Never Heard of Jesus?

It was a Tuesday night and I was looking across the faces of several teenagers sitting on beaten up donated couches in our youth room. We had regular youth group on Sunday nights, but Tuesday nights were for the very committed kids (or those who were desperate to get out of the house!); when we would have Bible study and more serious conversations about faith and daily life. At the end of our gathering I remember a friend of one of our regular kids – who had never attended before - casually ask me (the youth pastor) as we left, “Jesus, didn’t he fight in world war two or something?” This young teenager was not kidding, he had never heard of Jesus. While I knew at the time that less and less people were attending church (this article about that), I was a little shocked that someone who had grown up in our society had never heard of Jesus at all (fast forward ten years I’m not so shocked by this anymore). The problem for a lot of us (especially those who attend church fairly regularly) is that we’ve heard and keep hearing lots of stuff about Jesus.

Of course, Jesus should be central to our lives as Christians and central to the life and worship of our local churches. Yet, with all this buzz about Jesus flying around us we need to ask ourselves whether or not we really know Jesus at all? For example, I know a number of facts about George Washington, but I don’t know him per se. Similarly, while I regularly chat with the cashier at the gas station, I don’t really know her either. Is your understanding of Jesus based more on knowing facts about Jesus or is your understanding of Jesus limited to some regular but superficial conversations? Maybe you know Jesus in a different way then I’ve talked about here?