Series: "… until Christ be formed in us ".
Jesus and Faith.
10. Does God needs us?
Mark 14:27-42
Introduction
Thinking about the content of our faith in Christ is a wonderfully exciting, and at the same time, it is a deeply disturbing matter. Every new thought or every new experience that opens a window into the mystery that we call "God" is appreciated. But at the same time: if a thought or an experience is new, then it somewhere clashes with what is old.
Ever since I spoke to you about Dietrich Bonhoeffer some weeks ago – and I also gave a couple of lectures on his thoughts about God – I have been pursued by the thought whether and in what way God needs us.
Does God need us?
You see, our natural reaction is: if God is God, then God is self sufficient, and he certainly does not need us. That kind of thinking is also theologically correct. Most theologians would shudder at the thought that God might need us.
But Bonhoeffer's words kept nagging at me. This is what he said:
The God who is with us, is the God who forsakes us [Mark 15:34]. ... In the presence of God we live without God. God allows himself to be pushed out of the world on to the cross. God is powerless and weak in the world and only as such and in such a way is he with us and helps us. According to Matthew 8:17 it is clear that Christ does not help us because of his omnipotence, but by virtue of his weakness, his suffering!1 Here is the decisive difference to other religions.... only the suffering God can help us (16.7.1944).
Jesus in Gethsemane
And in this context Bonhoeffer makes reference to Jesus in Gethsemane. Thinking about the nature of faith in Christ he says that we must "throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously, not our own suffering, but those of God in the world – watching with Christ in Gethsemane. That, I think, is faith …." (21.7.1944).
He reiterates that thought in a poem. It was written at the same time in prison. It summarises his thoughts. In this poem he distinguishes between religion and faith in Christ. We sang it as a hymn earlier in the service.
"Christians and pagans" (July 1944)
(I am not trying to create a poetic rhythm in English, but rather focus on the meaning of the text)
People go to God in their time of need,
pray for help, ask for fortune and bread,
for being delivered from sickness, guilt and death.
All of them do so, Christians and pagans.
People go to God in God's time of need,
they find him poor, scorned, without shelter and bread,
they see him involved with sin, weakness and death,
Christians stand with their God in God's suffering.
God goes to all people in their time of need,
satisfies body and soul with his bread,
God dies for Christians and pagans alike on the cross,
and forgives them both.
Having these thoughts in mind let us interrelate with the story of Jesus in Gethsemane.
The story
The passion is at the horizont.
Jesus had become important to the disciples. They had left their jobs and homes and followed him. They had burned their bridges behind them. There was no sitting on the fence. There was no playing it safe. There was no “playing religion”. There was no attempt to utilise the word “God” for their own ways. They wanted to say “God” with credibility and commitment. They knew that “God” must not only be a word in our language, but, if it is God we are talking about, it must be a reality in our lives.
But then we have in the Gospel of Mark the accounts, that these same friends of Jesus failed. We witness an avalanche of failure.
"They went to a place called Gethsemane."
Distress. There is Jesus. He is not tired. He is distressed. The words used are powerful and disturbing. Distress, anguish, horror, suffering. The translations are too tame: “I am deeply grieved, even to death.” The evangelist Luke elaborates: "Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground." (Luke 22:43f) He wants us to understand that somehow God is part of the picture!
Jesus needed human help.
The disciples. Knowing that most people fade into the fog of good intentions when life becomes tough, he takes with him the inner circles of his friends: Peter and James and John.
They are not just any disciples. They stand for the best of us. They have counted the cost and are willing to pay. For them “following Jesus” is not a part of their life, separated from their private sphere it is their life.
It therefore hits us hard. They are sleeping when Jesus needs them. Three times Jesus asks them to share his distress. The echo comes back: “sleeping”. "Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep awake one hour?" Three times!
God. Finally it is only God who is left. "… going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed: Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want."
Gathering the last bit of strength, Jesus gets up: "Enough! The hour has come; the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand."
I would like to gather a couple of points from this story, keeping in mind Bonhoeffer's suggestion that God may need us.
Intimacy with God
Jesus says to God: “Abba, Father ...” That was unheard of in the ancient world. Familiarity, intimacy between this man and God. Here at one point in history the terrible gulf between us and God is bridged. This “hour” will grace all of our “hours”. On the basis of this hour we can say with the apostle that “nothing” no “hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword;” nothing in all creation,” will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8).
This defines us as people who are invited to pray. It is not weakness. It is the realisation of who we are, when in the hours of need we turn to God in prayer. Jesus praying in Gethsemane is the decisive model of prayer for all of us.
Partnership
At the same time, Jesus' intimate encounter with God does not exclude, but it includes his need of friendship and solidarity with his disciples. But they are tired. In his hour of need they are asleep. "Can you not watch with me one hour?"
Our sleepiness, our disobedience cannot cancel out God’s love for us. God makes up for our lack. He carries our burden.
But this realisation of grace does not cancel out that we are covenant partners with God. The apostle Paul is right: "we are God's fellow workers (sunergoi/)." The NRSV translates falsely: "servants". "Partners" is what is meant.
Let me illustrate this with the churches' practice of baptism. All churches baptise. Faith and baptism belong together. Now those who baptise infants say that that is a beautiful illustration of sola gratia. Only God is involved. The infant does not understand what is happening. There is a certain beauty in that argument. But with due humility we question its legitimacy.
Grace does not by pass or ignore human response and understanding, but invites it. When we practise believer's baptism we do not deny sola gratia, but we recognise that God wants us to be partners.
And partnership means sharing in each other's lives. It may not quite correct to say that God needs us. But it certainly is correct to say that God wants us. And if it is God who wants us, what greater invitation can there be to surrender our lives in faith to God?