G.K. Chesterton famously said, “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” What if Chesterton was partly wrong in what he said? What if that statement should read, “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found too easy; and left untried!”?
“Impossible!…”, you say, “…the Cross is very real and Gospel values are incredibly difficult to live.” That is correct and all of us who try to live as Christians experience it every day. But suppose that trying to live Gospel values misses a previous step – a step which is vital in our Christian journey? And suppose that that vital first step is present in this week’s Gospel, staring us in the face…… “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”?
Every single thing we try to do as Christians brings us back to the person of Jesus Christ. Before we can live as Christians; before we can embrace the crosses of life as Christians; before we can experience the deep joy of the Resurrection, present even in grief and sadness, we must first come to believe in the one (Jesus Christ) sent to us by God. The first vital, crucial, essential first step in Christianity is to encounter (meet, converse with) Jesus.
