Kindness and Kisses: Is the Chocolate Free?

A week ago, I stood in a room brimming with booths advertising student organizations for the upcoming school year. Representing my Christian fellowship group, I promoted the group to those who seemed interested and offered Hershey's Kisses to passersby.

Anyone who has worked in this sort of environment knows how easily the job can become rote. As the people pushed past, I found that within fifteen minutes it was hard to care much about individuals - hard to care about individuals whom I was inviting to come hear the gospel of a savior who cared so much He died on the cross and rose from the dead to redeem their brokenness. Thirty minutes, then forty, fifty... slowly the energy began to seep out of me.

Amid the amoeba of the crowd, a boy I had met and spoken with on several occasions strolled by, friendly and at ease. 

"Do you want a chocolate?" I called to him as he passed, knowing that a church group would not be his table of choice.

"Wait - you mean - is it free?" he queried, surprise and doubt underlining his words. "Like, I don't have to do anything?"

His question brought my brain's mindless bustling to an abrupt and startled halt, like a car slamming its brakes as a pedestrian unexpectedly crosses the road.

"Yeah," I answered, grinning slightly at his dubious expression. "You don’t have to do anything. Just chocolate. Totally free."

After he cheerfully took a Kiss and walked away, I couldn't walk away from his words or his obvious surprise. You aren't going to make me jump through some religious hoops for you just to get a piece of candy? he might as well have asked. No. No, I'm not. And yet, isn't that what we so often do?

As believers in Christ, we are called to live as light in the world, reflecting His goodness, His love, and His kindness. We carry the message of God’s grace - and yet many times we offer generosity only to try to drag others into churches and seminars and pressured belief. We trade sitting through a gospel presentation for a piece of candy. Consciously or not, we can start to change kindness into a tool of manipulation.

The church has tried to sell Jesus. It doesn't work. A gospel that is sold like a trinket is not the gospel of Christ. It may draw people, but it also creates a quid pro quo mentality that proves completely antithetical to the Jesus who unexpectedly fed five thousand after they had already heard Him; the Jesus who saved a woman from being stoned without first requiring any promise of future devotion; the Jesus who filled the fishermen’s nets because he cared about and valued their work. This modern kind of marketing misrepresents the love of the Cross; it trivializes the kindness of Christ. When bearers of mercy become bringers of merchandise, where has the gospel gone?

I’m all about inviting people in. I’m all about offering free food and help in the home and any other service a person needs, and I’m all about sharing the gospel as we do that – but only if the gift is first given unconditionally, without expecting anything from the recipient. Jesus asks for everything but requires nothing. He invites; he doesn’t demand. He interacts with people understanding that the choice to follow Him must be made freely for that choice to mean anything at all. 

In kindness Jesus proclaims laughter, life, and light; in kindness He calls us to share with those in need; in kindness He tells us His secret: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” We bear witness for a kingdom where hurts will be healed, knowledge will be made complete, and fear will be dispelled forever. This is the goodness in which we have been commanded to revel now. We are called to share it with all the world as freely and sacrificially as it has been shared with us. Faithfully, the sun rises and the flowers bloom to the delight of believers and unbelievers alike. The God who set the Earth spinning gives with overflowing kindness; can I freely give more than a little piece of chocolate?