Sometime in the 1930s people who were hunting down chimpanzees in Africa contracted the HIV virus that led to the AIDS disease. Later, when those men consorted with prostitutes, the disease was on its way. Then, when airlines developed to the point of providing intercontinental connections, the disease crossed the world.
Worldwide, we’re told that 36 million people have died from AIDS.
“Patient Zero”–the person who transported the HIV virus to America–was a flight attendant for Air Canada.
We owe that man so much.
He was truly a person of great and far-reaching influence.
But all in the wrong way.
In Sinclair Lewis’ novel “Elmer Gantry,” a disillusioned minister tells a colleague why he is caving in to his doubts about God and leaving the ministry. He cites a number of contradictions in Scripture as he sees them–or Lewis himself; you’re never quite sure of these things–and then adds something else. “If there really were a good and loving God,” he said, “instead of making disease contagious, why didn’t He make good health contagious?”
My own contribution to that discussion is that what we have here, in this ministerial dropout, is someone who has never come to terms with original sin. This is a fallen world and many things are not as they should be.
Be that as it may, the very thing that he was hoping for is actually on the market.
The good news of Jesus Christ is the most contagious thing in the world.
Or, let me rephrase that: “When done right, the good news of Jesus Christ is the most contagious thing in the world.”
This is how the gospel spread across the world and has come down through the centuries. One person at a time. An excited “customer” telling another. Word of mouth is still the best evangelism program there is.
Washington Post columnist George Will, one of my personal favorites, pointed out recently that as we commemorate the beginning of the First World War one century ago, it would be well to recall how the war ended. “A worldwide influenza pandemic arose from wartime conditions. It began in 1918 and killed more people in a year (about 50 million) than the war killed (about 16 million, military and civilian) in four years.”
I want to draw some kind of parallel (if I can figure how to do it) with the gospel as epidemic: The coming of the good news of Jesus, and its spread across the land, has ended many a war through the centuries.
Here are some scriptures that speak to this matter of contagious Christianity….
MARK CHAPTER 1. “Immediately the news about Him went out everywhere into all the surrounding district of Galilee” (vs. 28). “But (the ex-leper) went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spreak the news about, to such an extent that Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city, but stayed out in unpopulated areas, and they were coming to HIm from everywhere” (vs. 45).
MARK CHAPTER 5. “And (the former demoniac) went away and began to proclaim in Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled” (v.20).
JOHN CHAPTER 4. “So the woman left her waterpot and went into the city and told the men, ‘Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done. Is not this the Christ?’ (v.28-29). “And from that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, ‘He told me all the things that I have done'” (vs.39).
ACTS CHAPTER 17. “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also” (v.6).
MATTHEW CHAPTER 28. “As you are going into all the world, make disciples of all the nations….” (v.18-20).
A good many books have been written on the subject of contagious Christianity.
Here are some questions to ask myself on this subject:
“Is my kind of Christian faith contagious?”
“Is my kind of Christian faith worth catching?”
“What would make my faith contagious to others? Loving deeds? A kind heart? Powerful words? A pure life?”
“If no one has ever ‘caught’ what I have, can I analyze my life to find out why?” (We recommend you pray the prayer of Psalm 139. “Search me, O God….”)
“Following up on the last question, what are some conditions that would hinder my faith’s contagion?” I can name a few big ones: Laziness, sin, complacency, rebellion.
A wonderful evangelism professor of mine, B. Gray Allison, has a great way of addressing the matter of God’s children “affecting” those about them: “If you’ve got it, you’ll tell it. Do you have it?”
Has anyone caught what you have?