Encountering Jesus: Share
Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ).
– John 1:40-42
These days we like to share things about our life. We take a picture of our lunch and hashtag it on Instagram and Facebook. We put a snap of the most every-day things on our snap story. We take selfies. We take pics. We share almost everything about our life, especially the things that we are excited about.
That’s how Andrew felt about Jesus. He didn’t have Instagram, Twitter, or Snapchat, but he did have feet. The first thing Andrew did after hearing John the Baptist
was share with his brother, Peter, what he learned and who he met. He couldn’t keep this quiet. John had told him that Jesus was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He had to tell Peter. To him
Jesus was the celebrity above all celebrities and he couldn’t wait to share this with his brother and then beyond.
When was the last time you shared Jesus with someone in your life? When was the last time you told someone about Jesus and said, “We’ve found him. The One we need.”
Sadly, though we share many other things about our lives, we don’t share this most important part of our lives with the most important people in our lives. We’re eager to snap a picture, but not as eager to invite a friend to a church night or to share what we believe about Jesus.
We share things that we are excited about, but not Jesus? This doesn’t seem quite right.
Why not? Could it be that we’re not as excited about Jesus as Andrew was? Could it be that we’ve been around Jesus so much that he’s almost as normal and routine to us as breakfast, lunch, and dinner?
The answer is to remember why we believe in Jesus in the first place. The answer is to remember why we are willing to give up everything to follow him. We’ve learned and believe that he is the One who takes away our every sin. We’ve learned and believe that he is the One who hears our every prayer and meets all our needs.
Then, as he puts a smile on our faces and joy in our hearts because of who he and what he does, we’ll share it in our lives.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, you are the Lamb of God who takes away all my sins. I admit that I’m often not excited to share my faith with other people. I admit that I often keep quiet when I should speak up. Help me to love you again with all my heart and to remember why I love you. And then make me bold to speak up and share you with other people in my life. Amen.
