Unrestrained
Personal Matters
Someone at Friday prayers was asking the Lord why in his young adults’ fellowship there was an unrestrained response to Christ one week and next time they met the usual measured spirituality. Certainly the cry of dereliction, ““My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?””, shows Jesus was not limited by the respectabilities of his culture (Mark 15:34). His cry sums up and perfects the groaning of the whole fallen creation without regard for the usual limits of dignity (Rom 8:22). What was happening inside of people when in 1741 the staid New Englanders listening to Jonathan Edwards’ preaching “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” repeatedly moaned and cried out, “What shall I do to be saved?”. Edwards was much opposed in his time. The move of the Spirit a generation later at Cambridge under the preaching of Charles Simeon incited such unpopularity that his church wardens repeatedly padlocked the church doors and pews. 110 years ago last Saturday there was an unrestrained outbreak of God’s kingdom at Azusa Street in Los Angeles; some opposed this as “the last great vomit of Satan”. All these instances, and many others, are manifestations of the unshaming power of the gospel (Rom 1:16). To enter this for ourselves will require a major rethink about who Jesus is.
Honour at Home
In his consciousness of Sonship Jesus occupied an unchanging sacred space filled with the presence of the Father. The Father gave Christ the Spirit “without measure” so he was unreservedly present to all who were open to the kingdom of God (John 3:34). The sick, lepers, demonised, prostitutes, poor and all treated as “cursed” by religious orthodoxy crowded around Jesus to enter into his sacred and shameless space (Mark 5:21ff; John 7:49; 9:1-2). These people were outcasts from the shared consciousness of respectable civil society and were magnetically drawn to the unconditional dignity Christ’s presence conveyed. Others “who knew better” responded in an opposite way.
“He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honour, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marvelled because of their unbelief.”(Mark 6:1-5). The people at Nazareth knew all about Jesus’ and his family life so they were sure he was just an ordinary as them. In harsh reaction to his ministry they refused to believe that he could possibly be the great Messiah. (As Tall Poppy Syndrome people Aussies are like the Nazarenes.) Jesus could do few miracles in Nazareth, for where a community does not honour Jesus God does not honour them with deeds of power. When the Church today thinks it knows who Jesus is we dishonour his full identity and so witness few mighty works. The only remedy for our over familiarisation with Christ is found in the scandal of the cross (1 Cor 1:23).
Crucifixion was designed by its public and protracted nature to be an instrument of shame; it intentionally cast the dying into a space outside of all social dignity. Jesus however “despised the shame”, because to be blameless is to be shameless (Heb 4:15; 12:2). What then are we to make of the unrestrained cry of dereliction, “My God…Why…?” (Mark 15:34)? This cry is both totally beyond the bounds of normal human dignity and a truly fitting response to an experience of being outside the living presence of God (Mark 15:34). This is the unrestrained cry humanity should always have raised to the heavens when separated from God through sin (Isa 59:1-2). Jesus raised such an unlimited cry on our behalf; this cry has been heard and he has been delivered for us from the presence of all that shames (Heb 5:7-8). This cross centred insight provides us with revelation about how the Church today can be unreserved before God.
Rejected
By faith the persecuted Church has always stepped outside of the circle of shared social consciousness (politeness, niceness, good mannered, civil, middle class etc.) and shared the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16). New Testament believers could not be controlled by socially imposed indignities; “and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonour for the name.” (Acts 5:40-41). Under Roman persecution the attempted degradations of being torn limb from limb, exposed to the Iron Chair, eaten alive by beasts etc. failed to shame into silence the witness of Christians (http://www.athenapub.com/lyamphin.htm). Onlookers knew that power over such indignities was something they did not possess because they themselves were fettered by their culture’s boundaries of honour and shame. It’s a long time since the Western Church has been pushed outside of the mainstream shared consciousness of well mannered society (Phil 1:29; Heb 13:13-14). The times however are changing. The offense of the gospel in relation to issues of sexuality and the dignity of human life is intensifying and Christians are being marginalised from the shared consciousness of a politically correct culture. In the wisdom of God the people of God are being pushed into a holy space where they will no longer be restrained by social expectations. In this sacred space the Spirit will grant a new liberty to faithful believers to express their hearts towards God without limit (2 Cor 3:17).
Conclusion
For centuries the Church has been one of the pillars of socialisation in Western culture. Our well mannered services have effectively produced compliant well behaved citizens in the service of the state. From time to time there have been rediscoveries of the boundless character of God’s love and forgiveness, provoking mass conversions, infections faith and boundless joy. Hordes of marginalised and shamed folk eagerly move into this safe and sacred space. After a while such revivals settle down under the same old conformity, control and restraint. Members of Christ’s Body become shamed into behaving by the many unconscious and spoken rules about how a Christian should behave, especially in church. Today the average church meeting is tame and domesticated; folk love to talk about Pentecost but where is it happening in our midst? A true outpouring of the Spirit will not happen until we recognise that for far too long Western Christians have been like the locals in Nazareth, we think we have Jesus summed up, we think we know who he really is and so we see few acts of power. Meanwhile the gospel continues to break forth with great power in those places in the world where people are coming to know about Jesus for the first time. There is one way out of our painful restraint, we must go against the tide of what all manner of churches love to profess; we must with great humility confess we really don’t know who Jesus is. Such fellowship with his own unrestrained cry of ignorance must bring resurrection power (Mark 15:34; Phil 3:10). This is the gospel that alone breaks all social shame and releases unrestrained devotion (Rom 1:16).