No Bait & Switch

This Easter week, you may find yourself thinking a bit more about Jesus or Christianity. And it must be said: they are not the same.

At the same time, maybe this Easter, you’re feeling a strong sense of loss. Loss of faith. Loss of community. Loss of something seemingly central to who you are. Much of what you’ve been told or taught you’re reconsidering in light of too many hard, ridiculous, or hypocritical things that have happened. And I want to encourage you: I think a season of evaluation is a very good thing. 

In many cases, I feel, perhaps Christians have set you up for serious disappointment.

During Easter week two thousand years ago, before Jesus fulfilled His mandate to go to the cross, here’s what Jesus told His followers: 

“We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man (a common name Jesus used for Himself) will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!” Matthew 20:17-19

This was the third time Jesus told them so clearly what was about to happen. It’s about to get ugly. And I’m going to die - but that’s not where it ends.

On top of this, Jesus repeatedly told any who would follow Him to not hold tightly to the things of this world, but to do as He did (figuratively speaking): “Pick up your cross. And follow Me.”

Jesus did not pull any punches. No bait and switch here. But they still didn’t get it. Or they didn’t remember. Or they still wouldn’t accept it. 

I fear many people are experiencing the feeling of bait and switch when it comes to Christianity today. Bait: Come to Jesus and life will be lovely. Dream big – God’s into fulfilling those dreams. Switch: The reality is there’s a lot of mess, hardships and trauma to endure.

If you’ve walked away from your faith or you’ve walked away from what you called, “Christianity,” in all likelihood, you didn’t leave Christianity. You left some shadow of a faith, some inkling of what Christ had designed for people. 

If you feel you’ve had a bit of a bait and switch done on you – you should be ticked. And disappointed. But I promise you, God didn’t set you up. Someone did, but it wasn’t God.

And sometimes it’s just us. Though Jesus was sometimes purposefully vague, then would clarify, at other times, He was very clear, but they still didn’t get it. Or they didn’t remember. Or they wouldn’t accept it. Please, it can’t be this way!

This Easter, evaluate what is true Christianity, true Jesus. Following Him is well worth your time. Go back to the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke or John – to get grounded again in what this thing called the Christian Faith is supposed to be. But no bait and switch here: Jesus set them up for powerful living in a painful world. The world that, through the cross, He was about to overcome.

That was the offer. No bait and switch.

And He offers the same for you and me. 

I’m real because God is so real.

~ Nancy