Right before the COVID pandemic swept the world in 2019 I had the opportunity to visit a place much different than the U.S. For the first time in my life in I met someone who had never ever heard the name of Jesus.
While there is a growing number in our country who identify themselves as a “none” (those who have no particular religious belief), most people have at least heard about Jesus and know a little about him.
I have friend, who I’ll call “Joe”, who is from that part of the world, and we had worked together in several different cities over the three weeks I was there. One afternoon we called for an Uber to take us from the conference we were conducting back to our hotel. Joe was in the front seat and I was in the back and he struck up a conversation in the local dialect with our driver, who was about 30 years old. After a while, Joe turned to me and said, “Floyd, this guy has never heard the name, Jesus.” I perked up because I had never in my life met someone who had never heard his name.
"Jesus? What is that?"
I found out that he could speak English, so I introduced myself and asked, “Have you really never heard the name, “Jesus?”
He answered, “No, what is that?”
Not only had he never heard the word “Jesus,” he didn’t even know it was a person.
So, I responded, “Well, he is the most important and famous person who has ever lived. Can I tell you how I met him?”
That piqued his interest, first because I said that he was the most famous person who ever lived and, second, that I claimed to know him. He said, “Yes, I would like to know how you met the most famous person who ever lived!”
So, I began to tell him how growing up I believed in God but had rejected him in my teen years. I then explained (as I’ve written previously) how I met a guy named John in college who told me about Jesus and then explained how I could trust in him to be my sin forgiver and the only hope of eternal life.
Since this driver had never heard about Jesus, I also explained to him the basic truths about who Jesus is — how as the eternal Son of God he came to earth and was born to a virgin as a baby. I told him that after Jesus grew into manhood he went about telling people about God and demonstrated the validity of his message by healing people and even raising some people from the dead. I explained how he never displeased God in any way and was the only perfect human being who ever lived. I then informed him that Jesus angered the religious and political authorities of his time and was finally betrayed to them by one of his closest friends. Then they arrested him, gave him an unfair trial, mocked and beat him mercilessly and then executed him with one of the most excruciating deaths possible by nailing him to a Roman cross. But, I also told how this was all part of God’s plan to have Jesus be a substitute as a sacrifice for all the wrongdoing of everyone of us, him included. Then I concluded about how God raised Jesus from the dead three days later, that he appeared to many people over the next 50 days until he went up into heaven. I told the driver that Jesus promised to return sometime in the future to take all those who trust in him to forgive their sins and give them eternal life to be with him for all of eternity.
I was amazed by his reaction
I was amazed at this man’s reaction as he heard about Jesus for the very first time. The more I explained, the more animated and excited he became. I could see him shaking his head in wonder and smile broadly as he heard the story of Jesus.
All this only took about ten minutes and, after I concluded, I paused to get his reaction.
This is what he said: “That is amazing! You mean that God loves me so much that he sent his Son to become a man like me and then died in my place to make me right with God? And, he is alive and returning to earth some day? That is incredible!”
He was awestruck by the story that has become so familiar to me, and I was equally awestruck by how he responded the very first time he heard it!
As I reflected on his reaction, I realized in a fresh way that the story of Jesus that I grew up hearing but did not embrace until I was a freshman in college, really is the most amazing, wonderful and joyful Good News ever heard.
As we head into this Easter weekend, I recognize the need to again stop — and I hope you do, too, — and reconsider the story of Jesus. I try to imagine what it would be like if it was the first time I ever heard it. Isn’t it marvelous to realize that he became a human just like you and me, then showed and taught us how much God loves us, and proved it by willingly becoming our substitute to suffer such agony to pay for all the brokenness and sin in our lives, then rose again from the dead to offer all of us his gift of eternal life? All we have to do is believe it — to acknowledge that it is true, to agree that he did this for you and me, and then to trust in him alone as the only way to have an eternal relationship with God.
As we arrived at our destination we gave that driver access to a Bible and told him how he, too, could enter into a personal relationship with the One he had never heard about before that day. He was so glad and thanked me for telling him about Jesus, the most wonderful person that has ever lived.
The Uber driver's gift to me
And God also gave me a great gift in meeting that driver and watching him experience the marvelous wonder of Jesus. It has helped me to appreciate again who Jesus is and what he has done for me!
I hope during this Easter season, as you contemplate again the story of Jesus, you will experience him in fresh ways as you consider the wonder of it all - as if hearing it for the very first time.
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