I want to pick up an illustration which I suspect most of us from conservative evangelical backgrounds have used at some point (or something similar).
Andy Prime uses it in a sermon on the Gospel in a new book. He gets us to imagine the scene in the aftermath of the Titanic hitting the iceberg. There are hundreds of people in the water.
“Some of them are probably unemployed. It would be safe to assume that some of them would be battling one mental illness or another. Maybe a few of them have cancer. Some of them may be divorced, others having illicit affairs.”[1]
Andy’s point is that we could get distracted by those particular issues. Which should we attend to first? How can we help them.
“Yet none of these things would matter at that moment in the cold deadly water.”[2]
Let’s pause for a moment. Andy’s central point is that the biggest need that people have is not to have their immediate and obvious needs met. Their biggest need is that they are sinners, they need the Gospel. This is so crucial and we don’t want to lose this. Andy goes on to argue that when preaching to people in estate/deprived contexts we need to tell them that they are rebels not victims. I would nuance that by noting that Scripture presents a “both/and” here. We are both captives to Satan and at the same time enemies of God. However, the central thesis remains true. The problem is sin, the solution is the good news that Jesus died and rose in their place so that they can be forgiven.
However, we can miss something when we use the illustration of the Titanic (and remember I write as someone who has said these kinds of things. When describing the life situation of the people in the icy water, it becomes clear that those issues they face, unless they happen to be fictional characters called Rose and Jack have little if anything at all to do with the underlying problem. Their marital situation, financial circumstances or underlying health problem are neither the cause of why they are in the water, nor a direct or even indirect consequence of it.
However, a failing marriage, addiction, extreme poverty and health issues do relate in to the fact that this world is fallen and that we are sinners. To be clear, not all of those are the direct result of the individual’s sin though sometimes they may be. However, all stem from our fallen nature and living in a world under the curse.
Furthermore, whilst a person’s martial or financial situation would not have told them anything important about what was happening to them in the water, there is another difference. Those struggles, those examples of suffering act like cold and pain to highlight to people that they are in a fallen world under God’s judgement. It is often these very things which awaken in people a hunger for God and conviction of sin. These are the very reasons why they might be knocking on the church door looking for help, even if they don’t know exactly why they are there yet.
Finally, whilst alleviating a person’s suffering in one part of their life may not be their main or even the most pressing need, unlike in the Titanic example, it may be that until we have dealt with the most immediate pain and stemmed the flow of metaphorical blood that we won’t be able to do the root cause treatment. The person may find it hard to engage with the good news until we have done something to alleviate the immediate and obvious problem. They may need more than an Elastoplast and some paracetamol but those things may be necessary to start things off.
So, whilst we need to get to the root cause and bring people to the place where their real need is met, we should not ignore or push to the side those felt needs.
[1] Andy Prime “The message of the church” in Sermons from the Schemes, 15.
[2] Andy Prime “The message of the church” in Sermons from the Schemes, 15.
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