THE VULNERABLE CHRIST

We have the need to accept and constantly renew within ourselves that the basic secret of our mission is to keep the vulnerable Christ vulnerable and that His sacred word and message is only endangered when power, property, or strategy of any sort contribute to the reception of the invitation. The only power of promotion for Jesus is the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus steps into the world, it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that He comes. The new good news He brings is forwarded and performed by only this power and none of ours. He said at the very end, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be witnesses for me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and even to the ends of the earth” (Acts of the Apostles 1:8). The Holy Spirit “will teach you all truth, for He too will not speak of Himself, but will take the words and wealth of Christ and give it to the faithful, just as Christ has taken all he has from the Father.” From Father to Son, from Son to the Holy Spirit, from the Holy Spirit to the apostles and eventually to all the nations and right down to our little places of meditation this fine day.

It still leaves us vulnerable in many ways because somehow we are convinced there are other ways besides Holy Spirit empowerment. To the degree we lean on methods, books, meetings, revivals, church buildings, choirs, professional clergy, or religious trappings to ‘promote the gospel,’ without feeling personal responsibility is to the degree we take another coat, a second pair of sandals, a sack full of money and extra bread (Matthew 5). The message of the good news must come from people who in weakness have received that message and then can give it in weakness. It is never left to the religious machine to stamp and pump out the good news. It is incapable of such.

“But when you are arrested and stand trial, don’t worry in advance about what to say. Just say what God tells you at that time, for it is not you who will be speaking, but the Holy Spirit.” Jesus