"For me, the most powerful testimony on a daily basis is Jesus being the foundation of everything good that we all long for and strive for."
Mark Shepard is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, where his research focuses on the intersection of health, industrial organization, and public economics. Harvard is a special place for Mark. It's where he first studied as an undergraduate. It's also where he became a follower of Jesus.
Faith Lost
Mark was raised in a Jewish home and grew up going to Hebrew school. But as a teenager, he started to question whether there truly was a God who made all things and revealed himself to humans. He brought his concerns to some in his community and they reassured him that it was OK if he decided he didn't believe in God, he could still continue to practice Judaism. Rather than reassuring Mark, this troubled him. He prized reason and consistency. Following a religion he didn't believe in seemed hypocritical. But believing in God when he saw no real evidence for God seemed irrational. By the time he showed up at Harvard, he considered himself an atheist.
Faith Found
Mark's atheism stood the test of his first year at Harvard. He increasingly saw faith as the opposite of reason and science as the only arbiter of truth. But in his second year, he was assigned to a resident tutor called Dakota Pippins, who held both a BA in Mathematics and an MA in Computer Science from Harvard, and was now pursuing a Masters in Theology at the Harvard Divinity School while serving as a student minister with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Dakota seemed to have a faith in God that wasn't hostile to reason, and he seemed to think there was evidence for his faith. He welcomed Mark's questions and met with him monthly to discuss them over lunch.
One of the things that had started to trouble Mark about his atheism was its lack of foundation for moral truth. His parents had raised him with a strong sense of right and wrong, and in the wake of 9/11, the question of objective good and evil seemed very pressing. But Mark knew that - rationally - if there was no God and no ultimate purpose to the universe or to any human life, right and wrong were just subjective preferences. Dakota encouraged Mark to read Jesus's famous "Sermon on the Mount" and Mark was stunned by the ethical teaching he found there. He recalls his reaction like this:
"Here was the most beautiful, powerful expression of moral truth I had ever encountered. But who did this come from? Could this really be the work of a poor Jewish carpenter and his uneducated followers? And how could I deal with the fact that my worldview gave me little grounding even to believe in moral truth?"
Mark was attracted to this potential new foundation for his deepest moral beliefs. And at the same time, he was also confronted with his own moral failure and the relief Christianity offered. "While my old worldview gave me few resources to understand or deal with sin," Mark recalls, "Christianity confronts it head on."
"God’s answer is the gospel: the good news that Jesus came into the world to live, die, and be raised for sinners."
Mark repented and believed in Jesus: the Messiah who claimed the Jewish scriptures were all written about Him. He was nervous to tell his parents, but they were very gracious and kindly said they were thankful he now believed in God again.
Living for Christ Now
In an academic world where status is measured in papers and professorships, Mark feels the challenge of living as a Christian and not just seeking to build a name for himself. He draws on the resources of the gospel to combat this innate tendency:
"The gospel reminds me, first, that because God is central, life is not about me but about him. I don’t have to achieve, to impress, to justify myself. I am accepted in him. Second, the gospel frees me from the misdeeds of my past, since Jesus has paid for them. Finally, the gospel gives me – and the whole university – a new purpose. By learning, teaching, and relating to each other in humility and love, we participate in renewing the world. This is a purpose in which everyone in the university can participate, regardless of rank or status."
I asked Mark if he experiences hostility to his faith at Harvard. He told me he more often experiences a polite lack of interest. Mark finds this perplexing. Christianity is a "transformational faith" making radical, life-changing, offensive claims on truth. "Why don't people think this is the burning issue of our time?" he wonders.
Reflecting on the COVID-19 Crisis
I asked Mark to share what he's reflecting on in this midst of the pandemic, particularly as someone whose expertise lies at the intersection of healthcare and economics. He replied,
"As an economist, I love the beauty and power of our discipline's tools to analyze the economy and public policy problems. But too often, we fall into misguided beliefs about what gives life meaning: choice, productivity, consumption, achievement. Even in normal times, this narrative creates anxiety and fails to fulfill. In the Covid-19 pandemic and recession, it is unraveling. Jesus' gospel message shows me a different way: a life based on service, stewardship, relationships, and humility."
I asked Mark what he finds most compelling about Christ in his day-to-day life as a professor, particularly at this time of crisis. He replied,
"For me the post powerful testimony on a daily basis is Jesus being the foundation of everything good that we all long for and strive for. He and His way are the heart. And He's not peripheral. He's foundational."
