What is More Important, the Message, or the Messenger?

I’m sure I’m not the only one with facemask fatigue. Like most people I miss being able to give a friendly smile to strangers as I allow them to go first in grocery store gridlock, or when I smile to cashiers as I wish them a nice day after checking out my groceries. More often than not, I suspect, my smile covered up by my facemask gets interpreted as a hard look, and I often forget that strangers have their smiles covered up as well.

So as I have continued to try to reach out and initiate Gospel conversations throughout the past year, I’ve been tempted to just wait until the days of facemasks are over. Sharing the good news of our Savior requires sharing the bad news of our sin and our need to be saved. It’s hard enough to do so within relatively short conversations, not to mention with the limitations facemasks put on my ability to express kindness and concern while doing so.

So why even try?

When conditions are less than ideal for sharing the Gospel, I am inspired, of all places, by a strange passage found in Philippians 1. Paul wrote of some who preached the Gospel “out of envy and rivalry”. They were preaching because they were jealous of Paul’s popularity or success when he preached it.

Paul’s rection was telling. He wrote “what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.” So what does this have to do with facemasks? Here, too, the Gospel was being preached in less-than-ideal conditions, this time because of the false motives of the preachers.

So, despite having to wear a facemask, I will continue to share the Gospel, like I did during a recent conversation with a man named Francisco while we were grocery shopping. We were both talking despite the added risk of miscommunication this causes, and the Gospel was being communicated nonetheless.

There are so many excuses for not taking the initiative to share the Gospel, and because it usually requires me to step out on faith into many unknown and awkward situations, its so easy to listen to these excuses and tell myself “why even try?” But Paul’s comment about people preaching with wrong motives reminds me of another comment he made about the Gospel: “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Cor. 1:18)

In other words, the messenger is not as important as the message. I might be preaching out of mixed motives, or distracted by personal problems, or struggling with doubt or some other sin, or disqualified in the world’s eyes by racial or cultural limitations, or any number of excuses, but these limitations don’t take away from the power of the Gospel message. “We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (2 Cor 4:70)

So let’s not wait until facemasks come off. Let’s not wait for any of the cheap excuses we’ve been using. God’s power is greater than our limitations. The Gospel is about the message, not the messenger.