• If you could have lunch with any famous person, either living or dead, whom would you choose and why? Describe your conversation at lunch.
Who would I pick if I could have lunch with any famous person in history!? This is a tough question to answer. There are many people I would love to sit down with and talk to, many that I could choose simply because they were or are famous, many that I could choose because they made a difference. I think of Gandhi or Mother Teresa and the impact that they had on what we now consider modern culture or civilization. I think of Pope John Paul or Martin Luther both “famous” religious leaders. Then there are the movie stars: John Wayne, Brad Pitt, Bogart or Hepburn. The movies that these few have made have touched thousands of lives and shaped our culture in every way, from the clothes we wear to the words we speak to the way we vote. Then there are men of science such as Einstein or Alexander Fleming or Isaac Newton. How I would love to pick the brains of some of the most intelligent men and women in history. The choices are as vast as our imaginations, to pick just one seems almost impossible!
But for me, if I could pick anyone from the whole span of history, there is only one man who I would want to spend an afternoon with talking about life and love and freedom and faith and change, and that would be Jesus Christ of Nazareth. I am a student at Johnson Bible College, and I would like to think that I am following the path that Jesus has set out before me. But I would love to ask him some questions, measure his responses and see the glimmer in his eyes as we discuss deep theological ideas and secret personal ponderings. “Jesus,” I would say “why is there pain and suffering in the world? Why is the sky blue? Why do we as humans long for acceptance and relationships, but at the same time value our privacy so deeply? Why are there wars? Why does our society so devalue people that there have to be homeless shelters and soup kitchens and welfare? Why did you plant the desire to know you in every human’s heart and then not give us the capability to comprehend your ways and plans in our heads? Why did you let me go through all of the pain I went through growing up? Why at times do I doubt your existence when I know you are there?”
At this point Jesus would put up his hand slightly, just enough that I could see the scar in it, and silence me. He would smile, and whisper my name, and with tears in his eyes he would say, “I love you. I love you all I mean, the whole of humanity, with its stains and all. I love mankind so much that I made all you can see so that he could live, I made all that you can’t see so that you may be comfortable and comforted, I made it all so that you could know me. Deeply know me. There is pain and war and destruction and death and hurt and weeds and smog and greed because men are sinful, and even this world pines for Eden. I built all of you to want, I mean deeply crave relationships so that you would seek me out, so that you would ever be drawn to me. And I made you all value your privacy so that you could worship me even in your solitude. You cannot fathom my ways because I am infinite and you are finite, because I am holy and you are fallen, yet I placed the desire to know me in your hearts again so you would seek me out and find me. You will never be able to wrap your heads around me until you meet me in heaven where you will know just as you are known. Your personal struggles in childhood were there as a result of this fallen world and sinful men. Your painful moments and depression were mostly caused by selfish and sinful actions and decisions. But I let you go through the pain because I knew it would be like a purifying fire that only makes you stronger. You were drawn to me weren’t you? This world stinks, it isn’t what I intended, but someday I will come again, and on that day the whole of the world will be made new through me. You see all of it; the pain and suffering, the death and the wars, the famine and the flood, the murder and rape all of it is evidence of humanities need for me. And all of it, if you are really looking, points to my love. I don’t cause pain. I bring comfort. I don’t cause famine or flood, or murder or rape, or hate or envy, or separation or desertion. I bring restoration and healing and love. Don’t get me wrong Joshua, I am a God who judges, but I am also the God of love. And one day the whole world will know my love.”
We would talk like this for a while and he would ask me about my life (even though he already knows) and I would ask him about his (because I don’t know much about the first 30 years of it) and we would laugh and cry and sit in silence and contemplate works of man such as poetry or skyscrapers, and the works of God in nature and the ultimate act of love on the cross. All of these things would pass between us, and there would be no awkwardness like there is when men sit and talk together. There would be only openness and honesty and acceptance.
I can imagine Jesus Christ then standing to say good bye, and me begging him to stay just a moment longer and tell me that story about John the Baptist again, and he will just smile at me and say, “Josh, this has been great, but there is someone else who needs to sit down with me now, there is someone else who doesn’t know me yet who I need to go see. We will see each other soon. Keep going the way you are, and take care of your family. Love your wife like I love you, show your daughter what it means to live a life for God, and let those around you know about me.” I think that we would hug, and I would watch through tears as he takes his coffee and walks toward the door. I would get up to follow but he would already be gone, on to the next person in need, on to the next lost soul who is crying out to know his power.
That would be what I would wish for. I guess it may seem strange to want to sit down and eat and chat with Jesus, but when someone has changed your life, you value them more than you can even express. And to have the chance to sit with that person for a few hours and see what they are like and really examine who they are would make such an impact, it would be life changing. So while I would love to sit with Hepburn or Steinbeck or Hemmingway or Luther or Gandhi, these are only men and women. They have all impacted my life, but none of them have changed it the way that Jesus has. That’s why I would choose Him. “Jesus is all the world to me!”
Thanks,
-Joshua Mott
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