Great Commission

Jesus’ Story is Better than Ours

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“What do you believe about Jesus?” my friend Amina asked, with genuine curiosity in her eyes. Amina longs to know God and she has devoted herself to Islam. I met Amina through the English class I taught this past summer, and we immediately hit it off. We became good friends by the time we shared a soda one blazing afternoon in Central Asia when she posed her question to me. She asked her question out of a real desire to know my response and not as a trap. Rarely in this context is an opening for the Gospel so readily handed to you as in that moment, so I was caught off-guard. This was one of the first times on my six-week trip that I had an opportunity to speak about Jesus directly. I, and my friend who had already guessed I was a Christian by our previous conversations, knew the possible consequences for both of us speaking about Jesus in such a public place. But my timid friend was uncharacteristically bold that day when she asked me her question, and she eagerly waited for my answer.

“Well, you know how God’s people offered sacrifices to God for their sins, like you did for Eid al-Adha?” I asked, calling back to the conversation we were having minutes earlier when we discussed her recent Islamic holiday and the meaning of sacrifices in the Old Testament. She voiced her assent impatiently, looking to me to continue.

“God did send the greater sacrifice that he promised, and this time, it was a person. It was God’s word, coming down to earth as a person. His name was Jesus, and he answered all the promises God made in the Old Testament. The Spirit came down on a young woman who was not important, but God chose her. She gave birth to Jesus in a place where the animals stayed because there was no room to stay in a place with beds.”

Confusion crossed Amina’s face. “No, no. We believe that Jesus was born to a virgin named Maryam as well, but he was not unimportant. He was born into a family of kings and priests. He was wealthy and had a very good education in religious things. Jesus was very important.”

“You are right. Jesus did come from a long line of priests and kings, but people did not think Jesus was important. He was just a teacher. In fact, a lot of people hated Jesus, just like they do now.”

His story is the best one that we can tell.

In every conversation with a Muslim, there comes a point when your beliefs take a swift diversion from one another. Amina and I spent an hour or so already finding common ground but now was the moment when we openly disagreed. And I had a choice. As she passionately launched into her traditions about Jesus, I listened and prayed. Amina is very intelligent and speaks English almost fluently. She was a medical student at an American university in her home country until she was forced to flee due to threats to her family. I knew I could explain to her what we as Christians believe, but the Spirit was leading me in a different direction. So many of the believers I met on my trip emphasized the impact of God’s word on their lives in their testimonies. Almost all of their stories started with, “someone texted me a Bible verse” or “a friend showed me their Bible.” As I reflected on this reality over the course of the trip, I realized that God’s word is the start of all our stories. His word to us, the Bible, is how he communicates the great story of salvation. I could explain who Jesus is in my own words, or I could let him speak for himself.

After Amina explained her stories about Jesus, I asked her if I could tell her a story about Jesus. She eagerly agreed and the Spirit put the stories of the woman with the bleeding issue and the little girl who Jesus raised from the dead on my heart. These are impactful stories for Muslim women because they display Jesus, a very honorable religious man, interacting with two unclean women. As I began to tell the stories, Amina was immediately enthralled, and a hundred times more engaged than when I was trying to explain to her the over-arching themes of the Bible. It was as if Amina was there in the crowd as the bleeding woman followed Jesus. Amina was shocked when she heard that the woman reached out and touched Jesus. When he turned around to ask who touched him, there was a glimpse of fear in Amina’s eyes. Was the woman going to be punished? Hope that only the Gospel provides washed over Amina when she heard Jesus’ words, “Daughter, your faith has healed you.” Could it be true? Then, as the servant stumbled over to Jesus, panting for breath and telling him not to bother, that the little girl was dead, Amina gasped aloud in shock and shook her head in disappointment. She was truly saddened by the little girl’s death, because Muslims know that even though prophets are powerful, they are not God. They cannot raise someone from the dead.

But Jesus is not just a prophet. As he raised the little girl from the dead, he spoke to Amina’s heart. Jesus told Amina that he would touch her in her unclean state, make her clean, and breathe life into her dead body. Amina and I later discuss what it means to be a Christian, but I can bet that Jesus’ story will be the one we both remember for the rest of our lives.

Too often we underestimate the radical nature of God’s word and how it really is living. While Amina’s stories from Islam were interesting, the stories of Jesus’ life from the Bible spoke right to our hearts. Being in Central Asia for six weeks, I experienced the stories of Jesus’ life in a new way. He is God himself but humbled himself to a lowly life on earth where he was rejected. He touched the unclean and spoke to women. He died a shameful death for our sake and gives us new life through his resurrection. His story is the best one that we can tell and there are so many girls like Amina who need to hear it.

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Diane Brown

Diane Brown is a student at the College at Southeastern with a heart for reaching Muslim women with the light and hope of the Gospel.

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