‘Schindler’s List’ – and Listlessness

Have you ever seen the film, “Schindler’s List”? I had viewed it when it was first released in 1993, but several weeks ago decided to watch it again. Once more I was struck by its powerful message, in one sense differently from what the filmmakers intended.

Based on the non-fiction novel by Thomas Keneally, it’s about Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist and war profiteer. In the beginning of the movie, we see Schindler (portrayed by Liam Neeson) welcoming World War II for its potential for enabling him to make a lot of money. He’s portrayed as an opportunist, an unapologetic materialist, and a hedonist. Although a member of the Nazi Party, Schindler’s only focus is making money.

 

As time passes, however, he starts becoming aware of the atrocities of the Holocaust and this drastically shifts his perspective. He then sets out to do everything he can to undermine the Nazi madness. Since many of the workers in Schindler’s Krakow, Poland factories are Jews, he realizes they’re in grave jeopardy, not only as employees but also as human beings. He sets off on a plan to shield them from being assigned to the Nazi concentration camps, even arranging for many of them to be transported to safer parts of Europe.

 

Schindler starts compiling the list that the title of the book and movie refers to – names of people who have been delivered from Nazi clutches through his intervention. By the end of the film, Schindler is a broken man, repentant of his self-absorbed lifestyle with only one wish: That he could have done more. 

 

Even though he helped more than 1,000 men, women and children escape extermination in the death camps, in the final scenes Schindler despairs, “I could have got more…. One more person.” “I didn’t do enough.”

 

What a poignant, heartbreaking scene when he looks at the few material possessions he has retained – a ring, a car – and thinks of how he might have sold them to generate money to save even more Jews from the gas chambers.

 

It struck me that Schindler’s passion was to save people from Nazi terror, even though they were individuals who would die one day of other causes – 100 percent of them. They were protected from genocide, but inevitably would all see an end to their temporal existence.

 

What would happen if we, as followers of Jesus, shared a similar passion and sense of urgency for people who need to hear the transforming message of Christ, which can rescue them not from earthly death but from eternal death and separation from God? Sadly, unlike Schindler who had a list of folks he’d been able to save from becoming victims of the Holocaust, too many of us are list-less – content with our everyday lives but exhibiting a listlessness when it comes to matters of eternal consequence.

 

Jesus spoke of this often, including His command to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15), and His Great Commission, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations…teaching them to follow all that I commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).

 

Today we hear much said about “God is love” (1 John 4:8), which is true, but it’s also true that at the same time, He demands justice. Apart from His greatest gesture of love, Christ’s atoning death on the cross as payment for sins and His resurrection, people remain “dead in their trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1).

 

We’re clearly told in the Scriptures that the Lord’s promise of redemption and eternal life comes with one condition. As John 1:12 states, “Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” The gift of eternal life Jesus described in John 3:16 must be received, just as a gift of any kind is of no value unless it’s accepted by the intended recipient.

 

Which brings us to our role as followers of Christ. The apostle Paul wrote about this to believers in ancient Rome, explaining many have not received this divine gift because they haven’t heard the Good News – at least not in a way that they understood: 

“How, then, can they call on the One they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are not sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’” (Romans 10:14-15).

 

This is not an admonishment for us to invite people to church to hear our pastor’s sermon. For many people with whom we work, interact with every day, even live near, we are “Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20). We’re to take the Gospel message to them.

 

We can applaud and admire the selfless commitment of someone like Oskar Schindler, who upon ‘seeing the light’ set out to save as many as he could from an unspeakable death. But in terms of eternity, this life we have is nothing more than a blink of an eye. As a child wisely observed, “Eternity is a really long time.” 

 

Should we not feel an even greater urgency to tell those around us about the saving grace of Jesus Christ? Don’t we want our loved ones, friends, coworkers and neighbors to “have life, and to have it abundantly,” as Jesus promised in John 10:10? Starting as soon as possible? 

Have We Been Missing ‘The Main Thing’ All Along?

Many important issues are competing for our attention these days. There’s the never-ending battle against poverty. Many believe abortion is a crucial concern. We have the ongoing culture war that’s trying to turn morality on its head. Then we have the economy, politics, global health crises, debate over causes and effects of climate change, and many others.

Followers of Jesus Christ are often understandably torn over which matters should receive the bulk of our energy and resources. Some people seek to dispel this confusion by asking the famous question, “What would Jesus do?” WWJD bracelets are no longer the rage, but it remains a valid question.

 

For the answer, some seem inclined to turn to the books of 1 and 2 Opinions. These aren’t in the Bible, but people talk and act as if they are. It’s kind of like saying, “Well, if I were Jesus….” We’d be wise to stop right there because, well, we’re not Jesus. 

 

The best way to find out what Jesus Christ would do – and what He would want of us – is to consult the Scriptures, because that’s where the Lord is revealed most definitively. The four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John give us the clearest picture of Him. 

 

They reveal a lot about how Jesus lived and what He taught, but don’t give a complete, 24/7 accounting for everything Jesus did and said over His 33 years on earth. The gospel of John even acknowledges this by stating, “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written” (John 21:25).

 

Nevertheless, I believe the gospels and the remainder of the Bible give us everything we need to know about Jesus for seeking to live as He desires of us. We don’t need to know more than that – we have enough difficulty trying to understand and apply what has been recorded.

 

Jesus’ life and teachings were wide-ranging, but what He said moments before His ascension seems particularly significant. After declaring, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me,” Jesus gave His last instructions to His followers: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).

 

Of all the last words He could have said, Jesus told His disciples to make other disciples. He could have addressed any of the issues listed above, or others, but making disciples was the final thought – the main thing Jesus wanted to leave with them. And us.

 

A disciple, by definition, is a learner, a follower, one who influences and teaches others so that they too become disciples. It’s noteworthy that the concept of making disciples isn’t mentioned at all in the Bible until…the first chapter of Genesis. After the declaration, “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27), the very next verse says, “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number [multiply]; fill the earth and subdue it….’”

 

Connecting this first of God’s many biblical commands with what we commonly regard as Jesus’ Great Commission, we discover discipling others – making more people in His image – is central to His will and purpose for humankind.

 

When we hear the oft-asked question, “What’s wrong with the Church today?”, I suspect a major factor is the failure to follow through on the last thing Jesus said before being taken up to Heaven. He commanded His followers to “make disciples,” not just converts but people who are growing, maturing and reproducing themselves spiritually.

 

We see a description of this in one of the apostle Paul’s writings to his protégé, Timothy. Paul directed the younger man, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Timothy 2:2).

 

In this single verse we find four generations of believers – Paul, Timothy, “reliable men,” and “others” whom they would teach. Just as Paul had invested much of his life into Timothy, he wanted Timothy to do the same with reliable (faithful) men, who would in turn do the same with other people.

How many churches are doing this today? We hear moving sermons and uplifting music during times of worship; we have programs designed for nearly every target audience; we devise slick marketing campaigns to attract people. But how many of our churches are intentionally and aggressively striving to do the main thing Jesus said we’re to do – go and make disciples? 

Have You Considered Divine Mathematics?

If we believe the Creation account, we would have to conclude that along with the physical things God created, He also created the laws and principles by which our world and the entire universe operate. This would include mathematics, in its simplest forms as well as its most complex. When Albert Einstein was working out his elaborate formulas, including E = mc², he was using calculations based on what the Lord originally configured eons ago.

 

But here’s a question: If you were to imagine which of the mathematical functions God favors the most, what would you guess it is? Perhaps I’m going out on a bit of a theological limb, but I think it would be multiplication.

 

Why do I say that? For starters, in the Bible’s first book, the Lord introduces the concept of multiplication. In the opening chapter, after imagining and forming the creatures that inhabit the seas and other waters, along with the birds, “And God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth’” (Genesis 1:21-22).

 

Then, after creating living creatures that would move on the ground, including humankind,“God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it…” (Genesis 1:24-28). Sadly, this didn't proceed without problems, prompting the Lord to take a "do over."

 

Following the global flood, in which God spared only Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives, along with representatives of every living creature, the waters subsided and Noah and his family prepared to leave the ark. Among the Lord’s instructions during the “exit interview,” He told them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth…. As for you, be fruitful and multiply; populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it”(Genesis 9:1,7).

 

God wasn’t talking about learning multiplication tables, like 3 times 3, or 5 times 9. He wanted them to exponentially repopulate the earth, in particular with humans created in His image.

 

This theme continues throughout the Scriptures. In Jeremiah 23:3, speaking about restoring the people of Israel who had been exiled into other lands, God told the prophet, “Then I Myself will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and bring them back to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply.”

 

Underscoring the Lord’s faithfulness, never failing to keep His promises with His chosen people, Hebrews 6:14 recalled, “For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, ‘I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you.’”

 

Perhaps the most important passage of all on God’s emphasis on multiplication concerns Jesus Christ’s final instructions, which we know as His Great Commission. Just prior to His ascension to heaven, He directed His followers, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…teaching to observe all the things I have commanded you…” (Matthew 28:19-20).

 

No, this passage does not include the specific word “multiply,” but clearly refers to spiritual multiplication, the making of disciples – followers, learners, reproducers – who will make other disciples, who in turn will make other disciples.

 

In today’s Church culture, particularly in America, the focus seems primarily directed toward addition – seeing people convert to Christian belief, encouraging them to turn from their former ways of living apart from God. However, to convert – to turn – doesn’t necessarily mean an individual will immediately start moving forward in a new direction. Much like newly born human babies, spiritual babes need to be nurtured, fed, loved, cared for, taught, and eventually, disciplined.

 

Once a “disciplemaker” has helped a new believer toward spiritual maturity, assisting him or her to become a true follower of Jesus, then both the disciplemaker and disciple can start investing in others. The two of them become four, and the process of spiritual multiplication is underway. Four can become eight, then 16, then 32, and so on.

 

Long term, what does this look like? We find a good description in Isaiah 60:22, which declares, “A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation. I, the Lord, will hasten it in its time.” Imagine, one person, completely sold out to Jesus Christ, whose life is devoted to helping others along in their journey with the Lord. Incredibly, over time, that one can become a thousand, and even more!

 

God’s desire and goal, not just in the United States but also around the world, is to greatly multiply genuine, devoted, strong and unwavering followers of Christ who will have an eternal impact on family members, friends, their communities, their cities, and their nations.

Many believe the solutions to our world’s problems are through politics, or ideology, or even education. There is value in each of those, but God is affirming that the ultimate answers are found only in Jesus Christ, helping more and more people to know Him, follow Him, and serve as His ambassadors by demonstrating His love, mercy and grace. And the way to bring that about is through a simple mathematical process: multiplication. 

A Million Dollars – Or a Penny?

Suspend your disbelief for a moment, okay? Imagine someone approaches you today and offers a choice: He will give you one million dollars immediately, or one penny doubled every day for the next month. Which would you choose?

No, I don’t have insider knowledge of some wealthy magnate planning to make this offer. I haven’t consulted with Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, or even Donald Trump. But as you’ll see, it’s an interesting exercise that illustrates an important principle. 

Most of us would probably leap at the $1 million offer. No brainer, right? But wait. At first it would seem anyone who opted to receive a penny the first day, then have it doubled the second day and each succeeding day for a month, would be the loser. But as they say, do the math.

Let’s suppose Joe accepts the $1 million. He even sets it aside to collect interest. Good decision, right? However, his friend Jim, a curious soul, elects to take the one penny the first day, doubling that amount every day for a month of 31 days. At first things go slowly for Jim – one cent, two cents, four cents, eight cents, 16 cents. Ho hum. But momentum starts building.

On day 10, Jim receives $5.12. Day 15 nets him $163.84; on day 20 he gets $5,242.88, and on day 25 Jim’s single day’s “earnings” are $167,772.16! The agreement of the one penny doubled daily for a total of 31 days, so the amount continues to multiply. On day 31, Jim is the recipient of…more than $10.7 million! Would you still rather take the $1 million up front?

This silly scenario represents the genius behind Jesus’ strategy for growing His Church around the world, a plan that’s been has largely ignored.

You might recall the Lord’s last words to His followers before ascending to Heaven. He told them, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you”(Matthew 28:19-20). We know it as the Great Commission. 

Instead of “making disciples,” however, much of Christianity has focused on making converts, producing spiritual babes without putting in the hard work to assist them in growing into maturing, spiritually reproducing disciples.

Let’s apply the monetary illustration to Jesus’ command. Suppose an established follower of Christ meets for a year with a younger believer, helping him or her to grow in their faith. At the end of that year, they both find someone else to disciple, effectively doubling or “multiplying” their number from two to four. One year later, each one finds another person to disciple – now there are eight. So far, not too impressive.

But like the example of the ever-doubling pennies, the numbers begin to surge geometrically. At year 10, assuming there’s no attrition, there would be 512 believers meeting and helping each other to grow. By year 20, the number has grown to 524,288! Projecting to year 30, following Jesus’ strategy and directive to “make disciples,” there would be nearly 537 million committed, fruitful followers of Jesus Christ having an eternal impact at home, at work, in their communities and the world around them.

By year 34, there would be more than 8.5 billion maturing, reproducing Christ followers – more than the current population of the world!

In reality, the issue isn’t numbers. If it were, Jesus would have issued production quotas. No, His desire was simply for us to make disciples who make disciples…who make disciples. Ultimately, men, women and young people all devoted to Christ and committed to following Him no matter what. Folks who, as Romans 6:11 states, “count [themselves] dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

How many people do we know like that, individuals willing to follow Jesus’ directive: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). That, in just a handful of words, is Jesus’ description of what a disciple looks like – the kind of people He commissioned to engage in consistently devoting themselves to ministering to others, life on life.

For more than 35 years, it’s been my privilege to meet one-to-one with other men, sharing from our lives and “spurring one another on to love and good deeds,” as Hebrews 10:24 expresses it. Not every one of them has gone on to give of his time and energy to help others grow, but a number of them have. In Isaiah 60:22 states, “The least of you will become a thousand.” If we’re willing, we can each play a small but important part in Jesus’ Great Commission, just as He asked us to do.

Caffeine, Coffee Cups and Christmas

So, here we are on the cusp of the Christmas season, and Starbucks is providing coffee cups in traditional red and green, but with nary a snowflake, reindeer, snowman, Santa Claus or Christmas tree. A stark red cup featuring nothing but the famous Starbucks logo in green.

Perhaps the message on the sleeve around
someone's coffee cup has it right.

We all knew that in these days of “happy holidays,” this famous purveyor of all things espresso and latte and frappuccino wasn’t going to display Nativity scenes on its cups, or proclaim “Jesus is the Reason for the Season,” but no winter symbols even? What do they have against Christmas, right?

Well, I for one have felt not a single twinge in my offending bone since hearing the news. After all, they got the colors right. It’s not like they’re going with lavender and orange. Maybe the snowflakes and snowmen aren’t there due to global warming. Maybe they didn’t want to offend customers in Hawaii who never see real snow. Maybe Santa’s lawyer filed suit prohibiting the coffee shops from using images of himself or his soaring steeds. Maybe the Starbucks folks feared getting pine needles in the peppermint mochas.

Or maybe “Red Solo cup, I drink you up, let’s have a party” is going to be their new theme song.

Yes, there seems a concerted effort in some quarters to de-emphasize Christmas in the name of “tolerance.” I get that not everyone feels all warm and fuzzy at the sight of Mary, Joseph, the Christ Child and His visitors. But perhaps our offense at how retail outlets choose to observe the Christmas/holiday season is defeating our purpose in seeking to advance the cause of Christ.

What really do snowflakes and Santa have to do with the true meaning of Christmas anyway? How do they aid in celebrating God’s arrival on earth in human form to teach, serve as our example, sacrifice His own life for our sins, and offer us life eternal through His resurrection? When Jesus gave His final words, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” (Matthew 28:19), He was speaking to each of us, not to Starbucks or Target, or even Chick-fil-A or Hobby Lobby.

We can choose which stores to patronize and which to avoid, but to expect any retailer or corporation to promote or endorse our understanding of Christmas isn’t realistic. It’s doubtful Jesus cares at all what kind of cups any coffee shop uses to serve its caffeine products. I’m sure He’s not concerned about the exact date when stores elect to again display their holiday finery.

He does care, however, about how each of us regards Him and this special time of year. The Scriptures direct us, “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord” (1 Peter 3:15-16). The passage goes on to say we should “be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.”

When we openly take offense over the graphics on beverage cups an establishment uses, or whether they say “Happy holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas,” are we giving people reason, as the verses suggest, to ask about the hope that we have? Is complaining about leaving wintry symbols off coffee cups showing gentleness and respect, and giving others no basis for criticizing our behavior as followers of Jesus?

Another passage I’ve often referred to, Colossians 4:5-6, gives parameters for our attitudes and demeanor during this and every season of the year: “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you will know how to answer everyone.” There it is again – the idea of speaking and interacting with people in such a way that they become curious enough to ask about what we believe and why.

Those of us who have committed our lives to Jesus Christ know He indeed is “the reason for the season,” as Christmas cards and social media posts annually remind us. But if we insist on wrangling over coffee cup designs, pink Christmas trees, or the choices of music being played on the store’s sound system, we’ll succeed only in lowering ourselves rather than lifting up Christ.

As Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday officially usher in the Christmas season, in all its greedy, commercialized glory, let’s not forget it’s really about Jesus, not snowflakes, Santa and his elves, or even flying cherubs. It’s about good news – the Good News. And as someone far wiser that me has said, “We have to be good news before we can share Good News.”