March 10: Jesus Christ (Meant to Be) the Superstar
1 Corinthians 3:1–23
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, Jesus Christ Superstar, is certainly incorrect (and rather heretical) in its portrayal of history, but it got one thing right: Jesus is meant to be the celebrity. He—no one else—is the Savior, the Christ, the Lord.
And that’s why the celebrity pastor movement is quite frightening. I don’t say this as a cynic, and it’s not that I’m primarily concerned with how these teachers are marketed (although that, too, can be scary at times); I’m worried about the way they’re received.
Certainly there are people who can be trusted more than others, and popularity is by no means a measurement of trustworthiness. But automatically agreeing with everything a teacher says puts the disciple in a bad position with the God they worship. It also puts the teacher in a position similar to an idol. Teachers who truly follow Christ would never desire such glory for themselves. True teachers of the gospel want commitment—not to themselves, but to Christ and His cause.
This issue is not new, though. The fledgling Corinthian church struggled with this in the first century AD. They were divided over who was following whom among the early Christian leaders. Paul responds: “What is Apollos [Paul’s fellow missionary] and what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, and to each as the Lord gave. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing it to grow” (1 Cor. 3:5–6).
It is God who brings growth, not any of us. We are all merely instruments in His great, saving work in the world.
In what parts of your life is God asking you to make a statement similar to Paul’s? What teachers are you adoring too much?
JOHN D. BARRY
John D. Barry and Rebecca Kruyswijk, Connect the Testaments: A Daily Devotional (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2012).
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