Into the deep end with Jesus

“Jesus Christ lived in the midst of enemies”

Being different from those around you can be very uncomfortable.  Imagine finding yourself alone in a dark alley with someone larger and stronger, and about whose motives you cannot be sure. Another kind of discomfort comes with the discovery that you are radically different from someone wonderful whom you’ve always presumed to measured up to.  As a young child, I spent time with a “big brother” who carried me around on his shoulders. I forgot how much taller he was than me until he carried me with him into the deep end of the pool.  All at once my imagined equality disappeared in a great shock of humility!  If it is troubling to discover differences between ourselves and those we care about most, how much more should we lament our differences from the One in whose image we have been created, and in whose image we are called to be conformed (Romans 8:29)?

The shock of humility accompanies every genuine experience of drawing close to Christ. Bonhoeffer points to a dramatic difference between our Lord and ourselves. Namely, that Jesus never basked in uninterrupted fellowship because “he had come to bring peace to the enemies of God” (17).  Consider the biblical evidence for yourself. Though born into a loving family, Jesus was misunderstood by his family (John 7:5; Mark 3:21). The call to be about his heavenly Father’s business led him away beginning at an early age (Luke 2:41-51). After his baptism, Jesus was tested in the solitude of the wilderness (Matthew 4).  And though he soon called his disciples, they too profoundly misunderstood his identity (John 14:9; Mark 9:19; Matthew 16:22-23). Jesus suffered the ordeals of Gethsemane, his trial and crucifixion, all alone (Matthew 26-27). “At the end,” notes Bonhoeffer, “all his disciples deserted him” (17). That Jesus on occasion enjoyed fellowship with his disciples should not be doubted (Matthew 26:30; Mark 3:33-34). But that he steadfastly put his mission before his desire for fellowship is also beyond doubt.

Seldom venturing beyond our own circle of Christian friends, we forsake Christ and his call to be scattered among unbelievers for the sake of the kingdom. Remaining too long in the nursery of Christian fellowship we become spoiled for the world. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus described such believers as salt which has lost its saltiness (Matthew 5:13). In turn, we risk losing our love and appreciation for Christian fellowship, preferring to align ourselves with believers who think and act like we do. The Apostle Paul diagnosed the Corinthians with this malady: “Each one of you says, I follow Paul, I follow Apollos…” (1 Corinthians 1:12 ESV). Bonhoeffer quotes Martin Luther whose criticism was more pointed still: “O you blasphemers and betrayers of Christ!  If Christ had done what you are doing who would ever have been spared?” (18)  Of course, Bonhoeffer is not advising us to abandon Christian fellowship, but he is exposing our tendency to allow our own comfort to eclipse the call to follow Christ wherever he leads.  And Life Together helps us to understand the great value of Christian fellowship in light of that call.

It was Christ, after all, whose death and resurrection laid the foundation for Christian fellowship. Yet, his mission precluded the enjoyment during his earthly life of what he himself made possible. And, as Bonhoeffer further notes, not all believers are free to enjoy the blessings of fellowship (e.g. “the imprisoned, the sick, the scattered lonely,” etc.).   So long as we view Christian fellowship as an entitlement or even as a command—“forsake not the assembling of yourselves together”—we are likely to miss the treasure within our grasp.