Indifference to God, fascination with Christ

Father Philip DeVous

Guest

Ultimately, everything depends on the God question. Faith is faith in God revealed in Jesus Christ or it is nothing. And to the extent we can grasp the nettle of the matter, it is that the crisis in the heart of modern man exists to the degree to which he is indifferent to God. That indifference to God, however, is often not met with a direct repudiation of Jesus Christ, but rather, by erecting a simulacrum of the savior — an idol — who approves our every whim to live as we will.

In recognizing this situation of deep indifference and idolatry, we must cry out anew with the Psalmist, “Your ways, O Lord, make known to me; teach me your paths, guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior.”

No doubt, there are many reasons as to why people have grown indifferent to God. The reasons are as personal as every individual who has become indifferent. I think, however, we could sum up a great many of those reasons as distraction. After all, the world puts many titillating things before our eyes.

The passing world is very good indeed at making us forget that it is passing away. The sum of this relentless distraction leads us down the path of disinterest in Jesus Christ, inattentiveness to the things of the spirit, then on to indifference, and finally to a kind of blindness to God and to the presence of Christ in our midst. This is a constant pressure and temptation with which we all contend.

So, here are some questions to ask ourselves daily to avoid being pulled down the road of indifference to God and to the priority of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom: Do I find Jesus Christ interesting? Do I find Jesus Christ fascinating? Do I want to know more about Jesus Christ?

Every pastoral work of the Church is dead in the water if we do not find Jesus interesting and do not have a desire to really get to know him. It is a tragic irony that after more than a millennium of Christianity as the dominant religion in the Western world that the challenging person of Jesus Christ is now largely met with widespread disinterest, even by many claiming to have a relationship with Him. How many church related things do we engage with whereof Jesus Christ is barely spoken?

If there is to be a resurgence of faith in our time, which truly rediscovers the priority of Christ, taking faith beyond the routine and superficial, it will only start when we again find Jesus fascinating. And, it must be said, Jesus Christ is fascinating!

Let us pray to hear the words of St. Paul with fresh, inquisitive ears when he says: “(Christ Jesus) Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God, something to be grasped.”

In this single sentence we have two claims that were revolutionary in St. Paul’s time and our own. First, that Jesus is God. The God of the Israelites was understood as majestic, so holy that not even His name was to be said, lest one offend with blasphemy. Though He cared for Israel, the chosen people, he was to be carefully approached and attended to. The apostle is saying this Jesus is that God. The Lord. The Creator.

Second, even though Jesus is the God of Israel, He “did not regard equality with God.”

Why?

“…Because he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness and human in appearance.” Now whatever one may think about this claim, is this not a fascinating claim? That the all-holy Eternal God from whom all things were made, through whom the entire cosmos was fashioned, set aside His glory to take the form of a slave, to approach us.

Faith can only be sustained if we find Jesus interesting. When we pursue that interest in prayer, worship, fellowship, service and study, our fascination with Jesus grows. Consequently, we find ourselves more willing to listen to Him, to live more of our life “through him, and with him and in him.” Allowing ourselves to be led from indifference to interest, and then onwards to fascination, we become more desirous and willing to bend the knee, and to let the entirety of our lives confess “that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

Father Phillip W. DeVous is pastor of Sts. Peter & Paul Parish in California, KY.