Do People Really Want to Hear About Jesus?
By Chris Burnette
I’m in Washington Square Park on the 4th day of our 2024 NYC mission trip.
The cord (group of 12-14 trip attendees) that I am leading, and one other cord, are conducting worldview surveys and seeking to strike up gospel conversations with park-goers. The other cord leader comes to me and asks if I could help a member of his cord… his 19-yr-old son, Michael, is struggling to muster the courage to initiate conversations with strangers.
So, I come alongside Michael and ask what is causing his hesitation. He says, “I just don’t think anyone in this park wants to talk with me. They are here to relax and just have some downtime… not talk to a 19-yr-old kid about Jesus.” I tell Michael that, as we walk around the park together, I want him to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to show him the person that needs to talk with him. He reluctantly agrees, and we start walking… and we walk… and we walk. After about twenty minutes, I say, “Michael, I know I asked you to pray, but we gotta move forward at some point.” About five minutes later, we are walking down a long pathway when…
Without saying a word, Michael does an about-face and sprints back up the path about one hundred yards. He later told me that he heard an almost audible voice tell him, “The guy in white needs to talk with you.” I follow him and arrive just as he is approaching a young man sitting on a park bench. Turns out his name is Luke. He is dressed head-to-toe in white, as he is a painter by trade, and appears to be in his mid-to-late twenties. Michael approaches Luke and says, “Hi, what brings you to the park today?” Luke looks Michael directly in the eyes and says, “I’m sitting here waiting for someone to talk with me about Jesus.”
After regaining his composure, Michael says, “What do you mean?” Luke says, “I know I need Jesus – I just don’t know how to get to him. So for the past several months, I come to this park, sit on this bench, eat my lunch, and wait for someone to come talk to me about Jesus. Are you him? Can you tell me how to get to Jesus?” Michael replied, “I am him! I would love to tell you how to get to Jesus!” We sat and talked with Luke for almost two hours… and that day, on that park bench, Luke got to Jesus.
We often think we are inconveniencing people by sharing our faith with them. But the reality is that Luke isn’t an anomaly – there are many people who want to know how to “get to Jesus”. There are myriad more who are open to a conversation about a divine power that, in their heart-of-hearts, they cannot deny.
Romans 1:19-20 reads:
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”
God has made Himself known to every human being. He has shown us His power and divinity through His creative work. The order, symmetry, and beauty of our world point to a masterful designer who thoughtfully created all things out of love for his most precious creation – mankind.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us:
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
What does it mean that God has put eternity into man’s heart? God has placed within us humans a longing for something beyond this temporal world – a built-in desire that can only find fulfillment in God. They may not yet understand or believe that this longing can be satisfied, but they wish it were true. C.S. Lewis described it as “a desire for our own far off country”.
So the truth is, God has already gone before you. He has written Himself and eternity into every human heart. People today are desperately searching for a story big enough to explain the confusion and chaos around them – a story in which their own narrative might fit. We often assume we’re interrupting someone when, in reality, we may be answering the very prayer they’ve been praying all along. There is no kinder or more loving act than to share the truth of the gospel. Someone did it for you—won’t you do it for others?