JESUS' NEW APPROACH

In the early 2000s, Nokia was a leading tech company being the major provider of mobile phones in the world. However, in 2007, Steve Jobs introduced the smartphone; a phone with a touchscreen keypad, with numerous applications that can easily be downloaded by their users. Jobs introduced an innovation in the market that easily put aside the Nokia mania. But what broke the spine of Nokia is its failure to treat new realities in their field through new approaches. They kept doing the same thing and offering the same product. One cannot expect to achieve a new result by doing the old tricks. An emotional Nokia CEO closed one of his press conferences with these words: “We didn’t do anything wrong, but somehow, we lost.” And to add, they too did not do anything new, as their competitors did the right things in their industry. If one does not update, he gets outdated and becomes irrelevant.

Jesus came to the world to proclaim God's message of love for man. But what is new about that? Didn't Moses and prophets preach the same? Indeed, they brought the same message to God's people. However, Jesus preached differently; packaged the same message in distinct wrappings. While the preaching of the old was accompanied by damnation and fire against those who oppose them or would not receive them, Jesus preached with peace, non-violence, meekness, and gentleness. Being God, he could have summoned fire from heaven to consume and destroy the unwelcoming Samaritans as His disciples suggested.

As Jesus proceeded to Jerusalem to fulfill His mission He opted for a new approach. He had a new way in His mind in approaching such resistance. That is a peaceful way of winning the hearts of those who oppose or do not believe in Him. Such way proves to be effective in spread the message of God's love for man, as Christianity spread from Jerusalem to the rest of the world like fire. That fire from Christ does not destroy the world. Rather, it renews and regenerates humanity through peace and love, through the new way Jesus introduced. People have been attracted by that way for through it they can seek the Lord. People come to the Church, allured by its merciful and gentle way just like those of Jesus, for the Church, has the Lord with her. The medium is the message. Though having the old message, this manner of preaching is always new, since the one who introduced it never gets old, for Jesus is eternal.

This "ever old and ever new" way which Jesus introduced two thousand years ago, is what we as Christian ought to adopt in our life. There is no other way to offer to our neighbor the loving God we experience other than through a peaceful way; through deeds of charity even, and most especially, to our enemies; to those who may oppose us or hinder us in realizing God's plan for man.