Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. (Col. 1:24)
This verse from our reading from Colossians on Sunday is both staggering and perplexing (at least on the surface). There are two ideas present, both of which should make our heads spin. The first is the idea that Christ’s own suffering lacks something and that Paul’s suffering is filling up that lack. The second is that Paul’s sufferings have some benefit for the church.
First, this statement could be said about any Christian who suffers because of following Christ—Paul isn’t unique. But how is that Christ’s suffering lacks anything? And how does our suffering in the name of Christ benefit the church?
The answer is that all who turn to Jesus the Messiah in faith and are baptized into him are made a part of the Messiah. We are joined to him and made one with him. That means that he has our lives in him, and we have his life in us. Given that we are joined to him, our sufferings are now his sufferings—everything we suffer he suffers with us. This truth was seared into Paul (as he was going to Damascus to persecute Christians) by Jesus, who asked, “Why are you persecuting me?” It isn’t just that Jesus takes it personally when his followers suffer; instead, he is suffering in and with them.
If you imagine all the Christians that have ever been and all who ever will be, and then imagine the concrete amount that all of those Christians have suffered and ever will suffer in the name of Christ, you are imagining the totality of Christ’s sufferings. When Paul says, “I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions,” he is saying that he is contributing his part to that whole. Christ’s afflictions aren’t lacking in the sense of inadequacy—the cross was sufficient for all the sins of the world. Instead, they are lacking simply in the sense that many of Christ’s sufferings occur in his followers, and some of those haven’t happened yet. Paul is saying, in effect, “Everything I am suffering in the name of Christ is part of Christ’s suffering, and boy, I am adding to the total right now, while in prison!”
Because no suffering strikes Christ that he doesn’t turn into a means of redemption for others (the basic pattern of the cross), all the suffering of Christ (including the parts that occur in our lives) becomes a part of his means of redeeming of the world. The end result of this is that anything we suffer because we are following Jesus (everything from giving up an hour’s sleep to pray for someone to being mocked for maintaining Christian honesty and love to being violently persecuted) is happening to Jesus in us, and all of it is used by him to bring about the reconciliation of the entire cosmos to the Father. For the Christian, there is no such thing as empty suffering—all of it occurs in Christ, and all of it is used by Christ in his glorious work.
In Christ,
Steven+
Scripture Reflections
On Sunday, Steven preached on Paul’s words in Galatians 6:2: “Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Today’s Evening Prayer reading, 1 Corinthians 9, shows one way Paul lived that command out.
Paul ministered without a salary, but it would have been appropriate for him to receive whatever the Corinthians offered him. After all, as he writes in verse 9, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.”
In other contexts Paul was glad to receive that kind of love from the people he served. He knew it gave them joy, and it eased the burden on him. However, for a variety of reasons, Paul recognized that the Corinthian context was different. There was already envy and dissent, and it wouldn’t do to let money muddy the waters too.
Instead, Paul worked to support himself while he was in Corinth. Paul had no clear moral obligation to get a second job. It would have been his right as an apostle to receive what the Corinthians offered him in love. But Paul knew that some in the Corinthian church might leverage that generosity to accuse Paul of greed or selfishness. That conflict could have led to division and confusion within the congregation. So, instead of clinging to his rights as an apostle, Paul chose the humbler and harder route. He doubled his efforts so nothing would compromise their ability to hear the gospel. Paul didn’t just bear their burdens with nice words. For months on end, he worked overtime so he could feed himself and his flock.
We love talking about rights, and for good reason! After all, the idea of human rights is one of the beautiful inheritances our culture has received from Christian tradition. But rights are always inferior to love. They can be legislated, and their shapes and contours can be clearly defined (often, at least), but they can never reach as far as love does. Nor do they yield the same reward. We need rights because we fail to love, not because rights and love are on par with each other.
If you’re not convinced, look at Jesus. He laid down his right to sit in glory at the right hand of the Father (Phil. 2:5-10) so he could bear our burdens. Or, as John puts it in 1 John 4:19, “we love because he first loved us.” If you need an example that feels more attainable, look at the way Paul delighted in the people he served. It’s all over his letters. Humble love brings more joy than self-justification can.
God is not asking you to look for the next place you can flush your rights. And yes, we should care when our neighbors are mistreated or abused. But there are places in all of our lives when God would have us choose humility instead of self-exaltation. There will be credit taken by others, blamed thrown on us, money requested, conflicts initiated, and more. Ask God for the wisdom to know when obedience requires you to be steadfast and immovable; ask him for the discernment to know when love requires sacrificial generosity. In all things, seek to emulate the love of Jesus, who laid aside his crown so that we could be reconciled to God.
Justin+
Ask the Church Video Series!
A few months ago, we asked for your questions about theology, church practice, and worship. The idea (in case you missed it) is that we would start including a short video (around 5 minutes) in the newsletter in which we answered a question that someone in the church proposed. Fast-forward a few months (the better you know me the more you will realize that I take my time on everything, because I like to have all the potential details analyzed and hiccups mitigated for), and we are ready to begin!
These videos will be linked to the newsletter, but as we make each one available via the newsletter, it will also be made visible on the church’s YouTube page. (Just search “Ask the Church” via the search icon on that page.) Feel free to share them with anyone that you think might be interested—we are purposefully only addressing topics that are for “public consumption.” Our hope is that the videos themselves become a form of public catechesis and evangelistic invitation, and we hope that this resource is an assistance not just to people at Incarnation, but also to the broader community.
The door is still open for questions. We can’t answer everything in a 5-minute video, but some of the questions that are too big for this video series may spark future Sunday School classes. Email me any question that pops to mind!
The first video can be found here.
In Christ,
Steven+