Dear New McKendree Church Family,

No matter who you are—regardless of whether you’re a believer or not—you’ve got to admit that Jesus is, without a doubt, the most significant and influential figure in all of human history. His life among us was (and is) so substantial that history pivots around him. His very birth caused historians to divide history’s yardstick between B.C. and A.D. Granted, there have been many heroines and heroes who have emerged in the course of human history; people who have sacrificed themselves for the sake of others, defied the odds, righted wrongs, and otherwise left their transformative mark on the pages of history, but all pale in comparison to this humble, uneducated peasant from Galilee. 

Why is that? What about Jesus sets him so far apart from all the rest? It’s baffling when you think about it from a purely historical standpoint. It’s not like he pioneered a healthcare system or built hospitals for the poor people in Palestine. He didn’t open a network of halfway houses for the region’s orphans and widows. There’s no historical evidence of Jesus spearheading a philanthropic foundation or chairing a benevolent society. So, what was it that Jesus did in his short 33-year life that dramatically changed human history? Historians have spent the last 20 centuries wrestling with that question, and will no doubt spend the next 20 doing the same. 

Thankfully, as Christians, we’re not called to be historians but imitators of Jesus. What’s important is simply this: Jesus lived…he became flesh and lived among us. What’s more, Jesus didn’t just preach the gospel; he lived it. He didn’t reduce his message to mere words. He communicated his message by loving people one person at a time. Jesus was what he talked about; he was the Good News personified.

While studying God’s Word is essential to Christian growth, sometimes, in our quest to study the object of our faith, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s most critical. Learning about the historical life of Jesus may be fascinating and give us a feeling of accomplishment, but all that knowledge is useless if we don’t live it. We’re not just called to receive and proclaim the Good News, but to live the Good News…to be the Good News in someone else’s life. As Jesus’ life demonstrates, the most effective way to spread the Gospel’s good news is to be the Gospel’s good news.