Jesus Wasn’t a Product Marketer
How the gospel turns scarcity into surplus.
This is part of a series on the book Influence by Robert Cialdini in which we’re considering how the gospel turns levers of influence upside down. Read part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5 to get caught up.
“If you died tonight, do you know where you would go?”
It’s not how I started every conversation while doing evangelism on the streets and in the subway stations of Chicago, but it was an easy go-to if I got tongue-tied or couldn’t think of a more original opener. When you were competing with the urgency of a commuter trying to get home from work during rush hour, it made sense to create an even greater sense of urgency by introducing an imminent eternity.
I don’t know if it ever “worked.” In fact, I spent every Friday night doing street evangelism for two or three semesters in Bible college, and I can’t recall that opening line ever leading to an interesting conversation.
I still believe there is value in sometimes striking up spiritual conversations with strangers. The gospels reveal that Jesus did it often.1 But I’m confident He wouldn’t have leveraged scarcity, the sixth lever of influence, to start those conversations.
Robert Cialdini, in his book Influence2 defines scarcity as the principle “that opportunities seem more valuable to us when they are less available” (246). Those who are working to encourage or increase compliance present scarcity in two primary areas: scarcity of numbers (e.g. limited stock!) and scarcity of time (e.g. on sale today only!).
The gospel turns scarcity upside down in both respects.
Jesus’s arrival on the pages of salvation history makes clear God’s intention from the beginning to include Gentiles in the covenant. God promised “a light for the nations”(Isaiah 49:6). Jesus is that light, and his salvation is spreading toward the ends of the earth. John 3:16 is the opposite of scarcity. “Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9) is antithetical to scarcity. The abundance of salvation is for us all.
Jesus removes any quantitative limits from salvation, but he also challenges the deadlines we place on repentance.
In Matthew 20 Jesus tells a parable about a landowner who goes out early in the morning to hire day laborers to work in his vineyard. He goes out recruiting again at 9am, noon, 3pm, and 5pm. Each time he hires a new set of laborers. The sun slips toward the horizon and he calls them all in from the vineyard to distribute their wages. “Pay the latest hires first,” he instructs his foreman. The foreman hands each of the laborers who worked an hour a silver coin. I imagine it as a crisp one-hundred dollar bill.
The laborers who have been working for 12 hours and 9 hours titter among themselves. “Wow, we’re about to make bank! We’re going to be set for the week!” But as the foreman continues down the line he hands only a single, shiny coin to each laborer. They’re shocked, insulted, angry. One of the laborers pushes right past the foreman and takes his righteous indignation straight to the landowner. “How dare you pay us the same as those guys who just showed up to work an hour ago? We’ve been out here all day in the heat without a break, and you think we deserve the same?”
The landowner replies to the complaint gently. “Friend, thank you for your work today. We agreed to your rate this morning, and I’ve paid you fairly. The money is mine and I chose to be generous with it. That shouldn’t make a difference to you. Enjoy your evening with your family.” Jesus sums up his story with this: “The last will be first, and the first last” (Matt. 20:16).
Only a few weeks after telling this story, Jesus welcomes the thief on the cross into paradise just hours or moments before he takes his final breath. “Today is the day of salvation”, Scripture says, and as long as it is called today, time is not too short.3
Jesus wasn’t marketing a product; He was announcing a Kingdom. And he had confidence that His Father, through the power of the Holy Spirit would bring every last sheep into the fold.4 Jesus demonstrated urgency without scarcity. The Lord is patient with us, Peter starts with, before reminding his readers that He will return like a thief in the night (2 Peter 3:9-10).
I’m not sure how I would begin a street evangelism conversation today, but I do know I’d like to try starting with the surplus of Jesus’s love, rather than presenting salvation as a scarce commodity, available only in finite quantities for a limited time.
Beauty in Books
Last week I wrote a review of a new parenting book for Christianity Today. I know not all of you are parents, or in the thick of parenting young children like I am, but if you are I would highly recommend The Flourishing Family by Dr. David and Amanda Erickson. Read my review here (gift link).
Beauty in Election Season
From October 1-14 we’re committing to:
Praying for our government leaders (current and potential) daily.
Doing so before we consume any political news for the day.
Sign up at the link below to join us and we’ll send out a prompt (a prayer, quote, or Scripture) each morning of the Commitment.
Let’s Pray Together!
In pursuit of Beauty,
The Samarian woman at the well (John 4). Most of the disciples he called. The paralytic he healed beside the pool at Bethesda (John 5:2-8).
This essay contains affiliate links, which just means that if you choose to make a purchase after visiting one of these links, I get a few pennies.
See 2 Corinthians 6:2 and Hebrews 3:13.
See John 6:39.