I Need Jesus?

Tonight while driving over to a friend's house I happened behind a white, suburban, mini-van, a Hondo Odyssey. It was garden variety, nothing distinctive about it, nothing except for the big, red, bold letters on the rear bumper: "YOU NEED JESUS." Immediately I was offended. "You don't even know me, buster!" I thought. Now the honest truth is that I do need Jesus, and in that way, the words are theologically accurate. I need Jesus because I'm a mess better than half the time, and I know it. But most days I don't need people telling me that, especially strangers in mini-vans. As I drove around to the side of the van, in even bigger red letters was another "YOU NEED JESUS" message (In case you're coming from a different angle) where you might have expected to see "Roto Rooter" or "Geek Squad." See, this is precisely what's wrong with that kind of Christian. They think they can save the world at a distance. As long as they speak from inside their mini-vans without getting to actually know real people, they will be seen as obnoxious and arrogant. "I have something that you don't" is the message. But that's insultingly presumptuous, especially when your spirituality may actually be more developed than theirs. And that's what I like so much about Jesus. He never told anyone they needed God from a distance or from the side of a cart. That's why he doesn't write in the stars or send messages from a disembodied voice in the sky. Instead he comes to us, as a human person, up close, personal. He comes to know us, to love us, then to show us the way to life, if we want it. He loved the people right in front of him, and in his presence, people made their own realization that they needed God. "Where else would we go? You alone have the words of everlasting life," his disciples would tell him. In Jesus, our need finds healing grace, not on the side of a van, but in very the presence of God.