The Final Conversations of Christ- Part 9

As part of the body of Christ, we’ve had a growing tendency to be self-harming. We suffer from anxiety over our image to the rest of the world, and attempt to apologize to the world for our various shortcomings by inflicting wounds on ourselves. We seek to gain the approval of our faith from the world by tearing apart those around us who need grace most.

It is time we have a conversation regarding the way we talk about the massive, and massively public shortcomings of others who profess our faith. There’s the televangelists caught buying lavish homes and cars with money solicited from average people “for their ministry,” the people who scream slurs and wave hateful signs around at funerals, and the pastors who gain their spotlight by protesting coffee cups and saying women shouldn’t speak in church. We’ve seen every article to ever circulate Facebook about them—and we LOVE to tear them down. We love to swoop in and be the bigger, more lovable Christian that says these people are not real Christians, call them names, strip them of all legitimacy and association with the body of Christ, and cheer on their bashing by our Christian and non-Christian friends alike—but we have to stop it, now.

 Don’t get me wrong, I understand where this quick-to-kill attitude comes from. Nothing hurts like watching the word of God, full of love and grace and compassion that you work so hard to portray as such be mutilated and muffled over the deafening noise of controversy caused by none other than our own fellow believers.

However, our own reactions are often as radical and unbiblical as the things that cause them. While it is certainly right to take stance against the principles at the center of many of these issues, we must not take a stance against our own body-the body of Christ.

When an individual is having a difficult time, whether it be behavioral, emotional, etc., we never prescribe self-harm as the solution. We give love and patience abundantly, and we seek counsel. Church, it is time we started seeking Counsel. Specifically, it is time we stop seeking the approving nod of the world, and start seeking The Counselor.

This past Sunday, Pastor Aaron spoke about the things Jesus himself prayed for in the hours leading up to his crucifixion. Among other things, in John 17, Jesus prays specifically for his disciples in a way that shakes my core about the way I have approached this situation. In verse 11, Jesus prays; “I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be as we are one.”

It is in Jesus’ final prayers that he asks for the complete unison of the body of Christ; that we be so in step with one another as he himself is with the Father. Therefore, when there is a problem with one, we must guard our hearts and our lives not only against the harmful actions themselves, but also against the knee-jerk reaction to reject those who we are called to stand united with. Instead, we are called to lift them up in prayer and to ask for the conviction of the Holy Spirit to come. Not out of condemnation and judgement, but out of our legitimate hope for renewal.

As we, the Church, continue to try and navigate our faith journeys in a time unlike any other before it, I challenge all of us—myself included—to not be tempted to sever a body from itself. Instead, let us lean into the righteousness, Christ, and His vision for the church when those around us begin to fail.

Written by: Brianna Vanderveen

Edited by: Tamara Sturdivant