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I've had the most difficulty so far with understanding this chapter. Not because the author doesn't do a good job but because there's so much to this topic that it's hard to flesh it all out in a short chapter. I've had to use other resources this week to fill in the gaps and get a better handle on it.
Issues, etc podcast: The Cross in Lutheran Theology
The Theology of the Cross - Reflections on His Cross and Ours by Daniel Deutschlander (NPH)
My pastor husband:)
It helps me understand what is meant by The Theology of the Cross by looking at what the opposite of it is - The Theology of Glory. This is a message preached that offers fixes for our problems on earth, often heard in stadium size churches and those on TV. This same message is found in best selling books promising a better life, a sure fire way to improve your situation and get what you want. "God wants to bless you if you are bold enough to declare it" leads one to believe that a heaven on earth can be attained and problems can go "poof" with God's favour on you. In other words, they are a self-help message that occasionally uses words like "Jesus" and "God" to make it sound biblical.
The best Christian families still experience conflicts, intractable problems, and embarrassing failures. The most devout Christian may go bankrupt or have a mental breakdown or contract a heartbreaking disease and not be healed. ... The ideal of the "victorious Christian life" proves impossible to attain, so we have to suppress our failures, keep trying harder (and buy more books), and present a more positive front to the world. ...Naturally, we want success, victories, and happiness. We will be attracted to any religion that can promise us such things.... Instead, God gives us the cross. (page 72,73)
With the theology of glory, "we begin to demand that God justify himself to us in our sufferings by giving us healing and success. We will demand a God who does what we want him to do, and we will reject the way of the cross by which he comes to us. We will become fearful of suffering and preoccupied with its avoidance at the expense of truth and faithfulness." (page 76,77)
It also helps me understand this theology to understand what it is not. It is not self-chosen or self-inflicted suffering. Jesus makes the cross for his followers a consequence, not a cause, of discipleship. Mark 8:34-38(Deutschlander) A Christian's cross will not be the same for everyone. Our suffering does not make us anymore saved or loved by God.
It does mean that the spiritual life has to do with suffering, defeat, and weakness - not simply with the experience of "glory," as we might like. (page 75) Rather, bearing our cross has to do precisely with the suffering that we do not choose for ourselves, the trial and difficulties that are imposed on us from the outside, that we have no control over whatsoever. (pg 80)
Deutschlander's book is fantastic and I highly recommend reading it throughout your life so you should just buy it for your personal library:) One of the techniques he uses to help the reader understand and relate to this theology is to personify the role of "Self" in each of us and what self naturally seeks to do and desire.
To put it briefly, cross-bearing self denial is to take Christ and His Word seriously in both the law and the gospel. Self strenuously and with all its might always resisted every attempt to do that. Therefore, the work of such self denial is well called a cross.
As already noted, the cross may change its outward appearance from age to age, from individual to individual, from one time in life to another. The slivers may move and the splinters be differently configured, but its essence remains the same. It is the struggle to deny self and instead follow Jesus. It is the struggle to follow him willing, even joyfully, in defiance of the adulterous and sinful generation that still remains in one's own heart as well as in the world. It is a self denial that begins with a struggle in the will, continues with the struggle in the mind, in reason, and is plagued with obstacles from beginning to end in the emotions. (page 30 - Deutschlander)
This is very practical for my life in a number of ways. First of all, it's comforting to know that the struggle is normal. It's good when there is an internal struggle with Self to know that Self hasn't taken over! Christ is there, giving me strength to deny Self and follow Him. Which leads me to the second comfort offered - Christ is there. Even in the midst of suffering (whatever form that may look like in my life) Christ has not abandoned me. His strength is made perfect in my weakness! Thirdly, I have realistic expectations that while I'm walking on this earth, I will have crosses to bear.
Cross now, glory later. Which leads me to the fourth meaning it has for me - perspective. Christ has won the ultimate victory for me on His cross. I know that I will have His glory in eternity, for eternity. There will be no suffering, no death in heaven. There will be no internal struggle to protect my sinful Self over that which wants to give of mySelf.
To make it painfully personal, allow me to share an example of my own cross to bear. Keep in mind this is my cross and not imposed necessarily on anyone else.
My husband and I have chosen to bear the sole responsibility of providing an education for our children. We are convinced through Scripture that we would find it very difficult, if not impossible, to fulfill our God given roles as parents as defined by Scripture if we did not. Having said this, it's not the homeschooling that is the cross but the struggle in it. The weight of this choice has fallen heavily to me as the main person to carry this out. Over the years, I have researched learning styles, philosophies, methods, curriculum choices, etc. I've been in the trenches with my kids teaching them everything from the sounds of the letters, to their multiplication tables, to the catechism.
Don't get me wrong before I move on with this - God has blessed this pursuit significantly and has bonded us as a family through this. He has given me joy and satisfaction in the hefty amount of time and energy I've invested in my kids. I thank Him for that! But there are more days and times than I'd like to admit to wanting to make a run for it. I'm not kidding.
The #1 response I get from others when they learn I homeschool is, "That's great! I could never do that!" usually followed by "I don't have the patience", "I'd eat them alive", "I need to get out the house to be a good Mom", etc.
Make no mistake. I echo every one of these reasons not to educate my kids at home. Every. Single. One.
My Self screams impatience with my kids. Seriously, do we really have to go over the three spellings of their/they're/there again?!!!!!! My Self has, on plenty of occasions, understood why it is that some animals eat their offspring and I have let my kids know in no uncertain terms that they are pretty darn lucky not to belong to those species. My Self has panicked at the pressure of swimming upstream while it seems easy for the rest of the "school of fish" to be swept along by the current of traditional school. I have sat at the window in the front of our house with my face pressed up against it as the school bus drives by just daring me to start running after it, kids in tow. You think I don't need to get mySelf out of the house and away from my family so I can appreciate them more when I come home? Oh heck ya.
Honestly? I worry about my Self identity when this is all over and the kids move out. I worry about loosing my Self amid all these years of babyhood, childhood, teen years and marriage because by nature I'm all about protecting Self. In every single one of the examples above, I am having to deny Self. I'm not doing this for me. I'm not doing this for martyrdom. I'm not doing this for acclamation. Because if it was, I would have chased down that bus along time ago. It is my struggle to deny self and follow Jesus. And it's a struggle. Every. Single. Day.
And just when I thought it couldn't get worse, we sent our first born away to school. In another country, ya'll. Self was relieved at first to finally, in good conscience, delegate the education of my teenager to someone else. Seriously, to finally have a break from wanting to bang my head against the wall in frustration while reminding said teenager for the millionth time what a noun is. Sounds good to me! But mySelf didn't transition to this "freedom" as well as I would have liked. Now Self wasn't in control. Now Self was sad, miserable and missing her teenager like crazy. Self got bitter that we have to live so stinking far away that we're forced to be so far away from our 14 year old just so he can get a Lutheran, Christian education along with a host of other benefits. Self doesn't like driving 20 hours just to see her child. Self would rather take tuition money and go to Mexico. Self is panicking about her identity again.
You see where I'm going with this? If it were up to Self, we'd have quite a different life - all of us.
There is good to be found in these struggles.
Jesus can be found in these struggles.
Dear Lord Jesus,
Be my strength so that I am able to take up my crosses and follow you. Thank you for taking up your cross that looked so horrific and yet accomplished my salvation! It is in your name that we can confidently say,"Cross now, glory later! ". Amen
Questions for contemplation:
Do you feel that you have a good grasp on what the Theology of the Cross is and what that looks like in your life?
Do you have specific crosses to bear that you could use help, encouragement or insight about at this time?
2 comments:
Rachel’s Questions:
Do you feel that you have a good grasp on what the Theology of the Cross is and what that looks like in your life?
Do you have specific crosses to bear that you could use help, encouragement or insight about at this time?
I think I have a better grasp of what the Theology of the Cross is NOT, as opposed to what it IS. Since the Theology of Glory has been popularized in recent years, my faithful Lutheran pastors have been diligent in pointing out the differences between the two.
What it looks like in my life? Well, that’s a bit more mysterious. I think it means that life will always be a struggle. There will always be, until I get to join my Savior in glory, my sinful nature struggling against the Spirit living in me. Sometimes the sinful nature will win. Until my Jesus takes me to be with him in heaven, I will be living in a sinful world, in which Satan is the prince. This will cause me pain, heartache, stress, anxiety, and struggle. Sometimes, the sin of the world and Satan will infect me, giving my sinful nature more power and ammunition for the struggle against the new life begun at my baptism.
It seems that as I look back on my life so far, I have been striving for a peaceful existence. I’ve been looking for a lifestyle that will allow me to face difficulties that arise with strength, calm, ease, and confidence. I want to live at a pace that is steady and can be maintained for the long haul. I want to continue moving forward in a straight line, having a philosophy and a way of thinking about things that is so right, that it will carry me through anything. No fuss, no mess. Just constant progress forward so that my last step is right into the arms of my Lord. I suppose that’s my own personal theology of glory. It lacks the sparkle of glory of the “Christian” self-help books, but it is nonetheless unrealistic.
So I guess what the theology of the cross means in my life is that I will not cease to struggle in this life. I will have weakness, I will suffer, I will experience defeat. Lots of fuss. Lots of mess. Daily. To expect otherwise would be to deny the existence of the struggle between my sinful nature and the Spirit living in me.
The crosses in my life, as Veith says, do not “involve the dramatic suffering of the cancer patient or the bereft parent.” In my life, “bearing the cross often has to do more with the petty, ordinary obstacles and frustrations of everyday life and, as a later chapter will show, with troubles in one’s vocation. Boredom, mild depression, and bad moods can be crosses no less than physical pain and emotional turmoil.” Oh, those petty, ordinary obstacles and frustrations! How I hate them! I often feel that I’d rather deal with a flood than with the constant dripping! I feel so weak and worthless when I am defeated by a little drip!
...to be continued...
The rest of the story:
The thing in this chapter that I find myself working harder to grasp is the idea of the hiddenness of God. Maybe it can be described, in a nutshell, as “We walk by faith, not by sight” in 2 Corinthians 5 and “Your life is hidden with Christ in God” in Colossians 3. But what does this really mean?
Veith says, “In the darkness, when we cannot see, we can only listen for God’s voice, whereupon we can draw closer to the hidden God.” Oh, I have SO been there! Poring over God’s word daily, seeking his voice to speak to my hurting heart. What he says next about prayer, however, is not true for me. I do not turn instinctively to prayer (as he says even unbelievers do!). I have to remind myself to pray, and then I struggle to find the words. So I will be interested to read the next chapter, which will apparently talk about how faith and prayer and the hiddenness of God transform day-to-day living.
A particularly good point he made, I thought, was the idea that “the holiness of a Christian is not always evident.” I found so many good quotes from that section. “It is common today to question whether churchgoers are ‘really Christians’ and to dismiss ‘dead churches’ because we expect spiritual dynamos.” I confess I am guilty of that.
So while I hope that I will come to grasp the concept more fully in time, for now I am taking 3 things from the “hiddenness of God” idea in this chapter: 1) God himself is hidden away in our struggles. In these difficulties and sufferings is where he often reveals himself to us. 2) The new man is hidden. The progress of sanctification is not always evident, even to the believer him/herself. Christians are just as flawed as anyone else. And thankfully, 3) the roles are reversed! We are the ones “hidden” before God! “God sees Christians through the prism of the cross: the blood of Christ covers and hides our sins and failures; our ordinary lives are hidden, and we are robed by Christ’s righteousness. When God looks at a Christian, He sees Jesus.”
Glory be to Jesus.
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