DAY TWENTY-FIVE -- Jesus the Head

"Rwanda in April 1994! Who can forget the terrible scenes of thousands of corpses floating down the Akagera river to Lake Victoria? An eye-witness wrote: ‘First came the corpses of the men and elder boys, killed trying to defend their sisters and mothers. Then came the women and girls, flushed out from their hiding places and slaughtered. Last came the babies.’"
Kritzinger, J.J. (Dons), The Rwandan Tragedy as Public Indictment against Christian Mission, Missiological reflections of an observer. Missionalia, the journal of the Southern African Missiological Society, article reprinted at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/8409/rwanda1.htm)

In the now famous genocide perpetuated by the Hutu tribe against the minority Tutsis in the tiny nation of Rwanda, almost a million people were murdered within a few days, as millions more fled into exile. Perhaps the most grievous aspect of this nightmare was that 80 to 90% of the Rwandan people considered themselves Christian at the time. The famous East African revival of the 1930’s, having seen over 1000 people baptized per week during its peak, had deeply evangelized the country.

In the years following this horrible human slaughter, Christian leaders from the Vatican in Rome to mission boards in America were tormented by the question, Where was the church? Some speculated that the revival had been too hyper-spiritual, failing to impact the real living of life and socio-political structure in the ethnically hostile country. Some accused the church leaders of having sold their souls to the government, rendering impotent the prophetic voice that was so desperately needed when the killing began. Still others blame the missionaries who taught Christian love, but demonstrated divisiveness -- Lutheran and Baptist, Catholic and Presbyterian, Seventh Day Adventist and Methodist -- that in the end subtly lent credence to the abhorrent antagonism between Hutus and Tutsis. Most disturbing of all, were allegations that leaders in the church actually encouraged and participated in the mass murders.

Whatever the truth may be, the church became almost invisible amidst the killing fields of Rwandan genocide. Such a shameful indictment should have tolled its death knell. Yet in fact, after the war it was the church that began building orphanages for the fatherless children and helping broken widows put the pieces of their lives back together. Today several years later, many churches there are quietly facilitating restoration and reconciliation. A group of Canadian Christians who recently traveled to Rwanda writes the following account of a service they attended:

Catholic Priests and Protestant Pastors standing with thousands in a football stadium, praying as one in the name of Jesus...Hutu young people weeping uncontrollably on the shoulders of their Tutsi peers...widows dancing and weeping for joy in the very place where their husbands and children were hacked to death; thousands of street orphans surging forward at the assurance that God their Father really does love them, and He does cartwheels of delight for joy of their company.

(Anonymous, "To Rwanda With Love: A Report on a Delegation of Canadian Church Leaders to Rwanda During March, 2001." A ministry of Upstream. http://www.upstream.ca/Rwanda)

With a history of extraordinary starts and startling stops, of glorious rises and disgraceful descents, the church of Jesus Christ somehow marches on. Even amidst its darkest days, a force that far transcends Satan's schemes or the horror of humankind's sin has always been at work, guaranteeing that the Church will not die.

Since the outpouring of His Spirit at Pentecost, Jesus has personally baptized every newly saved soul into a living organism He calls His body. As the Head, He is the instrument of life through which this body is built up in love. Jesus supplies all that His body needs –strength for the weakest member and grace for every defect of our fallen condition. He loves the church as He loves His very self, nourishing, cherishing and caring for it with tender affection (See Ephesians 6).

In some mysterious way, the Father has condescended to more magnificently glorify His Son through us with all our flaws, than without us. When we consider Jesus's infinite supremacy, how can we ever fathom this highest honor of the church, that the Son of God regards himself as in a certain sense imperfect unless he is joined to us.* How this reality should arrest our hearts, consuming us with zeal for our Father's house. *[Calvin, John, as quoted in Barnes Notes, Electronic Database Copyright (C) 1996 by Biblesoft].

The church -- in Rwanda, and Germany, and China, and Saudi Arabia, and Russia and India and America and Turkmenistan, and Lithuania, and Bangladesh, and Afghanistan and Mauritius and throughout the world -- will ever stand. It is protected, not by the work of human hands or the strength of its members nor by the commitment of missionaries, but by Jesus Christ, the Head of the body who fills all in all. In whatever desperate straits it may at times find itself, the Church of Jesus Christ cannot fail, for its Head sits at the right hand of God, determined to bring about a day when He will have first place in everything (Colossians 1:18).

This mystical organism called Christ's body cannot help but advance with supernatural energy, for it is the means by which He has chosen to build His kingdom. Wonder of wonders that our destiny as His body is to be the radiant and visible manifestation of Christ's fullness on earth. Perhaps we see it only now as in a glass darkly, but one day the Church will reign triumphant with the full and magnificent splendor worthy of Jesus Christ, our Head. What a day of glory that will, at last, be.

Respond

Jesus is the Head of the body, the church, a living organism created to manifest the fullness of His glorious being. Pause and consider the extreme implausibility of such a thing. Is this how you view the church? If not, why? How does your commitment to it compare to the value Christ places on the church, His body?

Jesus even now is supplying all that we need for the church to become a glorious vision of His greatness. What do you think hinders this? In your own life? Your church? The church at large?

Everything God does in our lives, in the church, and in the world has one goal -- that Jesus be given first place in everything. This is the foundation of every prayer we pray -- that Christ might be the Head – prevailing in power and authority in every situation. Ponder this and write a prayer of response.

A Prayer

Dearest Lord, how simple and wonderful is this plan for Your dignity and authority to be manifest here through us, Your Body. Yet it seems we settle for lesser goals. We strive for success, fight for fulfillment, wrestle for rights, and pursue personal preeminence. How did we lose our way? When did we abandon our connection to You, our only Head? One glance at Your church confronts us with the gravity of such a thing -- a body with no head cannot survive. O God, open our eyes to the glory of a Church where You, our Head reigns, and everything flows from the beauty of Your supremacy. Come and rule once again – in our lives, our homes, Your church, our world -- come in power, come in authority, for we have no other hope but that You reign, O glorious Head.

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