Virgin Airlines, worldly culture and the radical call of Jesus Christ

Virgin Airlines boasts that they are one of the most luxurious airlines in the world. If you fly first class with Virgin, you won’t be bumping elbows with the sweaty stranger squeezed next to you. Instead you’ll have your very own private pod with massage functions and a fully reclinable seat. You’ll have on-demand satellite TV, on demand wifi, on demand drinks and food. You’ll have a luxurious pampered experience.

The airline’s advertising is appealing because it speaks the language of our worldly culture.

Our world wants everything free and on demand.

We want relationships that have little to no commitment. If we do make a commitment we want it to last only as long as we are “on board” with it. We want relationships – our friends, our family, our children – to be easy and “fully reclinable” so that they go in the direction we want them. We want to take control over our time so that we can earn more, or have more leisure for ourselves. And we find it very easy to think of sex almost entirely in terms of our own pleasure.

Even when we do “good things” like volunteer for a charity, we still want it to be “on demand” and according to our choice and convenience. We want our volunteer experiences to be enjoyable and we especially want to be thanked and appreciated after we’ve done our good deed. If we don’t feel good about it, or if it’s too challenging, then we’ll just change the channel and serve somewhere else.

And the interesting thing about this instinct to serve ourselves is the way we love to cover it up. Even though we know deep down we’re serving ourselves, we like to dress it up as selfless, or as somehow noble and for the benefit of others.

Radically different

In the middle of this self-serving world is the church of Jesus Christ. Jesus says to his rescued people: To follow me is to be totally different than the rest of the world.

Jesus says to his rescued people: To follow me is to be totally different than the rest of the world.

“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25-28)

There is nothing safe or easy about this teaching from Jesus. In contrast to a world that encourages you to hold on to your life and to always put your life first, Jesus says the Christian is someone willing to spend their life, to give all of their life, for the benefit of other people.

To be a Christian means giving up the best of your time, energy, and even your health for the sake of others.

To be a Christian means stewarding your financial resources for the sake of others. This is the measure of greatness in the kingdom of God.

Jesus, the leader of all leaders, the Son of God, the Lord of the universe, sets himself as an example of this for his followers: “… even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve.” (v. 28) If there’s anyone in human history who deserves to be served – it’s the Lord Jesus. He created the entire universe. And yet the gospel tells us that Jesus is born into the world as a man who leads by serving and who sacrifices himself for our benefit.

The church is to be radically and shockingly different to our culture in that they are a people willing to give up their whole lives for the good of others. Christians do this even when it comes at the cost of their own immediate benefit and pleasure.

So when it comes to relationships, the self-giving love of God that we have seen in the gospel will mean we’re prepared to serve others. When it comes to our time, we’ll be prepared to give selflessly to others. And when it comes to sex, the Christian will not be motivated first and foremost by what is best for them. They’ll think of sex in terms of commitment and faithfulness and pleasing their partner, all within the bonds of marriage, because they’ll want to seek what’s best for their partner.

The self-giving love of God that we have seen in the gospel will mean we're prepared to serve others.

This is what real greatness looks like in the kingdom of God. The church stands out within a self-serving world by being a community of self-sacrificing love.

This is an extract from Gospel Shaped Living by Vermon Pierre, the third track in TGC’s Gospel Shaped Church curriculum. Available from The Good Book Company and Amazon.

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