BLOG 4/5/15. EASTER AND A BRIEF WORD ABOUT FORGIVENESS AND SUFFERING

BLOG. 4/5/15. EASTER: A BRIEF WORD ABOUT SUFFERING AND FORGIVENESS

Easter might just be an appropriate time to say a brief word about the demeanor of Christ’s followers within difficult contexts and unfriendly-hostile people. The news media seem to relish reporting on all of those who purport to be Christ’s followers, and who seem to always be against something, or protesting something, or accusing others of some violation of their own ostensible Christian faithfulness. One would almost get the impression that this was the whole mission of such purported Christian folk, i.e. to be negative.

What it really reveals is that neither the press, nor the ostensible Christian folk they are reporting about seem to have read seriously the primary documents of our Christian faith, i.e., the New Testament, or the teachings of Jesus and his apostles. One might begin on this particular Easter Sunday by reminding ourselves that while being unjustly and horribly tortured and executed, that Jesus asked his God to forgive those who were expediting his crucifixion, because they did not even know what they were doing—or maybe that they were just doing their job as ‘ordinary Joe’s’ who were doing the scut work of the Roman army.

Or remember that it was Jesus who warned any who would follow him that they also must willing accept the risks: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24). There is no ‘health and wealth’ message here. His mandate was that his followers know the consequences. There is the clear word that to follow him means that they/we become counter-cultural, and so therefore, often misunderstood and reviled. The apostle taught: “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those of the household of faith.” God’s true saints are inveterate do-gooders, even to those often-unpleasant folk who don’t understand them, and can seek to make their lives miserable socially, economically, politically, and in other ways.

Jesus also taught: “Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake.” One get the very clear understanding that to follow Jesus has many consequences, so that with all of the ultimate existential promises of blessing that come from Jesus, there is also the fact that his New Creation stands always in missionary confrontation with the often dominant principles and practices of the culture in which we live. So Paul would remind early believers living in Rome under the shadow of the Roman forum, that as heirs of Christ we might well suffer with him in order that we be glorified with him (Romans 8:17).

Because all that is so, Jesus’ instruction behavior pattern make sense and to define us in the face of all the crap that might be coming down on us: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be the sons of your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:44). This is the cost of discipleship. It requires discipline. We are called to be reconcilers, not dividers. We may viscerally be offended by patterns of others, and of the accepted behavior of the dominant social order. We also know that when we model God’s New Creation, we may well be a threat to those who don’t accept that New Creation, but we live in the midst of that tension with love and grace.

Those, who are ostensibly expressing their Christian convictions with only protests and blame of other and accusation are hardly faithful witnesses to their calling to be light and salt, to be people of grace and love and reconciliation among those still captive to the darkness. That’s my Easter blog to you. We pray for both the strength and sweetness of Christ in the midst of a confused culture of cynicism and discontent. Such is our Easter character.

About rthenderson

Sixty years a pastor-teacher within the Presbyterian Church. Author of several books, the latest of which are a trilogy on missional ecclesiology: ENCHANTED COMMUNITY: JOURNEY INTO THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH, then, REFOUNDING THE CHURCH FROM THE UNDERSIDE, then THE CHURCH AND THE RELENTLESS DARKNESS. Previous to this trilogy was A DOOR OF HOPE: SPIRITUAL CONFLICT IN PASTORAL MINISTRY, and SUBVERSIVE JESUS, RADICAL FAITH. I am a native of West Palm Beach, Florida, a graduate of Davidson College, then of Columbia and Westminster Theological Seminaries.
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