Are You “Burying the Lead”?
One of my concerns about modern Christianity is that we have “buried the lead”. This is journalistic term that means that the writer has missed the most important part of the story. The writer has a really important or shocking piece of information but he/she has not focused on that topic, but rather on other, less important ideas or facts. The “lead”, or most important part of the story has been “buried” in the article and its meaning has been missed. When many talk about Jesus they talk about His love and His compassion for people and His sense of social justice. They talk about His miracles and the power He demonstrated. These things are all true about Jesus but they are not the “lead”. The lead is that Jesus died on a cross to forgive people of their sins. That is the lead. The rest of the “talk” about Jesus is secondary to His purpose of providing a way for mankind to be redeemed from the bondage of sin.
In Mark chapter 2, four men break through a roof to put a paralyzed man in front of Jesus while He was teaching. As a way to continue to validate who He was and what His purpose was, Jesus heals this man. But before He heals him, Jesus makes it very clear why He was healing Him. He says, 9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’? 10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic, 11 “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” Jesus healed the man, not so the man could walk and perhaps live a normal life, not out of a sense of compassion for the man or in a desire to right a wrong. Jesus healed this man so that people would see His power and begin to understand that He could forgive sin. The forgiveness of sin is the “lead” and Jesus was not about to bury it!
Today, is the forgiveness of your sin the “lead” when you think about Jesus? Is it important enough for you to share with other people? The most important reason people need Jesus is not as an example of how to treat others or because He can heal them or even give them better relationships. The most important reason people need Jesus is to have their sin forgiven. That’s the lead…let’s make sure we don’t bury it!