Is It Safe?

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, "Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you." But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man." Mt 16:21-23

What would cause Peter to rebuke the person he just declared was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God as if that person needed correcting? Because the Messiah suffering at the hands of enemies is not how it is supposed to work. Jesus the Messiah will triumph over His enemies because He has the power of God. That is what Peter and the other disciples are expecting and that is what they have signed up for. They never accepted what Jesus told them multiple times would happen to Him. Would they have followed Him if they had? I think Peter's denial of Jesus provides an answer. The disappointment of their dashed expectations was devastating.

The lament over the gap between church and the everyday work lives of congregants is often blamed on church leadership for failing to better address work in sermons and teachings, and that is a factor. However, I think congregants also contribute to this compartmentalization. If God is not going to work in ways that we expect and make sense to a mind set on the things of man, which would be about triumph and success…..if instead, serving God can lead to loss and apparent failure… then maybe we do not really want to follow God in an area of our lives that has so much impact on us. It is one thing to deal with the disappointment of expecting God to act in a certain way in a compartmentalized church life, but it is another to deal with the fallout if it is a part of your work life. The stakes are higher.

And the higher the stakes, the more we want to have control over what is happening and what to expect. In our work lives maybe more than in any other area of our lives, we want/need to be successful. If I can trust God to make me successful at my work, then I am eager to follow Him. But if following Him is a bewildering experience to my mind of God at work and then seemingly absent, then I am not keen to have that dynamic in my work life.

I am reminded of the line from The Lion Witch and the Wardrobe when the children hear that Aslan is a lion and wonder if he is safe. Mr Beaver answers, "Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

Is it safe to further integrate my faith with my work life? Will my chances of success at work be put at risk? Some would tell you that the integration will enhance your success at work because you will be working with God. That is what Peter would have told you before he experiences the crucifixion. Was it safe for Peter and the others to become Jesus' disciples? It is safer to compartmentalize your work life and your spiritual life… to confine the dynamic that Paul writes about in 2 Cor 4:8-10 to the areas of your life that are not as central to your day to day welfare. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

Jesus accomplished the work of God as Messiah, but not at all in the way that Peter thought it was supposed to happen. Integrating our faith into our work lives is about God accomplishing His work in our lives, but that too will not fit with our minds set on the things of man. We can expect that successful spiritual fruit is not going to match successful worldly fruit. It does on occasion, but often there is a conflict that is expressed in what Jesus goes on to say in Matthew 16 after rebuking Peter. Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?"