It seems to me there are more than a few Christians out there looking for God to give them a personal pass on many of the
hard things entailed in being a true follower of Christ.
I’m not looking down on this crowd from any
position of superiority: I’m one of them through and through. But a careful
reading of the New Testament explains to us why it should not be so. The
Christian life was never intended to be a cakewalk. In fact, the Lord Jesus
plainly told his followers to have peace in the face of the reality that in the
world we will have tribulation.
Then, having set what seems to us an intolerable
standard of self-abnegation and perfection of character, he immediately met and
vastly exceeded it. Having told us the world was our enemy, he went right out
and overcame it.
There was no “pass”
to be had for the Son of Man.
It strikes me that the Lord not only took
upon himself humanity, but he also took upon himself the very worst possible sort
of life experience, at least by any standard we would acknowledge.
In being “found in human form”, he didn’t just embrace humanity; he imposed upon himself a life of
homelessness, discrimination, dependence, perpetual conflict and rigorous self-discipline.
And those are just the obvious negatives. There
are several more worth exploring:
A
Man Alone
Despite the extra-textual speculations
about the Lord’s sexuality in secular quarters, the believer understands that
since he (1) never married and (2) “did no sin”, he was indisputably celibate. Modernism makes sexuality into a god and the
impulse for regular intimacy into both a right and a necessity. Failure to
prioritize our own fulfillment in this area makes us abnormal or defective in
the eyes of the world, and yet the Lord’s lack of interest in exploring this
area of human experience shortchanged him in no significant way. It did not render him incomplete in the eyes of God, in fact it was the opposite. On reflection, it almost had to be this
way: for the Lord to be an exemplar for all mankind, it was appropriate for him
to identify most strongly with those segments of society esteemed to be at the
greatest disadvantage in every possible way.
There are many who defend the right to
satisfy their sexual desires as they please while calling themselves followers
of Christ. Then there are those who claim the burden of loneliness is sufficient
cause for seeking whatever companionship there is to be had. But for the Lord,
the apostle Paul and many others throughout history, this was not a priority.
Those of us who elevate our perceived sexual
“needs” above the kingdom of God may still be beneficiaries of the Lord’s mercy,
but it is with dubious moral legitimacy that we refer to ourselves as his
disciples.
A
Man Without Natural Advantage
Also, it is clear that notwithstanding his
portrayal in the arts through the centuries, the Lord was not physically
appealing. I don’t mean that he was repulsive or notably ugly. That would be
going beyond scripture. I mean that he was at best “plain”. He was an
average-looking human being, physically unnoteworthy. He drew no attention by
way of his appearance. He had “no form or majesty”. No beauty. Nothing visible
contributed to his desirability.
Many people today feel terribly
shortchanged with the physical package they acquired at conception. I’m not
talking about lifestyle choices here. A certain amount of fitness is within our
control, but there are aspects of our bodies that are intractable. All the diet
and exercise in the world won’t add a foot to my height, and that’s something
that significantly impacts my place in the world as a man, including my ability
to lead. If my hair falls out when I’m 25, then it’s gone. Modern cosmetic
surgery and transplants can minimize the damage but, let’s face it, nobody’s
fooled by Donald Trump’s rug.
When it comes right down to it, no amount of
pressure from feminists and beauty standards activists will change the visceral,
largely unexpressed reaction in the
heart of the average man or woman on the street to obvious physical beauty or ugliness. Those of us who are less aesthetically pleasing to the world suffer for it in ways that our more attractive peers cannot imagine.
So the Lord identified with the
disadvantaged in this area too. We can safely affirm with the prophet that
he charmed no one. He did not pull in the crowds with mere charisma. Those
truly and spiritually attracted to him were drawn by his words and character.
Which, actually, is as it should be.
The
Man of Sorrows
The Lord was in touch with the true nature
of fallen creation. He was not fooled for a moment by appearances. Isaiah tells
us he was “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief”. Again, it would be going beyond the words of scripture to suggest that Jesus
Christ suffered from depression, but he more than anyone in history was acutely
aware of everything wrong with mankind: every lie, every false motive, every
self-deception, every manipulation, every display of baseless and offensive
pride, every prejudice, every stumbling block, every betrayal, every bit of
selfishness, bile and venom in the human heart. He knew “what was in man”.
If anyone had legitimate cause to claim a serious case of clinical depression,
it was our Lord.
Further, he knew what was wrong with the
world. When Lazarus died, “Jesus wept”, not because he was powerless to raise him, but for the sorrow caused by sin and
the near-incalculable damage it has brought to mankind. Incalculable to us,
that is. The Lord Jesus could see every genetic deviation, every mutational
horror and every bitter consequence of the Fall.
The apostle Paul compares the current agony of creation to the sound made by a woman in the pains of childbirth, but it is
a sound to which only the Lord, of all men, was ever truly attuned.
One day he will undo it all. He will “wipe every tear from their eyes”. But that time has not yet come, and so the Lord identified with “those who mourn”, and indeed, he was comforted. In this area, as in all others, he is the
believer’s role model.
The
Spotless Victim Dies
Finally, the Lord was a victim. “Behold the Lamb of God,” said John the Baptist. He was “like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,” records Isaiah.
But (you may protest) that will not do, for
the Lord Jesus was not really “victimized” in the way other humans are. Nobody
could compel him to endure anything. For him, becoming a victim was entirely
voluntary. He could have opted out at every moment until the last. Twelve legions of angels would have made one serious mess of Jerusalem.
So he was not a victim in the way we are. And
that actually made it worse for him, not better.
Because his victimization was entirely
voluntary, the Lord was denied all the perverse consolations human victims derive
from their own sufferings: the pleasure of fatalism, the gloss of self-righteous
pride and the frisson of schadenfreude
when, as happens all too rarely, the cause of one’s suffering gets what he or
she has coming to them.
He could not fall back on “it was
inevitable” or “it had to be this way”: it wasn’t and it didn’t. He could have
easily left us in our sin and continued to enjoy fellowship with the Father for
eternity. But he would not pass the cup. And fatalism was no option.
He never mustered any false pride in his
lowliness, his humility or how completely he mastered himself in the face of
near-ageless evil, though heaven knows (and it does!) he was more than entitled
to it. He did not, in the words of the prophet, “cry aloud or lift up his voice”.
Self-righteousness did not become him and he would not indulge it, and
consequently it has been left to the Father to declare it to the world.
He took no delight in the inevitable punishment
of those who cheered as he was sentenced and crucified. He truly loved his
enemies. He prayed for those who persecuted him. In fact, he asked specifically that they be forgiven on his behalf.
Behold the spotless victim indeed.
The
Task at Hand
Any one of us may be asked to follow the
Lord Jesus in one or more of these many areas of selfless obedience, each of
which he excelled and conquered. But who among us can complain that we have been
asked to follow him in all of them? Who can object that he or she has been
disadvantaged, humbled and laid low in the same way the Lord Jesus voluntarily
expended himself on our behalf?
There was no “pass” to be had for the Son of Man. In our much smaller trials, should his servants really expect one?
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