Isa's Story

I’d like to tell you a story about a friend of mine. We knew each other growing up, but we did not become good friends until just the past few years. His name was Isa.

As a teen, Isa was always made fun of. His mom and adopted dad are both Caucasian, but he appears to be of middle-eastern descent. After 9/11, when he was a freshman in college, rumors started that his mom had an affair with some terrorist leader while his adopted dad was stationed in the Gulf and that he secretly was carrying on his real father’s legacy. Knowing Isa and his parents, I doubt there is any truth to that, but I want to give you a perspective of his background.

After graduating college in 2005, Isa was awarded a fellowship at a small seminary.  At first he wanted to go into teaching, but after coming against strong opposition for his liberal viewpoints, he decided instead to be a missionary. He received his MDiv in 2008 and spent the next three years as an international relief worker in the Middle East, working especially with oppressed people groups. He didn’t care who the people were—if they were in need, he helped them. Women, children, minorities, gays, Islamists, even a few terrorists were impacted by Isa and made a better life for themselves and their community as a result of his involvement. Many of them turned their lives around and became Christians, not because of anything Isa said, but rather because of how he showed them God’s love.

After spending three years overseas, Isa returned to the US on furlough in 2012. His missionary agency wouldn’t even give him the time to speak. Apparently they did not like the type of people he helped and the fact that he did not denounce their actions. Word had it in fact that Isa had on more than one occasion denounced the actions of his supporting churches for using the Bible as a tool for ostracizing others, especially when it came to Islamists and members of the gay community.

On April 5, 2012 my friend Isa was arrested for conspiracy to commit treason against the United States. The anonymous tip to Homeland Security later was revealed to have come from one of the unhappy members within Isa’s home church.  Isa was not trained as a spy and could not handle the first 24 hours of torture. The next day Isa died of a heart attack while in custody of Homeland Security. He was barely 30 years old.

My friend Isa was a great man who truly acted as the hands of feet of God in this world. He didn’t care about your race, religion, political affiliation, or sexual orientation. All he cared about was that God use him to bless others in need so that they might in turn be transformed back into ambassadors of God in this world. Even though his church and his government opposed him, he by far is the closest thing I have ever seen to the face of God in this world.

Perhaps by now you realize this story is a work of my imagination. However, this should not be confused with a work of fiction. The twenty-fist century story you read above is very similar to what it would have looked like had Jesus lived today. To a great extent, today’s Church rejects the teachings of Christ. If we are to ever return to living a life of Biblical principles, we must forget the notion that we are better than others and instead embrace the Biblical mandate to love both our neighbors and the outsiders in our midst as ourselves (Leviticus 19:18, 34).

So I ask you this: if Jesus walked into the doors of your church today, preaching the same message he preached 2,000 years ago, would He be welcome? Would his message or his ministry? If not, what can you do about it?