“SUFFERING
AND THE ABUNDANT LIFE?”
Rev. James
Clubine
April 13,
2008
Acts 2:42-47
Psalm 23
1Peter 2:18-25
John 10:1-10
Text: John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal
and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
1 Peter 2:20 …But if you endure when you do right
and suffer for it, you have God’s approval.
Introduction
If ‘the best things in life are free’ then why are we so
convinced ‘that you only get what you pay for?’
And further, if the best is free why do we spend so much energy to be able
to afford second level things? Some things are
priceless – for all the rest there is MasterCard.
There are things in life that
when we put side by side they seem contradictory but somehow we know both are true. When a toddler first learns to say ‘daddy’
or ‘mummy’ and you arrive home after a day of work, that squeal of excitement
from their voice as they hold their tiny arms up for you take them in your arms calling
out with the way they say your name – it truly is priceless, it’s free, you just
know that you cannot pay for it. And even as
you hold them in your arms it can become quite obvious the quality of their diaper
pointing out, yet again, ‘you only get what you pay for.’
We read today where Jesus said;
‘I came that they may have life, and have it
abundantly.’ In an age dedicated to the
pursuit of financial affluence that sounds like the kind of Jesus we could get excited
about. And then we read from Peter, one of the
Apostles, who said; ‘if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s
approval’ and ‘to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered
for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.’ Do you ever wonder which part of ‘abundant
life’ Peter didn’t understand?
If Jesus came ‘that we may
have life, and that abundantly’, why is there this other current in the New Testament
that anticipates ‘suffering for doing what is right?’ It is heady stuff to put our hands up saying yes to
Jesus; give me some of that ‘abundant life.’ But when we read the fine print
– suffering for Jesus sake, some hesitation may follow.
(J. G. Holland) God gives every
bird its food, but he does not throw it into the nest.
Is it possible that when we
hear the words of Jesus promise in ‘abundant life,’ that he has one thing in
mind and we something else? Living in an
affluent society like ours, the gut level reading of the words ‘abundant life’
has a very cheerful feel with visions of well appointed homes and automobiles dancing in
our imaginations. Is the abundance of life
Jesus had in mind like the prizes of some foundation lotteries in there beautiful homes
with a luxury auto in every driveway?
There a stream of thought in
some churches that this text along with others calls Christians to ‘abundance
thinking’ in all matters of life rather than a mentality of scarcity where we have
only so much to go around. God is to be
understood as generous and open handed – not tight-fisted or stingy. And surely the cross of Jesus Christ shows us that
God is prepared to go all out for us. There is
something very appealing to me about thinking in terms of Jesus’ abundant attitude
towards us. I much prefer it to the scarcity
narrative that seems bent on an equal sharing of misery.
But is God’s generosity towards us so that I can accumulate lots of
stuff unto myself?
An exploration of the context
of Jesus’ saying will help us hear what Jesus meant.
When we read this text in our context we are prone to read it as addressing
financial affluence. What was Jesus
addressing?
The context of this saying is
in Jesus’ claim “I am the good shepherd.”
As in Psalm 23 – we are the sheep, God is the shepherd. The passage is to clarify the goodness of the
shepherd. He said the ‘thief comes only
to steal and kill and destroy.’ He regards the sheep as part of his property, which
he owns and exploits for himself. All he cares
about is himself; he thinks the world revolves around him.
The real Shepherd does just the opposite.
He does not take life, but he gives it; ‘I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.’ Friends, you can recognize the work of the Shepherd
in your life – that which promote life.
But in this promise of life, what is it? What does life consist in? Where do we find it?
When and how do we have ‘life in abundance? It is when we live like the prodigal son and
squandering the whole portion God has given us? Is
it when we live like the thief and the robber, taking everything for ourselves alone?
Jesus promises that he will
show the sheep where to find pasture – something they can live on – and that he
will lead them to springs of life. We know
what sheep live on, but what do humans live on? In
essence the Biblical answer is that humans live on truth and on being loved; on being
loved by the truth. We need God, the God who
draws close and interprets for us the meaning of life and thus points us towards the path
of life. Of course we need bread for the body
but what we ultimately need is God himself. The
one who gives us that gives us life in abundance. Jesus
gives us life by giving himself, for he is life.
We are so prone to selling out
to the pursuit of the abundance of things instead of the pursuit of abundance in
relationship with him who is the very definition of life itself. Friends, let me say it this way – get attached
to Jesus and with respect to the abundance of things, travel light and hold them loosely
in your hands.
Peter has often been accused of
supporting slavery when he wrote; “Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with
all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh.” Some have cited this text to argue that the New
Testament condones the institution of slavery as if God approves of such things. The readings of the common lectionary find it so
problematic that it is not part of the reading – the reading of this text omits the
offending verse. I had it read today because I
am for reading the Bible as it is and let is smack us in the face so that we might have
these things resurrected in our thinking.
Slavery was the fuel of the
economic engine of the Roman Empire. By
comparison to the total population few were free citizens in the sense we know it today in
Canada - most lived in some measure of indenture. The
egalitarian message of gospel – that there is neither slave nor free but all are one
in Christ Jesus – attracted huge numbers of slaves.
So much so that one of the reasons Christians were, in later years, denied
legal religious status was because the Christians were considered mostly nobodies – a
bunch of slaves.
The context of Peter’s
advice to these salves with respect to their masters – remembering that Peter in not a Roman Citizen either – was
in his discussion of how Christians were to live in relationship to human authorities,
like the Emperor. (v13) “For the Lord’s
sake accept the authority of every human institution, whether of the emperor as supreme, or of
governors, as sent by him to punish those who do
wrong and to praise those who do right.” Peter confidence is that if we trust God and
do what is right – in the long run things will be much better for the church.
Further he adds; “As servants of God, live as free people, yet do not
use your freedom as a pretext for evil.” The
word translated ‘servants’ here is the word slave.
It is apparent that some were taking the fact of their great freedom in
Christ Jesus to mean that you could treat your masters despicably. Peter says ‘no’ to that in the text we
read. I hardly think he was saying ‘yes’
to slavery – but it is clear that he does not think insurrection the means to
emancipation.
Your heart has been set free
from sin to love Jesus Christ – live in that freedom whatever may be the
circumstance. You can readily understand the
precarious position these congregations were in and how using freedom in Christ to reject
the authority of their masters could create all kinds of unnecessary attention of a
negative kind. Whatever we think of Peter’s
admonition in the face of the tension between living as free people in Christ and a world
that says the opposite – it is clear that he believes not even the slavery of the
Roman Empire is a barrier to living in the freedom that is in Christ Jesus.
Slavery is blight on humanity
in all its forms. Jesus likened himself to the
gate of the sheepfold and quite perceptively describes the situation in our world –
‘all who came before me are thieves and bandits.’
There are always thieves and bandits wanting to enslave the sheep for their
own purposes.
This is the great distinction
Jesus is drawing between his purposes for us and that of the thief. In order to illustrate this distinction let us
consider an example from our lives. No human
belongs to another in the way that a thing does. Spouses
are not each other’s ‘property’. Yet they do “belong” to each
another in a much deeper way. They belong to
each other, not as property, but in mutual responsibility.
They belong to each other precisely by accepting one another’s freedom
and by supporting one another in love and knowledge – and in this communion they are
simultaneously free and one.
In the same way, the ‘sheep’,
who after all are people created by God, images of God, do not belong to the shepherd as
if they were things – though that is what
the thief and robber thinks when he takes possession of them. Herein lies the distinction between the owner, the
true Shepherd and the robber. For the robbers, for the ideologues and the dictators, human
beings are merely things that they possess. For the true Shepherd, however, they are free
in relation to truth and love, they belong to him through the oneness of ‘knowing’,
through the communion in truth that the Shepherd himself is.
When the One who is truth sets
you free, well you are free indeed! I don’t think that Peter is addressing the
question of how to change the systems of slavery in the Roman Empire. He is saying to these people that real freedom, is
found in this relationship with Jesus Christ – changing the systems can bring liberty
to people, a good thing to be sure – but only in relationship with the true Shepherd
will humans know the joy of being simultaneously free and one with God for eternity. It is
in this relationship that the energies humans need to intelligently shape life on the
earth are released.
I have suggested to you today
that the abundant life Jesus gives is essentially in the giving of himself for
relationship with us, and that the relative accumulation of things is not the measure of
such abundance nor is the absence of difficulty a sign of its possession. I leave you with a question to take with you to
reflect on – did Jesus live the abundant life?
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I
came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s
approval. In the Name of the Father, and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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