Jesus had just affirmed to His disciples that He was “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16-17). Then He told them not to tell anyone about it. That’s quite a secret to keep. The most astonishing news the world would ever hear and they were to keep it to themselves for a while.

The Good News was not yet ready to be articulated verbally. First, it had to be lived out. In following Jesus the disciples would learn what it means for Jesus to be the Christ. It needed to become internal before it could have meaning in the external. So, Jesus stayed close to His men, and kept drawing them to Himself, making them into what C. S. Lewis called, “little Christs.”[1]

Preparation is a crucial part of any event. The Christ-event, particularly needs people whose hearts and minds and spirits have been prepared by staying close and living in Jesus.

Dare we say that the Gospel is more caught than taught, not that the two are incompatible. We are taught by catching something, and that something is the very life of Jesus. We see Him, draw near to Him, become captivated by Him, fall in love with Him, and then stake our lives on His claim to be who He is.

If we believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, let that reality consume us. Let it envelop us and shape us and form us into “little Christs.” May we live the meaning of it and then put into words what we have already been modeling to those in our sphere of influence.

---

[1] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, HarperSanFrancisco:HarperCollins Publishers), 177, 225.