Posted by Meg Hunter-Kilmer is a combination evangelist, apologist, and stand-up comedian. Peppered into her infectiously enthusiastic explorations of the gospels are witty one-liners that make God’s word more understandable and relatable.
But there was a point in Meg’s life when she realized that despite her passion for sharing Jesus’ message and mission, she didn’t know Him as well as she thought she did. That revelation, and what she learned in its aftermath, led to her newest book, “Eyes Fixed on Jesus, Volume 1: A Journey Into the Gospels,” which has been 10 years in the making and aims to help readers get to know Jesus on a deeper level. We discussed the book and Meg’s faith journey recently on “Christopher Closeup” (podcast below).
Meg grew up a cradle Catholic, but didn’t give a lot of thought to God until she experienced a life-changing encounter with Jesus during a Confirmation retreat at age 13. She joined a youth group, and began attending Mass and reading Scripture daily.
As Meg got older, she felt Jesus calling her to a radical path: that of being an itinerant missionary, or “hobo for Christ,” as she is dubbed by many. She lived in her car for 12 years, traveling around the U.S. to share her faith and make friends of strangers who, sometimes, welcomed her into their homes. These encounters allowed Meg to see that God was using her to bring needed light to others – and that God was also using those others to bring necessary wisdom to her.
Despite her devotion, Meg became aware of a serious shortcoming in her spiritual life. Like a lot of people, she had heard and read the gospels so many times that she thought she knew all there was to know about them. If the priest at Mass started the parable of the Prodigal Son, she would think, “I know what happens next, so I don’t have to listen.” Then, her mind might drift to her grocery list or plans for next weekend.
But after reading the books “The Robe” by Lloyd C. Douglas and “To Know Christ Jesus” by Frank Sheed, she began to see that Jesus was not just a figure in heaven who loved her; He was someone who had “smile lines [and] scars on His fingers from working in the carpenter shop. The humanity and the intensity of being in relationship with that Jesus was overwhelming to me. And so, I ended up canceling everything for six months, reading the gospels, and reading commentaries on the gospels…That’s where ‘Eyes Fixed on Jesus‘ came [from].”
Two of the elements that brought the gospels to life for Meg – and that she explores extensively in the book – are “biblical context and cultural tidbits” from that era. For instance, in modern times, we use the term “Good Samaritan” to refer to anyone who does a good deed. But for Jewish audiences in Jesus’ time, Samaritans were seen in a much different context.
“The Parable of the Good Samaritan will be in Volume Two,” Meg said. “But…Americans don’t really have a concept of a people group that we could loathe the way the Jews loathed Samaritans. This is like a North Korea/South Korea kind of vibe. These are not friendly groups. And so, when you know that about the [Samaritan] woman at the well – that Jesus is going out looking for the absolute loathed, reviled and despised enemy of the people of God and coming to her as bridegroom, – [you realize], ‘There’s really nothing I can do that will keep Him from loving me. There’s nothing about me that will make the Lord cut His losses and move on.’ This is the work that I’m trying to do in this series of books. The gospels are so familiar to us that we just let them wash over us, but they’re also so foreign that we don’t pick up on the connections that are being made.”
Jesus’ willingness – and even eagerness – to approach anybody speaks to the humility He embodied. Another instance is when Jesus encountered Matthew, the tax collector. Meg explained, “This, for me, was one of the biggest things in starting to understand more about context in Scripture. A tax collector is not a pencil pusher. A tax collector is a Nazi collaborator. This is a guy who looked at the violent and vicious oppressors of his people and [thought], ‘Those guys seem like they tip well.’ Just horrifying. And Jesus still wanted him.”
It’s also important to note that Jesus doesn’t condemn Matthew for his actions and then say, “Follow me.” Instead, Jesus gets to know him first as a person, just like He does with the other “sinners” who come as guests to the meal Matthew hosts for Jesus. The Pharisees do not look kindly on this gathering or Jesus’ approach.
Meg said, “Obviously, [Jesus] is calling everybody to conversion, but He comes out hard against the Pharisees and those who congratulate themselves on their religiosity. And he says, ‘Hey, I actually don’t care how many Divine Mercy chaplets you pray if you despise the poor,’ analogously. Whereas with sinners, He comes in gentle and draws them closer. That’s so important for us to recognize. If we are standing on a street corner with signs about how God hates you, we have lost this battle for a soul. We need to encounter the person in front of us and love them wildly with the love of Jesus. And when they believe that they are safely loved, that’s when they’re willing to hear an invitation to conversion. But you can’t start with condemnation. It’s just not effective, and it’s not what Jesus did.”
In recalling Jesus’ healing of the woman who was bleeding for 12 years, Meg noted that the ways in which Jesus affirmed people’s dignity was just as important as His physical healings. Not only was the bleeding woman’s ailment cured, but Jesus called her, “Daughter,” conveying that she was a beloved child of God who should be embraced, not ostracized, by society. Why is that affirmation so important?
“This is the big question of what it is to be human,” Meg observed. “Am I as good as you are by my very existence? This is something that we’re still wrestling with today. Does people’s immigration documentation status make them less valuable as human beings? Does people’s race or ethnicity make them less valuable? Does people’s status as being born or unborn make them less valuable? If someone is a convicted criminal, even a horrific sin? If somebody is from Gaza or Ukraine or Israel or Russia, what is it that makes somebody less valuable in the eyes of God? Jesus makes it clear again and again, there’s nothing. He comes to women, He comes to the unclean, He’s going to Samaritans and to Gentiles, to Roman oppressors. He’s actually doing good deeds for the people who are trying to destroy the people of God. And Jesus is making it clear to us that every person is equal in dignity. But that’s something that we ought to know.”
“As members of at least a historically Christian society,” Meg continued, “we are at least familiar with the concept that everybody has equal dignity in the eyes of God, but these people weren’t. It was…understood that there is a stratification of value of different human beings in the ancient world. And Jesus came in and [declared], ‘We’re not playing that game.’ Enslaved pagan women are just as valuable as the high priest. That’s a radical and revolutionary thing and something that continues to be a challenge for us today.”
The Beatitudes that Jesus delivered in His Sermon on the Mount were also radical and revolutionary, turning upside down a lot of the thinking at the time. They demonstrated that Jesus was not the type of Messiah the Jewish people were expecting.
“There were some people who were expecting this military hero to overthrow Rome, which is what we typically hear about,” Meg explained. “There are other people who are expecting a miracle worker…There were people who were looking for a prophet. But none of them were expecting the Messiah to come and ask them to change. They were expecting the Messiah to ask everyone else to change and to congratulate them on being the way that they were. And Jesus came in with an incredibly demanding message, particularly for those who were good Jews.”
In essence, Jesus made it clear that outward religious practices were not enough to please God. The same holds true today. Meg noted, “These are the people who are doing all the right things, who are religious in all of the right ways. This is Jesus coming to us who listen to Catholic radio and saying, ‘Yes, very good! But do you actually love your sister-in-law? Do you actually live a sacrificial life so that the poor can live a meaningful life? Do you actually follow the gospel?'”
“So [with] the Beatitudes, He comes in and turns everything on its head. He says, ‘Blessed are the poor.’ And [the people respond], ‘No, no, cursed are the poor. That’s why they’re poor.’ And [Jesus says], ‘God doesn’t think the way that you think.’ You’ve got to ask yourself, ‘What is the heart of God for me? And how am I called to let go of these things that I have allowed to define myself so that I can be defined entirely by the love of God?’ If the gospel doesn’t challenge you, man, you’re just not reading it.”
As devoted as Meg remains to Jesus and spreading His message, she encounters times of darkness in life, like we all do. How does she respond?
“For me, everything is about sitting with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament,” Meg concluded. “When I am an absolute wreck, the thing that I need more than anything is just to get in front of a tabernacle and pour my mess out on Him. And there’s a light that comes. I mean, that sanctuary lamp really begins to glow brighter. And even if nothing is resolved at the end of that time, I have put everything back in His hands, and I have continued to make the deliberate choice to let Him be my God.”
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