Via Dolorosa

Inheriting All of Christ

The Bible is clear and unambiguous on the issue of Christian suffering.  From the very beginning our Lord declared that He would place enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent (Genesis 3:15).  The serpent is after all the Serpent.  The Satan, although a creature, is implacably hateful of all men, for men bear the image of God.  Thus, those who remain under his hegemony are ruled by one who despises them, even as he deploys them as "useful idiots" in his unwinnable war against the Living God. 

But God's magic is deeper.  It was the Satan's implacable hatred of Christ that resulted in His tyrannical execution;  the deeper magic was that He was thereby made a sin offering for the transgressions of all His people (past, present, and future) so that all whom the Father had given Him might be cleansed and all guilt removed from them.  In striking the heel of the Christ, the Liar from the beginning was himself fatally struck upon the head.

In this world, Christ suffered and was persecuted.  Upon His resurrection and Ascension, the fury turned upon His followers, the people left as His servants in the world.  The Church has, therefore, forever been a suffering church.  Jesus was forthrightly candid about the reality of Satanic hatred being unleashed upon His own.

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.  Remember the word that I said to you: "A servant is not greater than his master".  If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.  If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.  But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. [John 15: 18-21]

The Apostle to the Gentiles, Paul underscores that this via dolorosa  is the norm of the Christian's existence in the world. 

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may be glorified with him.  [Romans 8: 16,17]

It doesn't follow, of course, that all Christians suffer equally at all times.  The Church is a body.  When the toe or the hand is in pain the whole body suffers.  So with the Church.  When one part of the Church suffers we all feel it keenly.  We suffer with them in heart, spirit and mind.  We are cast down.  We find no pleasure in this world.  We feel our own alienation because they are suffering.  Our ultimate social and human loyalty is to them, ahead of our non-Christian friends and neighbours.  We dress in sackcloth--either literally or metaphorically--when Christians suffer and are killed in Nigeria, to give but one example.

We are fellow heirs with Christ.  We inherit His glory, but also His sufferings in this life.  Whilst we are in the world, we follow in His steps.  A slave indeed is not above his master.