This is short because I have no time to make it longer but I felt an urgent need to get some thoughts into the ether before they vanished forever. One of the books I am currently reading through is John R. Franke’s – Barth for Armchair Theologians. It is clearly and concisely written and a wonderful alternative (for the time being) to Barth’s 8,000 page omnibus Ethics. Well it is hard to avoid somewhat deeper thoughts when reading about Karl Barth (despite best efforts to the contrary) and something reasonably cohesive occured to me during my reading.

 

Barth’s theologically formative years included a time when socialism was being embraced throughout Switzerland (where he was) and the rest of Europe in the early 20th century. Socialism was being viewed by many in the church as being a vehicle of God to usher in His kingdom. Barth struggled to synthesize his view of the gospel and the kingdom of God with what was happening realtime in his own culture and era. Socialism was dominated by Marxist atheist politicians and activists and it was hard to know if working in that environment meant the church was compromising Christ for the sake of a cultural movement.

 

Fast-forward to today. The church (the Holy catholic (that is universal) body of Christ) is confronted on every front with challenge in a way that it has never been before. There is little doubt that statistically speaking Christianity is not the fastest growing faith in the world today (particularly in the west). Between the growth of other faiths and the growth of agnostic and atheistic thinkers in the west as well as syncretism (the blending of various incompatible faith components into a melting pot) things look somewhat bleak from a purely worldly perspective.

 

How then does the church (us – you and I) respond to such a state? It is as though Christ has been betrayed and arrested all over again and is being led through trial to the cross once more for execution. How do faithful followers respond to such a scenario? First note Jesus response in Matthew 26:50 to being confronted by his betrayer Judas and the armed crowd sent to arrest him – "friend, do what you came for." There is no hint of sarcasm in Jesus words. He calls his betrayer friend and it is important for us to note this.

 

Further in Matthew 26:50-51 it says: "Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him. With that, one of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear."

 

The response of one of Jesus closest followers to his impending arrest was to resist and attack. This is understandable. But let us read further because it is of critical instruction to us. Matthew 26:52-54 says: "Put your sword back in its place," Jesus said to him, "for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?" In that hour Jesus said to the crowd, "Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I sat in the temple courts teaching, and you did not arrest me. But this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled." Then all the disciples deserted him and fled."

 

Christ did not resist those most opposed to Him. When His follower attempts to gain His freedom through violent means he gently chastizes him and reminds him that what is happening is necessary. In the end "all the disciples deserted him and fled." Christ is alone surrounded by adversaries and most certainly condemned to die.

 

In Letters and Papers from Prison German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: "the church is only the church when it exists for others…" In other words Christ is only Christ when He exists for others. The church does not exist for itself…the only validation of the body of Christ is its outward concern and work for the world. It has no concern for its own life and existance because it lives in the awareness of those words in Matthew "Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?". The church exists with the knowledge that it could conquer the world through the calling down of God’s power but this is not the will of God and so we do not call on such power.

 

If the world that we serve comes to us and seeks to arrest, beat and execute the body of Christ then to the cross Christ will go. But make no mistake Christ goes to the cross not with a martyr complex seeking to show others how willing He is to suffer but rather He goes with full knowledge of the resurrection to come and the healing it will bring to the very ones who nailed Him there in the first place. Christ dies completely in love with his executioners and for their very sake…and so should the church, His body follow His example if called to do so, and resist the urge to take up our sword in place of our cross.

 

As I said earlier these thoughts are barely formed and I will expand when I have time but they are meant to challenge us (myself particularly) to think deeply about our response to the world as it seeks our very destruction.