Archive: God With Us Again

By Paul Mickey, Chairman, Good News Board of Directors

Recently I was being entertained in the home of a United Methodist family. The husband (John) was a life-long Methodist layman and had been infrequent in his church attendance in the past decade. We drove to a nearby pizza place, placed an order, and sat at a table to wait.

Shortly, John turned to me and said, “Paul, I know you’re a religious man and teach in a seminary but I need to check something with you. I have a lot of dealings with Jews and Arabs in my work; we often talk about religion and religious differences. My Jewish friends want to know especially the differences between Christians and Jews. Oh, they believe Jesus lived and all that good stuff; they’re not arguing that. But isn’t the real difference in the resurrection? I have always believed that.”

In response to this layman’s basic testimony, I replied, “Yep, John, I think you about have it put together, as I see it. There are, for me, two distinctive differences—and in other ways there are a number of basic similarities. One is, as you say, that we Christians believe Jesus not only lived a good life but that He was raised from the dead by the power of God.

“A second basic for the Christian is that we believe that Jesus was the Son of God; He was the Messiah of the house of David. He came fulfilling the Old Testament prophecy about the Messiah, the Savior.”

We continued in our conversation about Jewish and Christian distinctions. Finally I added, “I have always remembered my college professor in New Testament saying that Christians are honorary Jews—not by birth but by faith, because we are adopted into the family of God as sons and daughters, brothers, and sisters of Jesus. And I believe that.”

That set off a thought reaction in John. He recalled, “A couple of months ago I was with a Jewish scientist and an Arab oil producer. We were talking about the same thing and to my amazement the Arab and Jew agreed that they both could point to ‘Father Abraham’ as the common family ancestor.”

“Yes,” I added, “I think that’s right. We are more tied together in this world than many of us realize. It’s amazing how God works through Hagar, Sarah, Jesus, and us—if we are open by faith.”

When the pizza arrived, our conversation began to turn toward food and entertainment. But before leaving, John turned for a final reassurance: “Then you’d say, Paul, that the resurrection is the most important for the Christian and next to that our belief that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God?”

“That’s it, John; that’s the Gospel in a nutshell.”

As I have meditated on our conversation and John’s Gospel sharing in the midst of international commerce and the rising and falling of nations, I take encouragement in the simple yet profound message of the Gospel and of Easter. Jesus Christ …  “designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 1:4, RSV)