Tom writes:

The ruthlessly counter-cultural nature of the cross turns our vision of maturity upside down. The contents of the mind of Christ have been made known to us... but they are not neat things to tweet. Instead they are weak things to live. How can that make sense? We often think a more mature “us” would be faster, stronger and smarter. We work and pray towards that vision of ourselves. But that vision is wrong. A more mature version of us is one that is more like Jesus. To be really spiritually mature is to embody the wisdom that took Jesus to the cross. If Jesus was in our shoes would he vie for attention? Would he jostle others out of the way, or prance past those who won’t be useful to him in his pursuit of his vision? The wisdom of God is to stand before a bustling, jostling world and to show God’s love in our weakness, God’s power in our trembling. That was what Jesus did, so why on earth would we think a mature church should do anything different?

Our demonstration of weakness is not because we are intimidated by “strength”. Too often I’ve met Christians (and been a Christian) who have lived out of insecurity and cowardice and called it weakness. No. Weakness isn’t a lack of courage. Trembling isn’t fear. The trembling is the trembling of one doing something different from everyone else, which many others despise, and yet bubbling up with the belief that the power of Jesus’s resurrection is just around the corner; is waiting and ready to rush into a cross-shaped life. “I know nothing except Jesus the King who was crucified for me.” Paul’s vision of maturity was to become weaker and less impressive in himself, to make everything about Jesus; to make space for the King who was killed to release the power of his resurrection. I wonder what it would look like for us to pursue that vision in our workplaces? For us to be people who don’t pretend, who don’t put on a front, who don’t jostle for position but who freely admit where we have failed, what we don’t know, what we can’t do. And, then with trembling lips and hands to wait for an outpouring of the same power that took Jesus from that cross into the fullness of resurrection life.

Question for reflection

What would it look like for you to embrace weakness today?

1 Corinthians 2 - Friday 17th May