So Many Books
Read John 21:25.
"Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body" (Ecclesiastes 12:12b).
So many books, so little time,
so many hunger, so many blind,
Starving for words, they must wait in the night
To open the Bible and move towards the Light...
(Michael Card, "So Many Books" from The Word)
John leaves us with one, last, frustrating verse. There are many other things, he says, Jesus did but no one, including him, has written down. We already knew that was true; John has just spent his whole Gospel largely telling us things about Jesus—things he said, things he did—that we hadn't heard before. Things Matthew, Mark and Luke had left out. Things only John, by this time, remembered. So we knew there were some things. But John hints that there are so many things that if they were all written down, the whole world could not contain the books!
Now, this is obviously hyperbole. For two thousand years, people have been writing books about Jesus. Thousands, I would guess, are published every year still today (I personally buy far too many of them! Did I just hear Cathy say, "Amen"?). In two thousand years, we have not gotten tired of talking about Jesus. Now in addition to books, there are millions of podcasts and blogs and articles published online. We have not yet run out of words to talk about and tell about Jesus.
And yet there are still people in the world who have not yet heard. While we endlessly debate and write books and articles on the "difficult question" of "What about those who have never heard?" people are dying without knowing or even hearing the name of Jesus. Two thousand years of words about Jesus and the Word itself has not yet been spread over the entire planet. To me, the important question isn't "What about those who have never heard?" (I trust God to sort all that out), but "Why hasn't the church done what Jesus told us to do?" The indictment is on us—me and you. Two thousand years ought to have been enough to fulfill the commission Jesus gave us, and yet it remains unfulfilled. When will we obey?
That doesn't mean you have to pack up and move halfway around the world (though it might, if God calls you there). It does mean we're all called to share the good news wherever we are, to be light in the midst of the dark places, to actually live as a Christian and share the good news at work, at school, online, in our homes—wherever we are! We don't have to be obnoxious about it (there are already enough people like that, especially online), but we can love people and, as Peter says, give a reason for the hope we have—with gentleness and respect. If Jesus is important to us, if he is the one whose name gives us life (as John says), why do we hesitate to share him?
We become the rest of the story. We become the other "books" that tell the world of the work of Jesus.
So many books, so little time...
Now, this is obviously hyperbole. For two thousand years, people have been writing books about Jesus. Thousands, I would guess, are published every year still today (I personally buy far too many of them! Did I just hear Cathy say, "Amen"?). In two thousand years, we have not gotten tired of talking about Jesus. Now in addition to books, there are millions of podcasts and blogs and articles published online. We have not yet run out of words to talk about and tell about Jesus.
And yet there are still people in the world who have not yet heard. While we endlessly debate and write books and articles on the "difficult question" of "What about those who have never heard?" people are dying without knowing or even hearing the name of Jesus. Two thousand years of words about Jesus and the Word itself has not yet been spread over the entire planet. To me, the important question isn't "What about those who have never heard?" (I trust God to sort all that out), but "Why hasn't the church done what Jesus told us to do?" The indictment is on us—me and you. Two thousand years ought to have been enough to fulfill the commission Jesus gave us, and yet it remains unfulfilled. When will we obey?
That doesn't mean you have to pack up and move halfway around the world (though it might, if God calls you there). It does mean we're all called to share the good news wherever we are, to be light in the midst of the dark places, to actually live as a Christian and share the good news at work, at school, online, in our homes—wherever we are! We don't have to be obnoxious about it (there are already enough people like that, especially online), but we can love people and, as Peter says, give a reason for the hope we have—with gentleness and respect. If Jesus is important to us, if he is the one whose name gives us life (as John says), why do we hesitate to share him?
We become the rest of the story. We become the other "books" that tell the world of the work of Jesus.
So many books, so little time...
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