Lay your weapons down

What does it look like to fight in a battle that’s already won? This thought has been bustling around in my mind recently, and I'd like to try to unpack it in a specific way, if you don't mind. Feel free to join me. 

In this battle, we do have a real Enemy, but I think we as Christians have the tendency to confuse the Enemy with those that we are trying to love and see reconciled to God. We have the tendency to direct our fighting against people or groups or ideologies, creating this culture of separation between us and other people who are made in the image of God. Maybe instead of fighting, instead of creating the dichotomy of “us vs. them”, maybe we can come to nonbelievers with a white flag of humility, understanding that we are all fighting on the same field. Maybe we can beat our swords into plowshares, our spears into pruning hooks and turn the battle field into a garden, working to create something beautiful on this journey we are on together. Maybe instead of creating more and more separation with nonbelievers, we can work to identify with them, coming alongside them where they are in love and grace—the same love and grace that we have been shown where we do not deserve it.

As the Church, we need to emulate our Lord, with His outstretched hands on the cross, inviting in the enemy (you and me!—see Romans 5:8) to share in His Kingdom, His love, and yes, even His sufferings. We also need to obey His command for us to “Go out.” We go with confidence, knowing that our Lord has already won the victory. We go with humility, knowing that we were nothing before He saved us, knowing but not knowing this Mystery that dwells within us, working through our weakness. And so a new paradox of our ministry is created. We are ever going out while ever inviting in. We are to be ever inviting people into the heart of the Church while ever working to expand the heart of the Church to the fringes, the outer margins of society and faith.

It’s this concept of working to identify with people in order to bring them to reconciliation with God that fascinates me. Because that’s exactly what Jesus did. Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.” Even to ones who don’t believe in Him, Jesus identified with them when He cried out on the cross, “My God, why have you forsaken me?” G.K. Chesterton once wrote: “Let the atheists themselves choose a god. They will find only one divinity who ever uttered their isolation; only one religion in which God seemed for an instant to be an atheist.” In this in another lesson for us: in our moments of doubt and uncertainty, we need to cherish those painful times and use them to identify with nonbelievers.

Identification towards salvation—this is what Jesus is all about. This is what Christianity should be all about. We can’t be their savior, but in humility we point them to the only One who can save them. You can’t love someone like this while attacking them and considering them an “enemy.” We are called to be separated from this world, but we need to be careful not to become separated from people, which is exactly opposite of our mission here. 

How does this actually happen in real life? I have no idea, but I pray that we trust the Holy Spirit to work Jesus’ incarnational ministry through us for His glory. So lay your weapons down. Begin to see your “enemies” as brothers and sisters, and beautiful things can happen.