What might we be trying to when we "avoid the Jesus question?"
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This avoidance is seen in a number of different forms. Some of my favorites are: "I'm spiritual, but not religious"; "coexist" (that's the one I see on bumper stickers), "I want a relationship, not a religion" and, "I don't think any one religion/denomination has everything; if we take a little from this on and a little from that one..."
And then there are those such as agnostics who claim they "don't know" and the modern atheist who simply doesn't care - and I distinguish the modern atheist from the classic atheist because modern atheists, for the most part seem to just use the label for their laziness.
There may be 1% of people who can honestly not answer the Jesus question. Christianity has infiltrated into every corner of the world, but there may be 70 million people worldwide who have no idea of Him or his church (and by "church" I include all Christian denominations). For everyone else, avoiding the Jesus question is simply an attempt to justify questionable, if not straight up sinful behavior. For example, all of the actual quotes I have heard in that first paragraph are avoiding the Jesus question because though they know Jesus and want some sort of a ticket punch to heaven, those statements state that they are afraid that Jesus will look different than themselves and so by making such statements believe that they can craft Jesus into their own image, hopefully claiming ignorance at their judgment. This is the outgrowth of Protestantism which says that one is able to interpret (correctly I assume) Scripture for themselves which is essentially saying that they will determine who Jesus is. The second group is simply a group that seeks their own satisfaction to the exclusion of all else.
That said, the human person is made for truth. We seek to know what is right, which is what the meaning of a conscience is. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life" (Jn. 14:6), and thus what we are geared for in our very makeup is to seek Him. Even that 1% is geared to know Him - and they will come to know Him in truth, "if they seek truth with all their heart" (Jer. 29:13). And so the Jesus question is, in reality, unavoidable, and those who seek to run from "the Jesus question" run in vain, to their own peril - "I fled him, down the nights and down the days; I fled him, down the arches of the years; I fled him down the labyrinthine ways of my own mind; and in the midst of tears I hid from him." Yet even as they run, whenever they slow, or turn to see if they have escaped, if they listen, they will heart the soft, yet strong steps of the Hound of Heaven who seeks us all - "All which I took from thee I did but take, not for thy harms, but just that thou may seek it in my arms... Rise, clasp my hand and come... 'Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest, I am he whom thou seekest!".
Quotations from "The Hound Of Heaven" - by Francis Thompson
