Divine Vulnerability

Have you ever tried to paint a ‘big picture’ vision of the Christian Church, or even your local church.  Of course, our local churches can have missional focus points, but what’s the ‘big picture’ that Jesus came to tell us?  Well, I suppose we could start with Christ’s death described in Luke’s gospel, that’s the reading in our church this week: Luke 23: 33-43 (see below).  Or maybe, it might be more palatable if we begin with Christmas Day (in a few weeks) with baby Jesus. In any case, both stories are bookends of the gospel messages, the birth of Jesus as a vulnerable baby, the end of his life nailed to a cross.  Both are about God entering our human condition, and all the vulnerability that it entails.  The vulnerability of human birth, and the vulnerability of death, and the vulnerability of life itself – everything in between.

But, if we begin to describe this central feature of our faith as God (through Christ) BECOMING VULNARABLE, well this doesn’t sound very empowering, does it?  The vulnerable baby Jesus, who walked towards the vulnerability of his crucifixion, vulnerable to his death.

This is certainly not a perspective that people ever expected of the Son of God. From the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry, it was clear that people had expectations for what the unfurling of God in the world was going to look like. 

Jesus when he uttered his first words in the Gospel, “the Kingdom of heaven is near”, people initially got excited. When Jesus arrived on the scene, the nation of Israel (the people of God and faith) was in decline, they were a conquered nation, ruled by Rome.  And when Jesus declared that the “kingdom of heaven is near”, the people of faith were rejoicing, thinking how they might be all powerful again.  Jesus, they thought, was going to retore things to the glory days for Israel and the people of faith.  The Jews wanted what everyone wanted from a VISIBLE kingdom: power, significance, dominance etc..  BUT, the more Jesus spoke, the more it became clear that when Jesus was speaking about a kingdom, it looked (to those looking on) pretty sort of… well… WEAK!!!!

When Jesus announced a kingdom, he was saying things like deny yourself, take up your cross, love your enemies, love unconditionally, and then he even renouncing religious boundaries of the day.  When Jesus was nailed to wooden crossbeams, everyone’s thoughts were confirmed….. Jesus’ ‘kingdom’ looked weak!  He was mocked… ‘king of the Jews’, save yourself!  Scholars tell us that the first-century Jews had no concept of a suffering Messiah. No one could imagine a Messiah dying. No one could perceive of God sending a Son and not being almighty powerful. Jesus was rejected, in large part, because his message of a Kingdom on earth in human form, in word and deed, didn’t stack up to an all-powerful conquering God.  

After the death of Christ, for the centuries that followed, theologians tried to make sense of the divine and human encounter in Jesus.  The interpretation of Philippians 2 was always a ‘hot topic’.

Philippians 2:

6 [Christ] Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

The Apostle Paul was suggesting that Jesus temporarily relinquishing his divine powers – a sort of self-emptying kenosis.  But what the theologians argued about is how to explain how God could or would, in his divine state, lay down his divinity.  They argued – surely, you are either divine – or not!  How could God, even in human form, be anything LESS THAN GOD!

There is, it seems, another view of Jesus’ vulnerability (or interpretation of Phil 2).  What if, instead of seeing Jesus’ vulnerability’ being a sort of ‘weakness’ to try and explain (in terms of the divine) – that the human vulnerabilities of Jesus were seen as a positive expression of his divinity.  In other words, the sacrificial, self-emptying, self-giving, and vulnerable modes of Jesus’ human life are in some sense directly equitable with what it is to be ‘God’ – in the flesh!

What if we looked at Christ’s ‘self-emptying’ (kenosis) as a form of God’s power displayed in vulnerability? Maybe the most ‘powerful’ thing you can do (in terms of God’s power) is BE vulnerable.

If there is ‘power-in-vulnerability’, then this of course challenges a more masculine, aggressive, power over, conquering view of power that everyone expected of God.  It then opens up the possibility that Jesus’ vulnerability is not something to try and reconcile (with the divine), but is the primary narrative… OF GOD! 

What does this look like, in real life?  Well, it could, and should, look like a life Jesus modelled.  He became vulnerable for everyone he came in contact with.  He didn’t bring armies or legions of angels (evidently, he could have!), he brought the vulnerability of love.  Even at his death, the vulnerability that Jesus displayed was both human and divine – he turned not a finger to the very people who were killing him.  

And what might this mean for our Church.  What might it mean to be the Body of Christ, the Church – in vulnerable form?  Not the all-powerful church that the first century Jews were expecting, but rather, church that, in it’s VUNNERABILITY (even in its acknowledged weaknesses) is seen as approachable and real.  Its subtle ways of expressing God through the lens of acceptance rather than fundamental doctrine.  Could such a vulnerable church allow time for people to ‘journey’ and discover, rather than impose and insist.  

This vulnerability maybe expressed in many forms: offering a place of divine ‘space sharing’, making space for ‘God to be God’.  To ‘risk’ and feel vulnerable in being ‘led by the Spirit’. The vulnerability of saying we are open, not just for the ‘righteous’ but for the community in its many expressions and forms. 

In Jesus’ final moments, when he was at the most vulnerable point of his human existence, the criminal next to him on the cross requested one thing: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  Jesus replied: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” Here was a moment that really defined what it was to turn vulnerability into the most powerful thing of all – an expression of God Himself!

Luke 23: 33-43

33When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots to divide his clothing. 35And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!” 36The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, 37and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.” 39One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” 40But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”