Now, in these last sentences, I want to emphasize in the bold scrawls of my personal handwriting the immense importance of what I have written to you. These people who are attempting to force the ways of circumcision on you have only one motive: They want an easy way to look good before others, lacking the courage to live by a faith that shares Christ’s suffering and death. All their talk about the law is gas. They themselves don’t keep the law! And they are highly selective in the laws they do observe. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast of their successes in recruiting you to their side. That is contemptible!
For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate. Can’t you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do—-submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life! All who walk by this standard are the true Israel of God—-his chosen people. Peace and mercy on them!
Quite frankly, I don’t want to be bothered anymore by these disputes. I have far more important things to do—-the serious living of this faith. I bear in my body scars from my service to Jesus.
May what our Master Jesus Christ gives freely be deeply and personally yours, my friends. Oh, yes!
Galatians 6:11-18
Freedom by Walking Through the Crap
Do you guys ever people-watch? Do you ever see those people who live free? Free people are subject to the same laws of gravity, obey the same traffic laws, work, eat, pay taxes, and fail to achieve important goals. However, in this network of limits that cause restrictions, they do surprising, unpredictable, astonishing things. They act freely, and they speak freely. These free acts are at the center of their being. Those free acts are their character.
At the center of freedom, life to its fullest, is the cross, an instrument of death. Not only death, cruel, violent, bloody, hate-poisoned death. Paul glories in this death.
Crucifixion lies in the world of determinism, necessity, and fate. Crucifixion is the culmination of malice, weakness, and ambition. Add everything we have in the gospels: the ungrateful nine lepers, the full stomachs of five thousand, unbelief, bickering disciples, and winsome children. Toss in Mary and Martha, Judas, Peter, palm Sunday sightseers, and good Friday spectators. Top it off with the mockery of the soldiers, tears, heartbreak, bravery of Nicodemus, the boredom of Herod, and the list goes on. All of this intersects at the cross.
Yet, it’s so much more. It is Jesus Christ submitting himself. “God with us” enters a world where nothing works out the way we want, plan, or expect. His submission is not in dumb cowardice but a freely chosen strategy. Paul hangs his glory on this deliberate choice of surrender, not the miracles, popular opinion, or fanfare.
Paul boasts that God, in Jesus, entered the stuff of our everyday existence. He came to earth where light and shadow mingle. Here, our good intentions and evil impulses battle and hope struggles with despair. Earth is where we try our best and give up because it ends in ugliness and injustice. Life is not fair. Things do not work out for the best. Paul doesn’t boast about God or perfect heaven untouched by anything this world has to offer. He boasts in the cross.
Paul continues. “The world has been crucified to me and I to the world.” He revels in the cross because it reveals that God has entered into this existence where no one is free. We are all imprisoned by the law of sin and death. The cross reveals the meaning of Paul’s life (our life).
Sisters, Paul is shouting this free life. In his letter, he makes it pretty plain: “I want to emphasize in the bold scrawls of my personal handwriting the immense importance of what I have written to you.” He didn’t get to freedom by adding up all his accomplishments or all the courageous moral choices he made. He didn’t get there by reading a million books. He didn’t get it by running to the desert away from society to sit alone with God. He also didn’t get there by focusing on all the good times. Paul learned freedom while trapped in challenging situations. He found freedom when he was shipwrecked, in prison, and mocked. Paul walked through the crap. He didn’t sit and sulk; he didn’t give up and go back. He screwed his courage to the sticking place, set his face uphill, and handed God a blank page.
Let this world do its worst, and when it has done its worst, we are free to find out and experience what God does. Or, let the world hand out its best, and when we find that even the best won’t satisfy, we are free to experience what God does.