Seeing Through

A guy who works with me at the church once said, "Think less about cool and more about Jesus." I like that. When I heard that I took it to mean that whatever we do should be see-through.

Many people love the worship music at churches and say they go "for the music." Some people obsess over the Bible teaching and say they go "for the teaching." They say things like, "it's just so solid" or "the music leader is so wonderful." Or what about the building? "The facility is really nice."

These are kind compliments, but they miss the point.

We see all over the Bible that Jesus is the point. If you look closely at the Greek, Jesus wasn't building his church on the rock of Peter, he was building his church on himself, the Rock of Ages. And if you listen to his words about the Holy Spirit, you'll see that the whole idea of the Spirit is to point back to Jesus. And if you listen to the Risen Christ's words to the men on the road to Emmaus, you'll understand that the entire Old Testament was a testimony of the Messiah to come, who would be named Jesus.

He's the point.

And so we like the music. And we love the teaching. We like the buildings and we enjoy the classes. I end up meeting a lot of people who are Christians because they found a nice little niche in the Evangelical sub-culture. They can act like a Christian, like Christian things, and enjoy Christian friends. But can they see through all of that?

Jesus, for all of us, gives the tangible form of the intangible. As the Scriptures tell us, he is the image of the invisible. He is the point because he is very clear and specific.

So churches like ours sings songs, opens the Bible, and gathers together in order that we might see Jesus. The problem becomes when we forget that all of this stuff is see-through.

In an age where everyone is "spiritual" and many people "go to church," let's remember that we go to church to meet Jesus, sing songs to Jesus, and we open the Word so that we might know Jesus.

The Bible is not the point. The Church is not the point. The music is not the point. The Community Group is not the point. Jesus is the point. And we make these practices so that we might be reminded of Him and the riches that are included within. All of our rituals are but windows.

But they are important because windows show us where to look. Nobody puts a window in place to view the garbage dump, it's a crummy view. No, if you're building your house you put windows by the beautiful view of the river or the mountains. Likewise, we point our teaching, music, and services toward the wonderful view of an accurate picture of a good God.

When you go to Easter service tomorrow, don't just look at the music, teaching, or people; try and see through it all - for there you may find God himself.