UKRAINE – In the shadow of Easter.

In 2022, with a devastating war raging in Ukraine, Easter will be a time to not only call to remembrance the sacrificial redemption of a crucified Christ, but also a time to reflect on what we as Christians define to be the cornerstone of our faith.

The true message of Easter celebrates the crucified Christ, the suffering endured, and death defeated.  It marks the beginning of a new hope, a new beginning, and a new eternity.  No message contains more hope for the millions of displaced people in Ukraine than this.

But, as Pope Francis once remarked, “a Cross without Christ is spiritual masochism, and Christ without the Cross is merely a good teacher – neither of these has hope or can save on their own.”

The pain and hardship endured by the people of Ukraine will remain senseless and meaningless unless we can view it from the shadow of the cross.

A BIBLICAL UNDERSTANDING

The Christian faith, unlike others, was – and is – built on the platform of weakness.  And to reinforce the platform of weakness, God put certain structures in place to secure sustained intimacy with God.  For the early church, these virtues were not only accentuated through suffering and persecution but solidified. It was a new religion of strength in weakness and wisdom in foolishness.  Because the earth wasn’t their home, the early Christians could say without reservation, like Paul, “to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21).

Much of what Jesus taught became the DNA of the early Church.  It was not only a theology of denying yourself and taking up your cross theoretically, it was a daily exercise and a spiritual discipline.  Not only did the early believers teach and preach a living Christ, they also lived lives that reflected His last days on earth.  The apostles never saw themselves as the ‘Persecuted Church”.  They saw themselves as “the Church”.  Persecution was not something that elevated one disciple higher than the other or indicated a deeper level of followship.  It was simply normal Christianity.  As a matter of fact, when James is beheaded in Acts 12, only one verse is dedicated to his martyrdom.  It was the reality of faith in the first century and not a theology to apply or a truth to declare.

As long as those who followed Jesus understood that they were on the bottom and the edge of society, as long as they shared the rejected and betrayed status of Jesus, they could grasp his teaching more readily.  Persecution became the “true North” from where they could calibrate their faith from.

With more than 72% of Ukrainians declaring themselves to adhere to the Christian faith, embracing the cross could be the first step towards a new hope and an eternal future.  Principles of loving our enemy can only be fully understood when we stand in the shadow of the cross and observe our Saviour asking forgiveness for those who are about to kill him.  Teachings like loving our enemy only take root when we are unjustly harmed and victimised.  Unless we feel it, it remains a theology with little power and no influence.  For the Church in Ukraine,  the cross of Easter is more relevant than ever before.   They have nothing to lose and nothing to prove.  Their strength lies in their weakness and their relevance in their intimacy with a crucified Saviour, sharing a cross.  They now serve from the bottom up.

A former colleague at Open Doors, Paul Estabrooks, writes the following:

The Ukrainian invasion by Russia continues to top the news this past month. Eyewitnesses in Ukraine report that God is moving in miraculous ways. Yelena is a Ukrainian missionary now in the western city of Lviv. She says, “In the beginning much of the evangelism was one on one. Now we evangelize on a greater scale in buses. In two weeks over 4,000 people have given their lives to Jesus. Young, old, refugees, soldiers, there is no one beyond God’s reach.”

Far East Broadcasting (FEBC) operates seven radio stations in Ukraine. One has been destroyed by the Russians. All staff have remained for the ministry opportunities opened to them. One staff report says, “We are seeing dozens and dozens of salvations every day. People are responding as never before – teenagers, their moms, soldiers, the elderly.  We broadcast from multiple platforms from our studios and also from bomb shelters, churches, toilets (often the safest  place in the building) and from the streets.”

Yes, in the shadow of the cross, even the darkness of war can reveal the light of Christ

CONCLUSION

Colossians 1:24 shares an amazing insight into why the cross we display is so necessary for the Gospel we proclaim:  Paul writes the following:  And now I am happy about my sufferings for you, for by means of my physical sufferings I am helping to complete what is still lacking of Christ’s sufferings on behalf of his body, the church.

There is only one other place where these two words “to complete what was lacking” come into conjunction in the Bible and that is in Philippians 2:30 where it says  “Because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.” (ISV)

This provides a perfect interpretation of Colossians 1:24 and John Piper describes it as follows:

“The situation is this: Epaphroditus was sent from the Philippian church over to Paul in Rome.   He risks his life to get there, and Paul extols him for risking his life. The gift to Paul from the Philippians was a gift of the church as a body. It was a sacrificial offering of love. What was lacking was the church’s presentation of this offering in person.  This was impossible, and Paul represents Epaphroditus as supplying this lack by his affectionate, zealous ministry.

So the picture is of a church that wants to communicate love in the form of money over to Rome, and they can’t do it. There’s too many of them. And it’s too far away. So they say, “Epaphroditus, represent us and complete what is lacking in our love. There’s nothing lacking in our love except the expression of our love in person there. Take it and communicate it to Paul.”

Now that’s exactly what Colossians 1:24 means. Jesus dies and he suffers for people all over the world in every nation. Then he is buried and, according to the Scriptures, raised on the third day. Then he ascends into heaven where he reigns over the world. And he leaves a work to be done.

Paul’s self-understanding of his mission is this:  That he is called by his suffering to complete the afflictions of Christ on the cross.  That’s a design.  This does not mean he atones for anybody’s sin or that Christ’s atoning death was in any way deficient.  It means this.  That the afflictions of Christ, acted out by Him in FULLY atoning worth are meant to be displayed and portrayed by his suffering Church for the ingathering of the nations.  The one thing lacking in the sufferings of Christ Jesus is that His fully atoning love offering needs to be presented in person through missionaries to the peoples for whom he died. And Paul says, “I do this in my sufferings. In my sufferings I complete what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.”

This means that Christ intends for the Great Commission to be a presentation to the nations of the sufferings of his cross through the sufferings of his people. That’s the way it will be finished. If you sign up for the Great Commission, that’s what you sign up for.

John Piper concludes with the following:

More and more I am persuaded from Scripture and from the history of missions that God’s design for the evangelization of the world and the consummation of his purposes includes the suffering of his ministers and missionaries. To put it more plainly and specifically, God designs that the suffering of his ministers and missionaries is one essential means in the joyful triumphant spread of the gospel among all the peoples of the world.

It’s the means and the design for the persecuted Church within the Kingdom of God, to reflect the cross to those who are longing for forgiveness and salvation

If the church in Ukraine can complete what was lacking on the cross, through an expression of love and forgiveness, we will witness a revival unequal in history.  The war and hardship will only make sense if we view it from the shadow of the cross.

The final word should perhaps belong to a pagan Burmese ruler 200 years ago:

Adoniram Judson and his wife Ann arrived as missionaries in Rangoon, Burma, in 1813, not knowing if they’d be executed immediately by the king, who put to death anyone he pleased on a whim. They spent six years learning the language and seven years before seeing their first convert. All three of their children died, followed by Ann. He married again, and was widowed again. In total, six of his children died. The only time he went back to the US in 38 years was when his second wife was sick and needed repatriating, but she died at sea. He took 20 years to translate the Bible.

Judson spent 17 horrific months in the notorious Ava prison during the Anglo-Burmese war, suffering indescribable treatment. For the rest of his life he bore the scars made by the chains and iron shackles which had bound him during that time. Yet upon his release, he went back to the regional authority to gain permission to resume preaching the Gospel. The scornful ruler denied his request, saying: “My people are not fools enough to listen to anything a missionary might say, but I fear they might be impressed by your scars and turn to your religion!” When he first arrived, nobody had ever heard the name of Jesus in the Burmese kingdom. When he died, there were 7,000 baptised.

Let us join hearts with those that suffer this Easter, not only for relief but for a clear reflection of a crucified Saviour.