was the last time you’ve been able to work the Romans Road into a conversation with your neighbor?  The bold among us are actually doing this because their zeal for God and his Great Commission causes them to ignore the personal embarrassment and social awkwardness.  I deeply, deeply admire these people and have challenged my introverted nature to be more like them - but to what end?  With what fruit to show from it?

The retelling of timeless truth almost forces us to split Jesus into one of two halves.  We either make our focus on his eternal power and Godliness, or we seek to convince people of his personal love and acceptance of them.  This is a broad brush for sure, but you can boil down almost all modern methods of evangelism and find one of these “halves of Jesus” at the root.  So listening to the Spirit is essentially reduced to a 50-50 shot at properly communicating one part of the timeless truth in a way that will prick the heart of the person in need of salvation and transformation.  Haven’t you felt, in any of the attempts at evangelism you’ve been exposed to, that there must be a better way?

I believe that there is.  It is the way that Jesus used all along.  I’ve started calling them “coded messages,” and I believe that they are actually transmitted through us more often than with us.  In other words, we are not even aware of the way that the real Gospel - the right now reporting on what God is currently doing - is being delivered in our words and in our actions.  I believe that it is often through these coded messages, due to no persuasive effort of ours, that the "two halves” of Jesus are fused for people.

© Pedro Tavares | Dreamstime.com

When Joseph was still hiding his identity from his brothers, in Egypt, he delivered a coded message.  In Genesis 43:33, Joseph seats his brothers for a meal in the exact order in which they were born.  This detail meant nothing to the other Egyptians nearby… they took no notice of who was sitting where.  It was only significant to the brothers.  In their minds, only God could have done this.  They felt pointed out - noticed.  The infinite, wise, creator-God used his supreme knowledge and power to take special notice of them.

John 1 begins by establishing Jesus as the infinite, wise, creator-God.  In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God… All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made… This “one half” of Jesus.

But the other half says: And the word became flesh and dwelt among us… And we got to take part in His glory… He is infinite and powerful and untouchable greatness in nature, but he is - at the very same time - personal and friendly and approachable and “one of us.”  The real Gospel has a way of fusing these two concepts and establishing them as one in a person’s heart.  And I believe that this real Gospel is very often delivered in a coded message.  Like Joseph seating his brothers in birth order, it means nothing to anyone else, but to the one to whom it was sent - God is suddenly very real, very powerful and yet very personal and very close.

God knows people so well.  He knows exactly how to reach them.  In military jargon this is called “utility of force.”  It refers to the exact amount of force required to do a specific job - no less, no more.  It is knowing the precise amount of explosive it will take to blow a hole in the wall without killing everyone on the other side of it.  When God is “free” to use us as transmitters of coded messages, he juices one or two words with such potency and such intimacy that the person on the receiving end hears the real Gospel for the first time.  I Am and I have noticed you.

He goes around their arguments and their experiences with church and religion.  He bypasses their carefully crafted defenses and excuses.  When the woman at the well wants to debate the origins of worship Jesus says, “Go get your husband and bring him hear to talk with me.”  He tells his friends in the boat, who were sure he was gone, to cast their nets on the other side.  He ends the conversation Mary is having with “the gardener” by calling her by name.  And he knows Thomas so well that he comes back to let him touch the scars on his hands and in his side.

This happens so rarely among us because we do not wait for it to happen.  We take matters into our own hands.  We do something because we believe we have to do something, not because we’ve been directed by the Spirit.

We have no value for waiting and coded messages are born through waiting.  Born is a good word to describe them.  It’s the only way.  Coded messages cannot be adopted.  Their very nature is beyond human ability.  That’s what makes them - they convey a message that you could not have known.  It is too secret and too personal for you to have “figured out.”  The person on the receiving end of it knows this and that’s the point.  Coded messages draw people to Jesus - not to another person - or to a church - or to a set of beliefs and behaviors.  All that stuff may come after, but nothing is more important than people meeting the real Jesus - both halves of him.  Jesus.  Not my portrayal of him.  Not my best intentions about him.  The one who looks above the massive crowd and speaks over the noise of needy humanity and says, “Zacchaeus, today I’m coming over to your house.”