Christianese

This week I had an appointment with a dental specialist who is going to fix a “failed bridge.” As I listened to him explain the procedure, I wondered if I was in a foreign country. In one case he used a term I’d never heard of and when I asked him what he meant, he said he was talking about a shadow on my x-ray. While I was impressed with his expertise, would I be less impressed if he simply said this was a shadow on my x-ray?

Like all disciplines, dentistry has its own language. Christianity does too. As a writer who is a Christian, I’ve read warnings to be careful about Christianese. People do not understand it and even some Christians fail to grasp the full meaning behind some biblical language.

This was part of my reaction to the verse from this morning’s devotional. It is Luke 19:10, Jesus speaking, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

At face value, it sounds like He was talking about a young person looking for something that is either missing or hidden. That is sort of the idea, but I know from reading through the Bible every year, studying it for many years, and having the Holy Spirit enlighten me in the process, this verse is more complex than it seems. Other Christians also agree on a deeper interpretation, but today I wonder why Jesus spoke in what we call Christianese.

The Son of Man was Jesus’ term for Himself. He used it to convey the idea that He came to earth as a man. He was not an angel taking on human form nor anything less than fully human. He ate, drank, got tired and slept, and felt emotions and pain just like everyone else.

However, He was more than that because of His job description. God the Father sent Him to earth to do something that no mere man could do. Jesus’ role was to search the hearts of all people and uncover our lost condition. Lost is not like ‘lost in the woods’ though. It is being lost from God, lost from knowing Him, lost from a relationship with Him, lost from all that He wants us to have, lost in sin and self-centered living, lost in guilt, and lost to eternal life.

I can remember when I began to realize that I was lost. It seemed that my life had no direction. I didn’t know what I was doing anymore, or why I was here. I felt alone and without purpose, empty. This (and more) is the subjective side of the lostness that Jesus spoke about, and is the condition of those He seeks.

As for Jesus coming to save, people make jokes about it. I read a billboard that said, “Jesus saves . . . so we should be thrifty too.” While I chuckle, I realize that some might think this is all that the word ‘save’ means.

In connection with ‘lost,’ save could mean ‘find’ yet Jesus does more than find lost people. It is part of His job description to rescue us from our lostness too. This means He came to introduce us to God and put us in a right and intimate relationship with Him. It means he came to bless us with all that God wants for us, rescue us from the power that sin has over us, forgive our sins and erase our guilt. He came to give us eternal life.

As fully man, Jesus knows what it is like to be human, yet He did not sin. He qualifies as one who can seek and save the lost because He Himself is not lost. He is the One who searches and knows our hearts, and the One who is able to save us from anything and everything that keeps us away from God.

All that said, I wonder if He used Christianese so I would dig deeper and discover the rich meaning behind these simple words? And I wonder if I used them too, would people do as I did at the dentist and ask about their meaning? Or would they, like I was tempted at the dentist, simply nod as if they know and walk away without understanding any of those lifesaving words?