by Paul Tan
When reading John 1:14 it describes Jesus as the Word made flesh. It emphasised that God took the initiative and chose to bridge the gap between God and humanity by becoming human like us. Though God’s word to us is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ, there is still a need for the word of God to be continually ‘made flesh’ in our contemporary society through us as believers. When that word becomes ‘incarnate’ through us in our lifestyles and actions, and as we live our lives in such a way that people are able to approach us up close and see us for who we are, they will be able to see Jesus for who He really is, living in us.
However there are a series of cultural barriers which must be addressed before the person is able to respond in a fair way to the gospel. The ‘stained glass’ barrier, generational barriers, gender differences and varying social norms are specific from culture to culture, Our duty as believers who communicate the good news to people, would be to remove as many of these barriers as possible so that only the cross would be a ‘stumbling block’ to those who do not yet believe. I believe Jesus gave us a key to this in Mark 1:40-45 where He chose to touch the man before healing him. By doing so, Jesus showed that He loved the individual first, before attempting to bring about change to the man’s life. This is a model which could be well used in cross-cultural settings.
G'day Paul,
I enjoyed reading this devotional.
While I appreciate the aim of it, sometimes touching another could create cross cultural barriers or difficulties rather then bridging them.
Blessings craig b
Posted by: Craig Bennett | Saturday, November 18, 2006 at 01:52 PM