part 2: what was Jesus' approach to flourishing?
Last week, we worked through our culture’s secular approach to flourishing (link here). This week, we're going to look at how Jesus taught a completely different approach to flourishing.
Every generation, a new wave of young people set their eyes on flourishing, devoting their lives to imitating successful people, working harder than anyone else, and consuming all of the right things. They set their hopes on the idea that someday they can create a big enough personal kingdom to satisfy all of their desires.
But it never works. The secular approach to flourishing entices us with its promises of personal utopia, stringing us along until we’re old, yet is never able to solve the perpetual problems of life that cause us not to flourish.
So each generation grows up and the cycle repeats itself, year after year, decade after decade, generation after generation. Unfortunately, though, few will ever admit that this system isn’t working. Why? Because they have nowhere else to go.1
That’s why I’m writing this series of essays: because there is somewhere else to go. And His name is Jesus. He and his approach to flourishing are the only place to find true peace, joy, and flourishing.
the answer nobody wants to hear
Jesus? Really? Few people, even among Christians, see Jesus as an authority, much less THE authority on how to flourish. We look at his life, full of difficulty, poverty, and strange teachings, and dismiss the idea that would ever understand human flourishing.
To most secular people, Jesus was a moral person with some interesting one-liners, but not someone you would trust to speak on flourishing. There’s no way someone who lived 2,000 years ago could comprehend our lives today!
To most Christians, Jesus is the Son of God who brought salvation, but few of us want to listen to what Jesus said about life, so we find ways to use him for his salvation while ignoring and avoiding his teachings.
This creates a society where secular people reject Jesus directly, and Christians indirectly. We’ll let Jesus impact our eternal lives, as long as he stays away from how we live our day-to-day lives. His teachings are just too strange, cryptic, and difficult, so we look to everyone but Jesus in an attempt to flourish.
The theologian Jonathan Pennington puts it this way:
When we limit our understanding of Jesus and Christianity to the religious, vertical realm of our lives, we find our faith disconnected from the rest of our practical, daily, horizontal lives. As a result, we look to alternative gurus and worldly wisdom to guide our understanding of emotions, relationships, happiness, finances, and a large variety of other aspects of our daily living.
Why do we do this? Because we’re just like Adam and Eve: we like the idea of God but aren’t willing to trust that He understands human flourishing. So we reject Him and go our own way.
But when we do this, we diminish Jesus’ life-altering teachings on how humans can thrive, which creates malformed and unfruitful lives. But if you want to flourish, you’re going to have to trust Jesus not just as your savior, but also as the greatest teacher and philosopher who has ever lived!
why did Jesus come to earth?
To do this, we have to understand why Jesus came to earth. He didn’t come to earth just to save people to a future salvation but wanted to change how they lived today. Contrary to popular Christianity, Jesus was concerned about more than making heaven crowded; he also wants to make everything on earth thrive!
Consider what Jesus told his audience in John 10: I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. He didn’t say he came so that they’d have eternal life eventually, but rather abundant life right now!
So often, out of good intentions, we so overemphasize Jesus’ role as a savior that we forget that He spent three years teaching, preaching, and explaining life to His followers. Jesus didn’t spend his life on earth waiting around to die on the cross but was constantly teaching, illustrating, and modeling God’s approach to human flourishing.
Jesus’ radical approach to human flourishing
So what was Jesus’ approach to human flourishing? You might think Jesus never talked about flourishing, but that’s only because He was always talking about it! Jesus’ approach to flourishing was woven into everything He did, whether it was teaching in the synagogue, healing the sick and crippled, or telling a parable to a crowd.
In Jesus’ approach to flourishing, the path to flourishing isn’t found in building a personal kingdom big enough to satisfy all of your desire, but rather by being born again, entering into God’s kingdom, and living out of God’s new desires in you.
Unlike every other teacher, influencer, or intellectual in the history of the world, Jesus didn’t come to offer ways to improve the secular “do-it-yourself” system. Instead, he taught a radically new perspective on flourishing that challenges everything we inherently believe about flourishing.
so why is Jesus’ approach so different?
Why is Jesus’ approach to flourishing so different from our culture’s? Because he disagrees with the fundamental cause of our lack of flourishing.
Unlike secular culture, Jesus didn’t see our lack of flourishing as caused by unmet inner desires. He saw the problem completely differently. According to Jesus, the real reason human beings don’t flourish is because our desires are corrupted by sin and need to be changed, not fulfilled!
Not surprisingly, this isn’t a diagnosis anyone likes to hear. We’re constantly told to indulge our desires, do what feels good, and follow our hearts. And so when we hear Jesus’ message, that our desires are corrupted and need to be changed, we all try to get rid of Jesus, whether that means crucifying Him on a cross or just keeping our Bibles closed.
so what’s wrong with our desires?
The reason Jesus and our secular culture disagree so deeply on whether our desires or good or bad, is because they don’t have the same view of the human heart, the source of our thoughts, desires, and beliefs.
Our secular society, following Enlightenment thinkers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau, believes that:
Our hearts are inherently good.
Therefore, our inner desires are naturally pure.
In our culture’s view, because humans are inherently good, you can trust your inner desires, so long as you are digging deep to find the innermost things that you really want in life. Our culture says that these desires can be trusted, and if followed and fulfilled, will lead you to the good life.
Corruption and “sin,” according to our culture, happen when you allow organized religion, tradition, and society as a whole to restrict the pursuit of your pleasure, happiness, and self-expression. To see your innate desires as corrupt is not only wrong but repressive and dangerous.
Jesus’ view of the human heart
But Jesus taught a different view of the heart and human nature. In Mark 7, Jesus shared his view of the human heart and desire:
Don't you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn't go into their heart but into their stomach and then out of the body.
What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person's heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.
Jesus shows how the secular approach to flourishing breaks down: it’s not what you consume that makes you sinful, but rather what flows out of your heart. Because of this, assuming your desires are pure and then doing whatever it takes to satisfy them doesn’t lead to flourishing, but only every kind of evil imaginable.
James explains how this happens in his epistle:
Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Why are our desires corrupted, though? Because all of us have rejected God and have turned away from Him. As Isaiah says:
All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned—every one—to his own way.
The human heart was perfect when God made it, but due to Adam and Eve’s sin, our hearts have been corrupted by sin. Sin leaves us spiritually dead to the things of God, and like cancer, mutates our desires until they become pathways to destruction, not flourishing.
In Ephesians 2, Paul explains how this leaves us spiritually dead to the things of God, only able to satisfy the evil cravings of our heart:
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sin, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and followed its desire and thoughts.
We see the foolishness here of trying to flourish by fulfilling our desire. While it sounds attractive, it only leads to brokenness and death, both as individuals and societies.
the failure of the secular approach to flourishing
Generation after generation tries to make the secular approach to flourishing work, but it doesn’t, because it has no way to recognize or solve the problem of our corrupted hearts and desires. And so we struggle, as we try harder and harder to make a broken system do what it can’t.
Our culture’s self-improvement solutions may be great at toning our muscles, building our bank accounts, and creating attractive Instagram profiles, but no amount of success and advancement can address the real issue for our lack of flourishing, which is the sinfulness of our hearts and the resulting corruption of our desires.
are all desires bad?
It’s important to note, though, that Jesus and the Bible never teach that all human desires are wrong or sinful. After all, David says in Psalm 37:
Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart.
To be clear, the issue is not that we have desires. There’s nothing wrong with wanting food or money or success or even sex. These desires were created by God and are good.
The problem occurs when, because of our ruptured relationship with God, our desires become disordered. We elevate good desires and turn them into over-desires, idols that we want more than God.
And when we over-desire and idolize a good thing in life, we become controlled by that desire, which compels us to obey that desire at any costs, leading to all kinds of evil thoughts, behaviors, and actions. These over-desires are what create the evil that Jesus, James, and Paul were talking about earlier.
so what can we do?
Given the seriousness of Jesus diagnosis of the human heart, it makes sense that he didn’t come like every other influencer, thought leader, or life coach, merely trying to make slight adjustments to the secular approach to flourishing. But what’s Jesus’ answer to our lack of flourishing?
Jesus’ approach to flourishing looks completely different, because He’s the only one who has a solution for the real reason human beings don’t flourish: our sinful and rebellious hearts.
That’s why Jesus taught such a radically different message than our society does. He taught that true flourishing is found:
Not by following successful people, but rather by following Him. Instead of studying and imitating people who have succeeded according to the world's standards, Jesus taught that the first step towards a flourishing life was found through following Him.
But following Jesus is so different from all of the other people that are trying to get you to follow them and obey their teachings. How? Because Jesus doesn’t give you a new system by which you have to work to save yourself, but rather is the Savior who created salvation for you by living the perfect life.
That’s why Jesus can say:
Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Every human system teaches that if you work hard enough, then you’ll save yourself and have a chance to flourish. Only Jesus can say that the only thing you need to flourish is to admit that you can’t flourish apart from him and rely on Him instead.
Not by satisfying our own desires, but by being born again and receiving new desires: Jesus teaches that the path to a flourishing life isn’t found through satisfying the desires of your sinful heart, but rather is found in receiving a new heart with new desires towards God.
When Nicodemus was trying to figure out this new teacher, Jesus told him:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Jesus’ teaching is clearly: every human being, even the most moral, needs to be born again! The phrase ‘born again’ was Jesus’ favorite metaphor for regeneration, when the Holy Spirit applies the power of Jesus’ resurrected life to our spiritually dead hearts, creating a new heart that is alive to God and desires him.
The new birth doesn’t happen by you trying to improve your old human nature, but rather when the Holy Spirit creates an entirely new human nature in you. Paul described it this way:
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.
When you are born again, you are forgiven of your sin, made alive in Christ, and filled with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. As God restores our relationship with Him and sets our hearts free from the power of sin, we respond with repentance and faith.
Not by creating your own kingdom, but by receiving and living in God’s kingdom: When you are born again, you automatically enter into God’s kingdom, setting you free from having to build a personal kingdom big enough to satisfy your own desires.
When God regenerates our hearts with the power of Jesus’ resurrection, we receive the gift of life in God’s kingdom, the place where he spiritually rules and where human beings are finally able to flourish.
As we live in God’s kingdom we can let go of the need to build our own kingdom, and trust Him for our safety, security, comfort, and provisions that leads to true flourishing. Jesus promises that when we seek His kingdom, and not our own, we’ll flourish in every way:
Seek first my kingdom and my righteousness and all of these other things will be given to you as well.
And so, as we live in God’s kingdom, our desires our re-ordered through Spirit-led obedience, creating a world where we live according to God’s plan for humanity, allowing us to live in peace, harmony, and a deep sense of flourishing.
Jesus’ approach to flourishing is the only one that truly works, because only He can re-unite us with God, solve the problem of our inner corruption, and change our desires from bad to good. So, if you want to flourish, you will have to follow Jesus, be born again, and live in God’s kingdom according to His values.
why does living in God’s kingdom lead to flourishing?
At this point, you’re probably feeling the tension. You feel a little guilty that you’re not looking to Jesus for your flourishing, but at the same time, you’re still struggling to see how Jesus’ approach could ever get you the flourishing life that you want.
But we have to clear up a misconception: the abundant and flourishing life that Jesus promises to you is a spiritual flourishing, not primarily a physical, emotional, or even psychological flourishing.
Following Jesus isn’t a guarantee that you’ll get an easy and dreamy life (after all, sin still exists), but rather a promise that you’ll have a deep spiritual source of abundant life, no matter what happens in your life.
So why does life in God’s kingdom lead to spiritual flourishing? Because:
You have a deep source of spiritual life: when you live in God’s kingdom, you have a never-ending access to the spiritual nourishment of the Holy Spirit. You are like the tree in Psalm 1, who flourishes no matter the season, whether there's rain or drought, because you are connected to a deep stream of living water.
This gives you access to the spiritual relationship that will finally satisfy your innermost longings. As David writes in Psalm 16: You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Your fundamental alienation from God that was a result of the Fall has been cured!
You have a joy that circumstances can’t take away: When you live in God’s kingdom, your flourishing is not based on your life circumstances, which are always changing and never stable, but rather on Christ’s finished work. This allows you to find your joy in God’s eternal care for you, no matter whether your life is going well or not.
This is why Paul can say: I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.
You have kingdom security: Your life no longer revolves around having to build your own kingdom, and all of the stress, anxiety, and worry that comes with creating and maintaining a kingdom that will always crumble. Instead, we receive God's eternal kingdom, a kingdom that can never be shaken.
You have an enduring peace: When we live out of our new birth in God's kingdom, we no longer have to fight, scrap, and claw our way to a bigger kingdom, because the purpose of our lives is now to serve in God’s kingdom. This allows us to cooperate with others and live in peace and harmony with our neighbors and friends, because there’s no scarcity or lack in God’s spiritual kingdom. You no longer have to live a life of conflict, tension, and manipulation.
You have an eternal future: even the flourishing we experience in God's kingdom now is just a foretaste of what is to come. When Jesus returns, He will usher in the new heavens and new earth, as God renews every part of creation back to its original perfection.
When that happens, Revelation 21 says that God “will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” This will be the ultimate state of human flourishing.
It’s only when we leave our culture’s approach to flourishing and instead give our lives to Jesus and His kingdom that we can be set free from the anxiety, fear, greed, conflict, and despair that plagues humanity. This is why Jesus’ approach to flourishing is the only one that works, because only Jesus solves our problem of sin, corrupted desires, and ultimately, death.
one final question
That leaves us with one last question: which way are you going to choose? That’s the question Jesus asks of every one of us: are you going to pursue a flourishing life through the world’s methods or mine?
Each of us gets to choose which way we’ll live. But make no mistake, there’s no way for you to blend these two approaches together. Ultimately, you’ll try to flourish either according to our culture’s way or Jesus’ way.
Most people will take our culture’s approach, what Jesus called the broad road. The broad road is what is easy, popular, and comes naturally. It seems attractive at first, but be careful, because the board road will get harder and harder, and ultimately is bound for destruction.
The narrow road will be hard, unpopular, and uncomfortable, requiring you to live differently than the culture around you and do things that don’t make sense. But the narrow road is the only one that leads to true flourishing, and ultimately to eternal life with God.
Which way will you choose?
As we continue with this series next week, we’ll start to look at the Beatitudes, which Jesus uses to describe his plan for how human beings can actually flourish.
I’m writing this intro sitting in a cafe and the song “Someday” by Rob Thomas came on. Its chorus shows the conflicting desires of hope and helplessness that the secular approach to flourishing creates:
'Cuz maybe someday we'll figure all this out
We'll put an end to all our doubt
Try to find a way to just to feel better now
Maybe someday we'll live our lives out loud
We'll be better off somehow, someday
Thanks, Luke.