Whose Victory?

Whose Victory?--April 3, 2017

"The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." [1 Corinthians 15:56-57]

Followers of Jesus don't win--thank God.

Please, let me be clear. I am not saying, in that whiny, entitled tone that "religious" folks sometimes take when they complain about not getting special treatment in the world, that Christians are like Charlie Brown.  I don't mean to say that for all of our striving and straining and trying to make it, the Lucys of the world always yank the football out from under us right before we would kick the winning field goal.  I don't mean, the way you and I sometimes say with a sigh and a shrug of frustration, "I just can't win!"  It's not that we should all be trying to "win" in life and some mean hostile forces out there are keeping us down.  I am not saying Christians can't win--I'm saying that if we actually listen to the way the New Testament talks about it, Christians aren't the ones who accomplish their own victory.  It is always Christ Jesus.  It always has been.  "Winning victories" isn't our task or our calling--being faithful to follow Jesus is.

So when I say "Followers of Jesus don't win," I mean it the same way it is true to say "Tires don't move your car forward: the engine provides the power, which is transferred to the axles and the wheels, which then in turn is converted to forward motion through the tires.  But the tires receive the power and the energy because it is given to them.  It just ain't a tire's job to power a car.  A tire is there with its three fellow tires to receive the power that originates in the engine and is converted to rotational energy from the drive shaft. So, yes, the tire is the point of contact between the car and the asphalt (it is literally where the rubber meets the road), but any and all credit for the forward motion of the car of course belongs to the engine.  And thus, so for Christians, as today's verses from First Corinthians remind us, "our" victory--over death, sin, and the law--is "ours" only insofar as it is a gift from Christ Jesus, who has really won it in death and resurrection. 

Now, for Paul the apostle writing all this, that is a source of great comfort and relief.  It means the burden is not on us to do "more winning," but rather that our calling is to let Christ's victory be expressed through us.  But I don't have to keep myself up at night worrying or whining that I don't "win" enough anymore--I was never supposed to be in the first place! For authentic followers of Jesus, the right question to ask was never, "How can we win more?" but always has been, "How can we follow Jesus more fully and faithfully today?"  Jesus supplies the victory.  Jesus supplies the power that turns the wheels.  Jesus is the one who does the winning--there is no other "winning" that matters a hill of beans left to do.  There is only living faithfully out of the victory  Jesus has already won.  There is only living like his victory through self-giving love on a cross is true.

All of this, of course, will sound like bad news if we are confused about some (imaginary) ginned-up need to make ourselves look like or feel like winners.  And, of course, we do hear that sentiment floating around the ether all the time.  We hear the message, trying to make itself sound tough rather than pathetic, that we are supposed to "win more."  We hear the wistful, backward-looking mopey complaining that we "don't win like we used to anymore," or that church folks aren't the powerful majority they once were.  And aside from the fact that those voices tend to have a hazy notion of when exactly were the "good old days" of winning, that sentiment sounds downright sad, like we are all Al-Bundy types lamenting that we were once the star of the high school football team.  We forget, perhaps, that all the hype over "winning more" and "winning bigger" in life, in society, in whatever, completely misunderstands the beating heart of the Christian faith.  It is always about the victory Jesus has already won.  It is never that we are supposed to win more battles for Jesus' cause--rather, we are called to live like Jesus' self-giving love has already been victorious over the power of death, sin, and evil.

Once we get clear about that, something really important happens.  We get clarity about what we are supposed to do in in our lives, in our communities, and in our world.  We are decidedly not called to look for ways to put ourselves in more comfortable, more prestigious perches in the world.  We are not called to posture or get more influence for the sake of being more important or getting to call ourselves "winners."  We are not called to define ourselves by how we compare to the group down the street or across the ocean.  We are not called to judge who is "winning" at being church by who has the bigger membership or larger budget, and we are not called to judge who is "winning" at life by who has the bigger house or larger salary. We are not called to see the world in terms of my-group over against their-group, because the real victory is Jesus' victory, and he didn't win it against another group of people, but against death and evil itself.

And if all of that is what we don't have to waste time on any longer, then we are freed up simply to be faithful: to love the way Jesus loved regardless of whether anybody else thinks it looks practical or advantageous, to live with conviction and character even if it won't get us ahead, to be willing to spend all of our reputation and resources for the sake of letting the world know about the reckless love of God in Christ.  We will worry less about consequences and more about simply following after Jesus, because we trust that victory is his to give and to share, not ours to try to win.

And when that change happens, we will no longer find ourselves whining or wishing or complaining about how "we don't win anymore"... because it will be clear to us then: we never did the winning in the first place.  The victory is from Jesus--it is ours because he gives it to us, like an engine.

Today, be free simply to strive to be faithful, and leave the winning to Jesus. Thanks be to God.

Lord Jesus, yours is the victory--let us quit thinking we have to accomplish something you couldn't, and instead let the victory you have already won take hold in our lives.