Why Were So Many People Attracted To Jesus?

Why were so many people attracted to Jesus?

I have told you this to make you as completely happy as I am.

JESUS (John 15:11, CEV)

The best work is done by the happy, joyful workman. And so it is with Christ. He does not save souls as of necessity—as though He would rather do something else if He might—but His very heart is in it, He rejoices to do it, and therefore He does it thoroughly and He communicates His joy to us in the doing of it. CHARLES SPURGEON

MY WIFE LED a women’s Bible study group in discussing a lesson she’d written about the happiness of Jesus. One woman who’d grown up a churchgoer was startled. She shared how horrified she’d been once to see a picture of Jesus smiling. Why? Because she believed it was blasphemous to make Jesus appear happy!

Actor Bruce Marchiano, who played Jesus in a movie based on Matthew’s Gospel, received this remarkable letter:

A few weeks ago I was halfway watching TV and happened to look up, and there was “Jesus” (you) walking along the banks of the Sea of Galilee. . . . He slowly looked over His shoulder, smiled a big smile, and motioned to follow Him. My heart leaped right out of my chest! . . . It was Jesus like I’d never considered Him to be, and in a moment I was convinced in my heart that Jesus just had to be this way—completely different from everything I’d ever thought! Glowing with excitement from His face—from His eyes. A strong, energetic, passionate, joyous man! It instantaneously transformed my relationship with Him—so much so, I grieve to think of all the decades I’ve wasted knowing Him, but not knowing Him; loving Him and receiving His love from some distant place, but never being “in love” with Him. Well . . . I am now!^a

When believers demonstrate genuine happiness, it draws people to God and the gospel. A young woman tells her story about coming to know Jesus:

Before I met him my life was going down the drain. I had nothing to live for, let alone die for. There was no light at the end of my tunnel. In fact, there wasn’t even a tunnel. Only a deep, damp grave. Those days passed long ago, but I can’t ever let myself forget them. . . .

I had never been in a church my whole life and I was unsure about what I should do. My heart began to panic. As we took our seats I relaxed a little. . . . I also noticed everyone’s faces were so lit up with happy expressions. I never knew church made people happy.

After the service . . . I wanted to go back again and again and find out what all the happiness was about. I soon learned that it wasn’t the church that made people happy, but rather, it was God and his son Jesus. They were the reason for the happy expressions on people’s faces.^b

Countless believers have similar stories. People are attracted to Jesus when they see his attributes in others’ lives. They’ve observed kindness, graciousness, and happiness, and as a result, they want to know the source of those qualities.

I didn’t meet a lot of “cool” people in the church where I first heard the gospel. And while there were some church curmudgeons (there always are), I met a number of regular Christ-loving people who displayed profound peace, contentment, warmth, and happiness. When I saw these qualities, I couldn’t ignore them. These were characteristics I admired and wanted. They drew me toward the Christ these people worshiped. And when I came to know Jesus myself, the happiness I found in him was deeper than I’d ever dreamed.

Have you ever thought about the eternally happy Son of God enjoying happiness as a human being for the first time? I have to believe that his smiles, his laughter, and the words he spoke to his Father were full of delight as he marveled at his incarnation, which, because of his resurrection, will never end!

A. W. Tozer wrote, “[God] meant us to see Him and live with Him and draw our life from His smile.”^c The smile of Jesus is not like the smile of Buddha—disconnected from suffering. Jesus smiles as one who, having been happy from eternity past and fully knowing the cost, chose to take on the worst suffering imaginable to secure our everlasting happiness. We view Jesus as the deity who miraculously puts an end to all suffering—and so he will—but meanwhile we need to see him as the one who understands and experiences both joy and suffering, and is committed to using both for his glory.

A wise person once observed, “The early Christians did not say in dismay, ‘look what the world has come to,’ but in delight, ‘look what has come into the world.’”^d

“What has come” is Jesus Christ—a person so attractive, so magnetic, and so joyful that he changed the world not only by his death but also by the quality of his life.

Jesus, we want people to know you and to join us in the happiness we enjoy through you. Please help us to make the best of every opportunity, first to experience happiness in you and then to show our happiness, always giving you the credit. Your love is contagious. Help us spread it everywhere we go.