Indifference: Meh! Jesus... I really don't care either way. This is probably the most common and toughest response to Jesus there is. It's not really an objection, if it was you could have a conversation. Indifference kills any prospect of a conversation. Shrugging of the shoulders is usually a dead end. To be indifferent feels like when you can't be bothered getting off your chair in a hot sticky day. Nothing could motivate you to get up. Not because you enjoy sitting in the chair, not in the slightest, but because you couldn't careless where you are. An indifferent person isn't holding any position on Jesus. They are neither for or against they really couldn't care less who he is or what he did or didn't do.
How could we respond to that? Part of me wants to just shrug my shoulders and say meh, I can't be bothered trying.
There might be wisdom in that response as we can't cause anyone an anxious thought. And clearly a person with this much apathy isn't anxious. But life has a way of throwing things at us that will shake us from our indifference and cause us to question our assumptions. This could be a dramatic event that makes us feel vulnerable (eg. a health diagnosis for us or someone close to us) or it could be something simple that creates a niggling question that really stumps us. Maybe something that doesn't fit into the way they see the world (eg. You come across another terrible person whose more successful than you. Where's the Karma in that?)
Until these bumps happen it is wise to pray, care for them and then wait and see. Life has a way of stress testing our confidences to see if they can hold up under pressure. We don't want these things to happen to our friends but they will. Life happens to us all.
That's one way to respond
Or you could a few questions. Questions that probe at their assumptions. Depending on your relationship or your style these could be gentle "help me understand what you think" questions or friendly confrontational "you don't believe that do you?".
Ravi Zacharias put these questions under 4 headings:
"When you think of it, really there are four fundamental questions of life. You've asked them, I've asked them, every thinking person asks them. They boil down to this; origin, meaning, morality and destiny. 'How did I come into being? What brings life meaning? How do I know right from wrong? Where am I headed after I die?"
How we answer these questions gives us the framework we live under or what is called our worldview. It's the big picture we have developed that makes sense of the world for us. For example: the other day I was speaking to someone in town who should have been paid but wasn't and he said "Don't worry Andrew, what goes around comes around". You've heard that said haven't you? That comment gave me a glimpse into how my friend sees the world. He's believes there's a natural justice built into the universe and given enough time The Universe will punish the one who has done them wrong. Is that a reasonable description of the world we live in? Is that what happens? Is an impersonal universe the best place to put our hope for justice or is there a better place?
Bear in mind we don't usually have a very well defined answer to each of these questions but the process of thinking them through can be very enlightening and can show us how thin the ice is that we're resting on.
Over the next few weeks we'll take a look at each of these questions. We'll consider how we might ask them to ourselves and others. And we'll see that Jesus can hold up under the scrutiny of these 4 questions. Listen out this week to yourself and others to get glimpses of what's the Big Story we are living under and if it serves us well.
