Clear as mud?

One of my grade school teachers had a habit of asking us this question after she taught a new concept to the class: “Clear as mud?”  And to be honest, none of us knew what she meant.  Finally, one day, after another round of blank stares, she explained that if something was “as clear as mud” then we didn’t understand what she had been teaching.  But if we actually did understand, then she expected our reply to “Clear as mud?” to be “No, clear as water!”

Looking back, it was a little ironic that her question “Clear as mud?” was actually clear-as-mud to us.  We didn’t understand her question that was asking us if we understood her.  We knew all the words she used, but we didn’t grasp the concept she was communicating.  We would never have guessed the response that she was expecting back, either.  It was almost like she was speaking a different language, and she assumed that my classmates and I already knew the lingo.

If we’re honest, we Christians often do the same thing my teacher did.  There is a certain church-y lingo, a bit of Christianese that creeps into our speech.  We throw around phrases like “traveling mercies” or “hedge of protection” or “born again” as if we expect the non-Christians within earshot to understand. 

Just remember to guard your heart when you walk your witness and say your PTLs. 

And if you understood that last sentence, you should also understand what I mean…that someone outside of our church buildings will not get it, but when they hear those foreign phrases, the one thing they will understand is that they are an outsider.  Our words matter, so if we have the opportunity to tell someone about being a Christian, we need to be able to explain it without all the Christianese.  The good news of the gospel can be hard for someone to grasp the first time they hear it, so let’s not burden them with clicky, overused phrases.

We even see an example of this with Jesus, when a Pharisee named Nicodemus came to speak with Him one night.  During their conversation, Jesus tells Nic:

John 3:3
Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Now, you might feel like telling me “See!  Jesus started the “born again” phrase.  Why can’t I use it?”  I’m not advocating that we don’t say born again – our problem comes from our assumption that they will either know exactly what we mean, or that we expect them to feel the weight of these two words “born again” and want to immediately be born-again.

When we look back at Jesus’ question to Nic in John 3:3, we need to recognize that in the verses that follow, Nic doesn’t get it.  He doesn’t understand Jesus’ analogy, even after Jesus provides more explanation.  For Nic, the analogy is clear-as-mud.  So instead of hammering away with the phrase born again, Jesus changes His approach and references an event from Israel’s history, one that Nic would be familiar with:

John 3:15
“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.”

Nic would have caught the reference to the bronze snake that God told Moses to create and mount on a pole (Numbers 21:4-9).  If someone was bitten by a poisonous snake and they looked at the bronze snake, they would recover.  Nic would have recognized that by looking at the elevated bronze snake, the bitten Israelite would have believed that God would heal him.  This was Jesus’ point – those who looked to (or believed in) Him would have eternal life, just like those who looked to the bronze snake for healing received it.  With His next sentence, Jesus gave the most clear-as-water statement about how to become a Christian:

John 3:16
For God loved the world in this way: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.

That statement is what all the analogies and references were getting at.  When we believe in Jesus for eternal life – He gives it to us.  We don’t have to “ask Jesus into our heart” or “give our life to Christ” or pray certain words in a certain order. 

Let’s keep it as simple as He did: Believe in Jesus for eternal life. 

It’s a free gift, with no strings attached and no muddy phrases.  Instead, let’s be clear as water.

Keep Pressing,
Ken