O is for Obedience

MCH: Some obedience! That word too, like the word "discipline," sounds harsh nowadays. But then along comes Christ with a whole new kind of obedience. Whatever illegitimacy we may have, the promise we get to enjoy comes in the form of a suffering servant, Jesus the Christ, "the pioneer and perfecter of our faith." By suffering, not as a sinner himself but on behalf of sinners as the obedient Son of God, he has become the source of our salvation.

For a time Jesus looked to be the most illegitimate one of all. After all, the cross is the vehicle not simply for execution but for the execution of a criminal, as one accursed by God. Yet, as Hebrews makes clear, the cross reveals that Jesus is not simply another rejected sinner but also the obedient (and hence, legitimate) Son of God, holy and righteous in himself. "He learned (or proved) his obedience through what he suffered." (5:8) The only explanation why a person could be so obedient to God's will is that that God must also be a trustworthy Father, known by the child to want nothing but good for the child -- cross and all. That's a very different Disciplinarian.

But the cross does more than simply reveal Jesus' Sonship. It also establishes him the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. That is something he wasn't before the cross. Jesus endured the cross "for the sake of the joy that was set before him." (12:2) Simply stated, his joy is us, reclaimed in God's mercy. As pioneer, Jesus opened the curtain that has kept us separate from the promise of God's mercy. Through the cross, Jesus has opened a way whereby illegitimate children can become heirs and partners in the heavenly mystery. To be under God's discipline is to be God's child.

SCK: When Hebrews describes Jesus as the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, our faith is of primary interest to him. It's not just that he pioneered and perfected the way of the cross, but that we also follow him. And that following is faith.

MCH: So, nurturing that faith is key, for "without faith it is impossible to please God." (11:6) The way The Letter to the Hebrews nurtures our faith is by parading the "cloud of witnesses" before us, whose faith in Christ led them to accomplish great things, but great only in hindsight. That, in a real sense, is what faith is: hindsight as foresight, "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" -- yet. (11:1) By faith we see the end of the race through our Lord Jesus Christ who sits at God's right hand. By faith we also see our struggles as discipline by a loving parent -- to hone our skills, to make us sharper than we were before, but not to exclude us. A God who didn't care wouldn't have anything to do with us. True, some of the ways that God deals with us may not be encouraging per se. But when we know by faith, through the pioneer and perfecter of our faith that (1) we are indeed children whom the Father disciplines (12:7) , (2) that we "share [the pioneer's] holiness" already now by faith, and (3) that waiting for us at the end is the trophy of "the peaceful fruits of righteousness to those who have been trained," then the disciplinary sufferings, far from being bad, are actually hopeful.

SCK: About those "peaceful fruits of righteousness": They're still to come, of course, but can't we begin to taste them now already?

MCH: Indeed! To wit, the "cloud of witnesses." Whatever God-pleasing accomplishments they did by faith, no matter how great or small by worldly standards, they are all part of the final outcome of that faith. (Cf. 11:5) The point is, we are compassed about by them already, and begin to enjoy them now. In our own recent times one of those encompassing witnesses has been Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Remember his poem from prison, "Who Am I?" Bonhoeffer was an enigma not only to his fellow prisoners but to himself as well. Outwardly cheerful, friend and counselor to his prison mates and even to his wardens, it was "as though [the prison] were [his] to command, bearing the days of misfortune...like one accustomed to win." To himself, by contrast, he was anxious and weak. Which one am I really? The only answer to the enigma was, "Whoever I am, thou knowest, O God, I am thine." Bonhoeffer's faith was bearing the "peaceful fruits of righteousness" right there in prison, much to his own amazement. So also with (the late) Juan Luis Segundo, S.J., liberation theologian in Uruguay. Amidst criticisms from his own authorities both ecclesiastical and secular, he continued to work for the poor until his dying day. Some witnesses! They are a foretaste of the "peaceful fruits" to come.
		Cloud of Witnesses

SCK: Thanks, Mike, for strengthening the bonds between Crossers in the States and Down Under and between all of us and the "Hebrews." The cloud of witnesses expands. Also, discipline never looked so good, until it became the discipline of the cross.