lifeasmission

A few weeks ago I came across a quote by John Howard Yoder…

The people who bear crosses are working with the grain of the universe.

Instantly I had all sorts of thought flow through my mind. But, instead of posting myself, I though about asking a couple friends, a guy and a gal to jot down their thoughts on the quote. They had really no background or context, I was just looking for them to react to the sentiment of the quote. Zach (not blogging…yet) and Emily are 2 amazing folks that I have had he chance to get to know here in Memphis and I loved what they had to say. I (and I assume they) are anxious for your reactions.

I’ve been pondering this John Howard Yoder quote for the past few days. The first time I read it I couldn’t figure out what the heck it meant… but as I thought about it, it started to come alive and make a little sense. Here are a few of the things that come-up for me upon reflection of this truth.

Jesus said in Matthew 10 that “anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” Cross-bearing is crucial to discipleship. Bearing a cross in the 1st century world was a tragic and excruciating experience… one that ultimately required your life. Similarly, Jesus asks us for the total commitment of our lives to Him. He wasn’t just asking for our affection or time, but everything we have to give. Cross-bearing involves sacrifice as the process of following Him in submission and giving Him our everything will necessarily bring heartache and pain. We are told to expect the pain, that this road we walk is not smoothly paved to heaven. The giving of our lives to Jesus will bring us confusion and failure… opportunities to be drawn closer to Christ Himself.

I wonder if what Yoder was getting at was something along the lines of the idea that the Cross of Christ instituted a new reality, a revolutionary dynamic, a new normal in our universe. That in the same way the life and death of Jesus could be described as sacrificial, emptying, and forgiving, those qualities were infused into our universal reality as the way God intended for the life of His people to be lived. That all justice and truth in the Kingdom of God would retain these elements, and therefore turn what is “natural” for us upside-down. Maybe this is what Jesus was referring to when He said “the first will be last, and the last will be first.” Those who are first in the Kingdom of God will likely walk a road of sacrifice and self-emptying, similar to their master. And that this is the way it is meant to be in our world, God purposefully using the weak to shame the strong.

If this is true, then what kind of implications does that have for our daily spiritual formation? When future heartache comes my way, how will I embrace it? Walking a road of sacrifice feels very unnatural, like something is definitely not how it should be and needs to be fixed, thus our initial prayer of “Why me?!” How might our hearts be transformed if we understand our pain as a part of what IS a natural process of God’s kingdom on earth? Perhaps we would embrace the internal darkness and emptiness that sometimes is a part of our own spiritual journeys as an inherent piece of what God is creating in us. Instead of thinking that something must be wrong with us or God is not near, we could take comfort in the knowledge that our personal journey will go through periods of dryness and times when God does not seem near… but that itself goes with the grain of the universe in asking us to submit and sacrifice the experience of our souls for greater unity with Christ.

If this is true, maybe we would embrace opportunities to share in the suffering of others, knowing that we are sharing in the sufferings of Christ and walking the same road He did. We would see that those who are struggling with great pain and personal sacrifice are mirroring a reality of the Kingdom of God. If their lives are following a natural course of the universe, perhaps we should seek to enter their reality and where Jesus is meeting them in it.
Beyond personal pain, how might this concept affect our view of the world? American Christians tend to be activists. We hire lawyers and go after those who would deny us religious freedom. We expect our rightful place to be in the top leadership of the country, making and affecting laws for our psuedo-Christian nation. We think it’s our job to bring the Kingdom of God to earth through legislation and lawsuits…not suffering and self-emptying. It seems easier somehow to accept a theology of personal suffering, but the idea that the Church as a whole might be persecuted and oppressed… well, we don’t accept that in America. Freedom is a gift, but what if the demanding assertion of that freedom has less to do with having a triumphant witness to the word, and more to do with a refusal to follow in the footsteps of a Christ who did not demand his rights but gave his life as a sacrifice?

“The people who bear crosses are working with the grain of the universe.” Are we these kind of people? The Cross of Christ has instituted a new reality in which the Church on earth will not necessarily be marked by success and power, but tragedy and persecution. If we are to look like Jesus, we must mirror His sacrifice and self-emptying and expect that God will give us opportunities to bear a cross, to give our lives, in following Him. We must see that Christian “success” is more about uniting with Christ through the sharing of his sufferings than touting our latest victory or building project. If we embraced this idea as the normal path of God’s creation, how much more closely might we resemble our Master?

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

In Yoders quote, “people who bear crosses are working with the grain of the universe” Yoder is offering both a commentary on the state of the fallen universe and the inevitability of suffering that will happen within it.

As sin entered the world with the fall of man, the perfectly harmonious relationship with God was broken and man was left to live with physical separation from God and the repercussion that accompany this distance. There would now be physical pain, hardship and death. Thus the grain of a perfect universe is reversed to become one of physical suffering and death.

In addition, Yoder offers us a statement about our own comforts. If Yoder is correct in his assertion that the universe is essentially an environment where suffering is normative, then the idea that comfort goes against the grain of the universe must also be true. This becomes evident as we see multitudes finding no consolation in the pursuit of comfort. This truth becomes self evident as we see people try to anesthetize themselves to the pain and hardship of a sin nature. We see countless examples the vain pursuit of comfort result in feelings of purposelessness and spiritual disorientation or apathy. We see professed Christians in crisis of faith because God is seen clearer through blessings than through suffering. The idea that God wants you to be rich, have two cars, a house, 2.5 children and live happily ever after may be true, but it is not the greatest truth. The greatest truth is that God wants what God wants regardless of our ability to find comfort in that.

If this were the end of the story it would paint a pretty bleak picture of human existence. However, God’s relationship with man, however fractured, is a Christian’s source of comfort. Because of this fact, comfort and pain are not mutually exclusive and quite likely coexist in our lives. Comfort does not indicate the absence of suffering only the assurance that we will be fully restored someday. Yoder’s statement is true; humanity was purposed for glorification of God and not the glorification of self.