The Suffering Servant vs. the Honorable Prophet
The violent protests that erupted around the world earlier this month over cartoons of the prophet Muhammad showed the essence of the difference between Christianity and Islam. "The work of Muhammad is based on being honored and the work of Christ is based on being insulted." No one has written more lucidly about the contrast than John Piper. Follow this link, read... and worship.
posted by Bob | 6:05 AM
7 Comments:
So if I called you a stupid Christian, would you fill honored?
Samuel-
It would depend on what you meant by "stupid" and what you meant by "fill."
If you're not a believer in Jesus and if he hasn't saved you from the wrath of hell than you can call me "stupid". In fact, 1 Corinthians 1:18 tells me that you will call me stupid. And for me, my conscience is completely cleared whenever I see things recorded in Scripture that I may or may not be feeling (which is what I think you meant by "fill").
Being honored is the last thing that I think of when it comes to my spiritual journey with Jesus. My goal is to honor and obey Him instead of me.
Samuel, I hope that you are on the Heaven side of the mystery. If not, let's continue to dialogue.
So, are most of us being insulted for following Christ in our lives? Maybe I have only discussed this with polite non-believers, but I don't know that I've ever been openly insulted for what I believe. I guess I've been called naive in a round-about way, does that count? :)
That brings up another thought I have every once in a while. Jesus said that we should expect to be hated (John 15:18-25) but it doesn't seem to me that we are hated or persecuted much these days. At least not in the US. I mean, Christians are hated by a lot of Americans, but not generally for our sound doctrines you know. Mostly, we are hated for the hypocrisy and judgmentalism (is that a word?) most people see. I doubt what Christ had in mind when he said to expect persection, was that it would be due to our failing to love.
A good friend of mine who is a (muslim)PHD student from Lahore Pakistan has commented on just how sad he is over this outbreak of violence. It is a great place to engage conversation on the upsidedownness of the Kingdom of God.
The sad thing is that to his people this was not the work of a Danish Newspaper Columnist/Cartoonist who had horrible judgement and abused the "right" of free speech, but rather a direct outflow of "Christians" and thus Christ. Something that has always scared me, yet at the same time intrigued me is what if we "christians" in the "west" did get persecuted. How many people would still call themselves Christians? I once read about the Sudanese Church when asked what could we as Americans do for them (hundreds of thousands-murdered, enslaved, raped, etc) Their response wasn't for money or to be taken away from the persecution but rather that the Church in America would pray that they would have a good witness on those who were persecuting them and that they would come to know the love of Christ. Upsidedown.
Travis, you're right--it isn't usually the content of our beliefs, rather the expression of them that rile people up--Christians can be jerks too. However, you may be getting indirectly insulted for following Christ. He calls us to a moral life that runs contrary to what is "cool" to society. Maybe you haven't been insulted, or just haven't heard what people say, but chastity is prudish, moderation is puritanical, and tithing is ridiculous a world that loves pleasure above all. Those are the expressions of two dichotomous lifestyles chafing on eachother. But what the real stuff? Set aside the behavioral expressions (not getting wasted with your old high school buddies)and look at the motivations.
Does the point that Travis raised make anybody else uneasy? Spiritual formation moves people away from old habits. I bet the magicians in Ephesus were pretty upset to see their market for scrolls bottom out. Likewise, when Paul cast the fortune-telling demon out of that slavegirl, "the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities," (Acts 16:19). Even more, it wasn't surface level stuff that pissed people off, it was tension between the core of different beliefs: the slave owners lived to profit off of bondage; the apostles "are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved," (vs. 17) If the world doesn't have a problem with our beliefs, then maybe we need to consider whether we are properly living them out. Are we living indirectly for Jesus?
Ev
So how does a place like Coram Deo, a place that is trying to reach out and engage the culture and not alienate people from the church do that? How do you at Coram Deo expect to be persectued by the culture, yet still reach out to them and have an impact for the kingdom of God? (Not saying what you are doing is worthless or wrong, I love what you all are doing. Just to provoke thought amongst you all.)
Patrick -
I'm not speaking for the Coram Deo folks, but I have an idea what they might say...I think that we ought to live for Jesus-- really live like Jesus lived. I think Paul's words are a warning to those who choose this Christ-centered lifestyle, and his warning is this: that the people of the world who don't live like Jesus will persecute you for doing so! He is speaking from his experience as a Jesus-liver.
When he says to take joy in persecution, I don't think what he implies is that we ought to SEEK persecution. That just comes with the territory. Can you live like Jesus without being persecuted? Maybe. Can you be persecuted without living like Jesus? Yeah, probably. But if you are persecuted BECAUSE you live like Jesus, take joy in that, because God promises that our sufferings give glory to Him.
So, essentially my answer to your question is that we ought to live like Jesus (Jesus' life was one that reached out to have an impact for the Kingdom of God) and sometimes in doing so we will be persecuted...and when we are, we should take it with joy.
Easier said than done.
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