Jubilee!

Image by Sacred Destinations via Flickr

A man noted the other day to a friend, that if we (Christians) experience hardship, it must be by the will of God. Our friend was very disturbed and retorted that it is never God's will that evil be upon us; evil results from the Fall, not God.

I know what she means, and she is 100% right, but I think the fella may have a point. I'm not saying that God does will evil on us, but what I mean is that I can't believe that it's God's will to just magically will Christians happiness and peace and prosperity in spite of others. He wills the good of all people. Yes, indeed, hardship and evil come from the Fall, but God Himself bore the brunt of that evil for us, saving us from death, once again - and Jesus' contemporaries thought in exactly these terms - God rescued His people from Exile and reconciled His people to Him. And here is the point: it is not just for our sake's, nor His, but the whole world's (1).

Jesus proclaimed the year of Jubilee, freedom for all peoples: ending slavery, suffering, canceling debts and redeeming the lost. And this is done by the healing of the blind, curing the sick, and in more earthly, less miraculous terms, the wealthy giving up their wealth, the rich sharing their hoard, and the blessed blessing those less fortunate. Jesus became Israel to the world and did only what God alone could do. You see, Israel was the city on the hill, the light in the darkness and was to be the way of salvation for all, showing the surrounding nations a better way of life - by enduring the suffering of the Fall, trusting in our God, loving amidst the pain and coming out the Red Sea of death and alive on the other side. As the Living Temple of God, and, consequently, the Body of Christ, is this not what we are called to do?

So why are Christians surprised when we find ourselves suffering? We are to rejoice in pain so that the world may see a new way of living. God does not call us to be His people in order simply to bless us. We are blessed so that we may bless others. The only reason God blesses us is so that He may use us. Are we to cry out in our affliction? By all means! What other way to bear our cross but by the strength of God, for we have none of our own. But is it His will we are afflicted? No, but it is His will that we endure as He did. It is His will that we march into the fray right by His side -

As the Father sent Me, so I send you; receive the Holy Spirit; forgive and retain sins.(2)

- as He is present with us in the midst of it, bearing the harshest evil for us, and we for our neighbor and thus the world, God claims every evil as His own victory and thus turns the tide battle by battle – indeed, He has already won the war. These are merely after skirmishes.

It is His will that we be for the world what He was (and is) for us. A suffering servant, bearing our crosses, not because He wills us evil, but because He wills all the greatest good. Lights upon a hill are we. Let us be Christians or die trying.

(1) I'm not talking of universal spiritual salvation, that isn't what John meant when he said that 'Christ died for all' (well, in some sense it was, but that's another post. I speak of more immediate, present Kingdom matters.)
(2) John 20:21-23