This is my own humble attempt, one that I brought about from today's (4/12/2013) Scripture passages. Please be sure to comment and, if you so desire, follow this blog!
If it is man-made it will perish and if
it is from God it can never be destroyed. The pharisee Gamaliel said
as much to his fellow leaders concerning the Apostles who preached
the name of Jesus.
Were the leaders truly persuaded by his
words? Though they did not kill the Apostles they flogged them so as
to dissuade them from preaching. This did little to stop them as they
considered it an honor to suffer in the Lord's name. We know the fate
of the Apostles, all martyrs, which is summed up in the phrase “love
of life did not deter them from death” (Rev 12:11). They were
willing to suffer for Christ's sake and for the mission He gave them.
There is a parallel we may draw between
the Apostles and Jesus multiplying the loaves and fishes:
The Apostles, preaching Jesus, are
carried away, rebuked, and made to suffer.
Jesus, manifesting his power to a great
multitude, was going to be carried away, honored, and made king.
In this brief synopsis there are many
parallels but I'll focus on only one. The Apostles bore Christ into
Jerusalem, but when a multitude of men wished to carry Him off and
make Him king, he departed from them. What is the lesson we can learn
here?
Many of us, even with good intentions,
will want to bear Christ as 'king' in this world. Yet when we make
Christ the champion of our own causes we run the risk of exulting
ourselves in Christ's name. The area becomes all the more gray
when it's something we care about.
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| Christ's entry into Jerusalem. Remember this? |
The difference between the two
groups—the Apostles and the multitude—is, I suspect, that the
Apostles knew who Christ was and what he stood for while the
multitude wanted to exult Christ for what they wanted Christ to be
for them. The situation is an unsettling one to think about since
Christ is an easy name to gather around and a name that inspires us
so greatly.
We must reflect deeply about how we
present Him and why we present Him. When we truly present Him we must
be prepared to suffer in the flesh and in the spirit, and even then
the suffering and persecution does not mean God is with us or that
we've suffered for His name. Recall that “Theudas appeared,
claiming to be someone important, and about four hundred men joined
him, but he was killed, and all those who were loyal to him were
disbanded and came to nothing” (Acts 5:36).
It's difficult to determine everything,
but a few things we should keep in mind: “he must increase, I must
decrease” (Jn 3:30). Can we sacrifice a bit of our pride for the
sake of unity? Can we sacrifice our own image so it more closely
images the shame of the cross?
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| Remember this? |
Those who bear Christ know that there
are times they must let go just as Christ left his hands and feet to
those men who would drive nails into them. Those who hold themselves
up hold onto themselves even tighter—and they usually lose
everything.
The suffering we're called to endure
comes about when we courageously yet humbly present Christ to the
world, at times by standing boldly in the face of injustice while at
other times speaking His name because we are compelled to speak no
other.
What should be our concern? “To dwell
in the Lord's house all the days of my life” (Ps 27:4) and when we
seek this above all else, all we should hold dear will become
clear. Our zeal will never falter and “although our outer self is
wasting away our inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor
4:16).
