21 Sep Jesus Didn’t Need a Megaphone

As the Major League Baseball season winds down, controversy is heating up outside T-Mobile Park, the home of the Seattle Mariners. As the “Seattle Times” reports:

If you have been to a game at T-Mobile Park, you have heard them. They are omnipresent. They are loud. When there’s a big game, they show up in force. What are we talking about here? Fans, vendors, the organ player? Nah. Street preachers. The men — and they are almost always men — who carry billboards and megaphones and exhort the baseball-watching masses to repent, before it’s too late.

The Times also reports that the Mariners are working with the Seattle City Council on a plan that would limit loudspeakers (megaphones) before and after events at the stadium. A Mariners spokesman said the issue was not the content of their message, but the “ear-splitting” 120 decibels at which it is being delivered. Others, however, have complained that the preachers are getting in the faces of individuals and delivering “hateful” messages. The issue isn’t unique to Seattle. Green Bay police have responded to complaints of “street preachers” annoying people, albeit not at a decibel level that rivals a fighter jet taking off.

There are a few points to be made about this story. First, Jesus never shouted, let alone wielded a megaphone. At Samaritan’s Heart, we live and teach: “people don’t’ care what you know, until they know that you care.” Second, care means relationship not religion. Jesus served people and got to know them. That approach worked pretty well for Him. Third, Revelation 3:20 tells us that Jesus knocks on the door to our heart; He doesn’t kick it in:

“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.” Revelation 3:20 (NLT)

Something is conspicuous by its absence in many paintings depicting Jesus knocking at the door: a doorknob. Jesus cannot let Himself in; we must allow Him into our space and our hearts. Many consider Apostle Paul’s experience in Athens, recounted in Acts 17, as the ultimate example of evangelizing.

He’s basically hiding out in Athens after being persecuted by Jewish leadership. As he walks around the city, he is struck by the many monuments to Greek gods. Rather than chastise them for worshipping false Gods, he shows the Athenians understanding:

22 So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows: “Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, 23 for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about. Acts 17:22-23 (NLT)

I won’t judge the Seattle street preachers, nor question the legalities of what they are doing. What I do know is that I personally, and we as a church, are called to follow the model of Jesus and Paul: “People don’t care what you know, until they know that you care.” It’s brought millions to the lap of Jesus over the last 20 centuries and it doesn’t have an expiration date.

Keep an eye out for open doors and then boldly share the Good News that saved your life!

Pastor Jerry Bader