A good idea worth pursuing, but it looks too long.

“Oh it’s OK. He’s one of mine. I know him. He belongs with me”?

Jesus sounds fairly blasé here.

I like the title which suggests at the outset that one’s been missing out on the real deal.

I agree it’s a bit too long (but only slightly). What to cut out?

It seems aimed at the religious churchgoer (esp. in mainline liberal churches here in the U.S.) versus someone who rarely thinks about Jesus at all and didn’t grow up in church (which is becoming an ever increasing reality).

“Oh it’s OK. He’s one of mine. I know him. He belongs with me.” I agree with Josh that it could be interpreted casually. But reading it in its context you qualify Jesus’ words by first asking, “Does he know you?” (which makes it less blase.)

The latter part has echoes of Packer’s Knowing God. I believe it was in a chapter titled Sons of God where he suggests that the greater truth is not that we know God, but that He knows us. Great chapter.

Finally, I don’t know the availability of Christmas tracts in Australia, but here in the U.S. many publishers roll out new ones every year (which isn’t to say they’re all worth publishing!). The demand for such a tract may be higher in Australia (although we can always use more winsome, substantive tracts).

Hi,

I really like this approach. It reminds me of John Stott’s book Christ the Controversialist, which showed how Jesus overturned so many of our ideas about God and the world!

However, as it stands, this is quite long and there are a lot of tangents before it gets to the main point - I don’t think you can afford that today, when we are used to Tweets and bite-sized commentary. On top of that, the introduction doesn’t grab the reader: “Here we are at Christmas again. Nothing to see here.”

It picks up, with something surprising, in the fourth paragraph - perhaps that’s a better place to start? Something like:

“You might think you know about Jesus. But I am willing to bet that you have got him wrong - even if you go to church.”

Then you can work in a reference to Christmas, and hit them with that passage - which is quite scary for everyone, whether they’re Christians or not!

Thanks for the ideas, everyone. Really useful. I can already see several ways to improve it.

I just read the passage again. For me the phrase that stood out was “you who practise lawlessness.” One of the major parties is promising “safer suburbs.” Plus there is a real sense of being fed up with hypocrisy and corruption in high places. Maybe something about belonging to Jesus means you have His law written on your heart? Good to get people thinking about the Law.
I read the blessings and curses in Deut 28 to my high school scripture class a few weeks ago. It had a profound effect. We needn’t be afraid of refering to the law, especially when people are living in fear of lawlessness on the street, in the boardroom and in government.

More great comments. I think the common thread is that it needs to get to the point much more quickly at the beginning. I completely agree.

Here’s my rewrite of the opening paragraphs:

——-

It’s that time of year again when our society takes a moment to remember the birth of Jesus.

Mind you, the Jesus we remember tends to be the stereotyped, airbrushed Jesus of popular culture—the baby Jesus lying cute but harmless in a manger; or the gentle Jesus who walked the hills of Palestine and taught noble spiritual truths.

But there is another side to Jesus that most people don’t know about. When we read the biographies of Jesus’ life (or ‘Gospels’), we discover a Jesus who is much more interesting, and more outrageous. This Jesus physically drives religious hypocrites out of the Jewish temple. He upsets people and divides families. He makes sweeping claims about himself and seems to think he is the answer to the world’s problems.

In this short article, I want to introduce you to this ‘other Jesus’ by looking at one of the most outrageous things he ever said. In fact, I’m willing to bet that after reading these words and thinking about their meaning, you will never be able to think about Jesus in the same way again ...

—-

Better?

TP

Tony,
The tract is looking great!  I also wanted to say that I appreciate your humility in opening things up for discussion in this format. Anyone (including someone who never shares Christ!) could respond and you still did it, leaving ego at the door, trying to make the tract.  Thanks for the Christlike example.

Blessings,
John