Janita Krayniak

When I was a kid there was a booklet you could order from Scholastic Books. They were called Mad Libs! These stories often left blanks where the reader was supposed to fill in those places with a random word choice. For example, the blank might leave room for a noun — and you could fill that in with literally any noun! Thinking back on that, it made me start to wonder, how might the following phrase be finished?

Jesus was a….

Many who proclaim to be Christians might jump right on this and offer something like:  “Well he was the son of God!” Some may say the son of man, others may say the savior of the world. But these are Christianity informed responses. I began to wonder about how a non-Christian might fill in this blank, so I did what most modern “seekers” would do, I consulted Google. My fingers went to the open bar in the search engine as I typed: “Jesus was a …” and here is what I found that the top Google search/responses were:

“Jesus was a Cross Maker”(song by Judee Sill)

“Jesus was a Carpenter” (song by Johnny Cash)

“Jesus was a Capricorn” (song by Kris Kristoferson)

Jesus was a JoJo (Had to look this one up — it is something to do with gaming and names!)

Jesus was an American (This search likely stems from our LDS brothers’ and sisters’ claim of Jesus’ appearance in the Americas)

Jesus was a rabbi (Well the sixth most popular search gets us a little closer!)

Jesus was a friend of sinners (OK now we are getting somewhere!)

Jesus was a friend of mine (Yes!)

Jesus was Aramaic (OK, likely Jesus spoke Aramaic)

Jesus was a biscuit?!? (Again, I had to look this up, but it stems from Ru Paul’s show where Sissy explains what it means to “let Jesus sop you up!”)

If I am honest, I found it a bit shocking that nowhere in this list of Google’s frequent searches about Jesus did it say, as Bishop Will Willamon put it: “Jesus was a Jew from Nazarene, who lived briefly, died violently and rose unexpectedly.”  

I think my impromptu Google search may shed some light on the reality of how we (the church) have lost sight of what it means to be a Christian. And sadly, I think that it shows what a lack of importance we (the church) place on telling the story of the good news of Jesus Christ. He indeed was a Jew, from Nazareth, who briefly lived (only 33ish years and of that only a few were dedicated to his earthly ministry)! Jesus, who died violently (by crucifixion at the hands of the then ruling Roman government)! Jesus, who rose unexpectedly (not even his disciples thought that Jesus was really going to defeat death, but this is what makes all the difference in our belief as a Christian — the resurrection!) 

We were given two main commandments as Christians in the very week that Jesus is ultimately crucified and those were to love both God and our neighbors as ourselves. Then the post-resurrection Jesus tells the same disciples who had run and hidden to save themselves during the crucifixion that they are to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Verse 20) and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20, NRSVUE) 

The church has failed to make disciples of all nations. We have not told the story of Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection! If the church had, then the Google search engine would have had a very different list of suggestions to fill in the blank, rather than answers reflecting popular culture and songs. For those of you who stuck with me until the end of this article, I invite you to join me in changing how we fill in the blank! Help in telling the truly transformative story, as we teach the world about this man named Jesus, who was a “Jew from Nazareth, who lived briefly, died violently and rose unexpectedly!” 

Here, let me offer a phrase to help in getting the story going:  Jesus was a…

(Janita Krayniak is the pastor for Powell and Lovell United Methodist churches.)