IF
WE were really to follow Jesus, we would discover a difficult
path - no, an impossible path (except for the grace of God).
The crowds that followed Jesus did so for various reasons, most
of them having to do with their happiness and comfort, happiness
as reduced to creature comforts.
On one occasion, after Jesus had fed the crowd miraculously, they
followed Him, asking, "from now on give us this bread".
(Jn. 6:34). Instead Jesus declared, "Whoever eats my flesh
and drinks my blood has eternal life." (Jn. 6:54). This was
a rather jarring response, but it was the truth. It challenged
the limited and distorted horizons of the crowd. In fact, many
of them decided that it was a "hard teaching" (Jn. 6:60),
and parted company with Jesus.
The hard teachings of Jesus point to the hard path that He invites
us to walk with Him. Unfortunately the hard teachings are today
hardly mentioned and the hard path is painted over with spiritual
gloss and hype. These things don't go down well with the spa culture
generation we see today. These are the days of increasing pleasure-seeking
hedonism and self-seeking, self-indulgent narcissism.
But real life is not lived in spas. For a dose of real life, we
need to visit hospitals, broken homes, prisons, and lines of poor
people looking for help. Even in a spa culture, we are not spared
the uncertainties and tragedies, the mess and suffering in life.
Is the Christian spared from any
of this? Some people would have us believe that the answer is
a definite yes. But the scriptural evidence points in other directions.
Jesus made it clear that if we want to follow Him, then we must
deny ourselves and carry the cross. We are called to walk the
via dolorosa (the way of suffering and death), not that the road
ends in death, but that it goes through death to life and glory.
As the old saints said, "There is no gain without pain."
In fact, being a Christian often invites more trouble and suffering.
Why, you might ask. That is because we have three enemies of our
souls - the devil, the world and the flesh. We have to struggle
with each as we walk this narrow and difficult road with our Lord.
The devil is our enemy; he is "like a roaring lion looking
for someone to devour". (1 Pet. 5:8). The closer we get to
God, the more vicious the battle. The devil may know that he has
lost the soul of the devoted Christian, but he will do all he
can to disrupt and cause harm, to discourage and deceive.
Our struggle is also with an ungodly world, with all its principalities
and powers in place. The world is on rebellion mode against God.
As John tells us "the world and its desires pass away".
(1 Jn. 2:17). Hence we should resist being conformed to the ways
of this world; instead our thinking and living should be radically
transformed by God's Word and Spirit (Rom. 12:2). Because the
hard path of Christian discipleship goes against the grain of
the world, we will also often suffer if we obey God at all costs.
Jesus has already told us: "In this world you WILL have trouble."
(Jn. 16:33).
Then there is the struggle with the flesh, the sinful part of
us that needs to be denied and crucified. What a struggle that
is. It led Paul to cry out, "What a wretched man I am!"
(Rom. 7:24), and to personally resolve, "I don't know about
you, but I am running hard for the finish line. I'm giving it
everything I've got. No sloppy living for me! I'm staying alert
and in top condition. I'm not going to get caught napping, telling
everyone else all about it and then missing out myself."
(1 Cor. 9:26-27, The Message).
Such resolve to follow Jesus faithfully, and to pursue holiness
and Christ-likeness will often attract suffering. But such suffering
itself becomes the seedbed for further growth. It often brings
us closer to God and deeper into His love.
IN RECENT times, I have visited a number of friends who are struggling
with cancer. One particular friend, an old school friend, inspired
me with his radiant faith in the midst of advancing cancer. We
talked at length about our mortality and faith in God. My friend
is a living example of the truth that the path that brings us
closer to God is often the path of suffering. Indeed, suffering
is the crucible in which our faith is refined and our love for
God purified. Suffering, more often than not, is the royal road
to heaven.
Why, then, are we so afraid to mention that the path of Christian
discipleship is often a path of thorns, and give the wrong idea
that it is a path of roses instead? Why do we want to hide the
thorns in between the roses? Why do our testimonies major on how
we escaped suffering rather than on how unrelenting or unresolved
suffering brought us closer to God? Is our theology one of escapism
or one of courageous and faithful obedience?
Self-denying love, discipline and simplicity are the hallmarks
of Christian discipleship. The Christian path often takes us through
the difficult valleys (valley of the shadow of death -Ps. 23:4;
valley of Baca - Ps. 84:6), but it is in these painful places
that God is more intimately experienced. Which is why suffering
is the seedbed for transformation.
When we run out of ourselves, we experience God's presence. When
we give up begging God to change our uncomfortable circumstances
- for our own comfort - God begins to change us, for our own good.
We experience God when we keep walking on the hard path, with
faith, hope and love; we will find ourselves drawing closer to
Him. Our priorities get reorganised, our minds are sorted out,
and our hearts purified.
Who said that the path of Christian discipleship is an easy one?
As we live in a self-pampering spa culture, we must rediscover
the true path of Christian discipleship, a hard, rugged path,
but one that we can walk in close, sweet and joyful fellowship
with our Wounded Lord. This is the path to true healing and transformation.
QUOTE:
HALLMARKS OF CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP
'Self-denying love, discipline and simplicity are the hallmarks of Christian discipleship. The Christian path often takes us through the difficult valleys, but it is in these painful places that God is more intimately experienced. Which is why suffering is the seedbed for transformation.'