Jesus, Good For What Ails You?

I recently read an article about sales tactics. It focused on one in particular: Get people to see a problem they didn't know they had, make them feel bad about it, and then sell them the cure. The most recent example they gave was Dove's "Go Sleeveless" campaign which made women feel bad about their ugly armpits. They even provided some older examples of these sale pitches directed at women, some of which had painful and even deadly consequences with their misinformation (such as marketing Lysol to be used in ways that I cannot fully understand).


When I think about it, the way we pitch the Gospel isn't much different.

"Is there something missing in your life? There is! Do you know what it is? It's Jesus"

It doesn't matter what it is that's missing, simply insert Jesus into the missing part of the equation and you'll have your answer.

There are several companies who market us an experience of happiness in a similar way. For example Coca-Cola markets fulfillment as a byproduct of their product. McDonald's as well, listing a host of everyday problems declares "there's a snack for that (It seems, realizing how ridiculous this is, McDonald's has recently dropped this campaign)."

Proving my point with enough irony and self-satire that I do not have to be creative with my words, ponder this T-shirt for a moment.

Have we reduced the message of Jesus to the marketing gimmicks that our culture uses to sell us crappy hamburgers, post-it notes and cheap experiences of fulfillment? It certainly seems that way.

As Os Guinness recently said in a lecture:

It's easy to make Christians. It's hard to make disciples.

When a Christian discovers that Jesus makes demands on them there is a sense of betrayal. When the Christian encounters the Jesus who says:

Whoever puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not worthy of me.

OR...

Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy to be called mine

begins to find themselves at odds with Jesus.


Jesus is not a commodity to be sold or a readily available remedy, he is Lord, and he has purchased us at a price, not the other way around.

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.