II Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 is part of a larger section, 5:11-6:13, that has the theme of the ministry of reconciliation. Paul was in Corinth from Winter of 50 AD to Summer of 51 AD, so Acts 18:1-17. He wrote this part of II Corinthians in the Fall of 55 AD. Timothy is with Paul. Titus and two others bring the letter. Titus has just arrived with good news. Many scholars construe 2:14-7:4 as a rhetorical unit, with Paul defending his ministry, of which 5:11-6:10 is a key part as he explains his ministry of reconciliation.
In II Corinthians 5:20b-6:2, a segment that began in verse 20a, Paul offers an appeal for reconciliation with God.
20bPaul will emphasize that we, providing the agency by which others know Christ, with the priority given to the action of God to which faith is the response, entreat you on behalf of Christ, to experience reconciliation with God. Reconciliation is a relationship God has initiated and to which human beings must respond by accepting the offer. 21 In what some scholars think of a Jewish-Christian formula, Paul says that for our sake he made him to be, or to bear the burden of, sin who knew no sin, (Hebrews 4:15, 5:7-9, I Peter 1:19, 3:18, dependent on Isaiah 53:9) so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. We have in verses 18-21 the notion that atonement is the work of God. Reconciling here means the conversion of the world to God that took place in the form of an exchange or substitution that God has proposed between the world and God present and active in the person of Jesus Christ. It means that in being present and active in the world in Christ, God takes part in its history. God does not affirm or participate in its culpable nature, of course. However, God does take up the situation of the world into the divine nature. For God to make humanity the righteousness of God, humanity becomes covenant-partners with God. The conversion of the world to God has taken place in this exchange. In Christ, the weakness and godlessness of the world become a lie. God removes them as an obstacle. In Christ, we see the peace of the world with God, the turning of humanity toward God, and the friendship of humanity with God. This becomes the truth of the new human situation.[1] The great and inconceivable thing is that Christ acts as judge in our place by accepting responsibility for what we do in this place. It ceases to be our sin.[2] The participation in the obedient suffering and death of Christ in 5:17 is the means whereby believers have reconciliation to God through Christ in verse 18. This train of thought helps us to understand the concluding statement that God made Christ to be sin for us in verse 21. Taken alone, this verse suggests a simple exchange of places. In the context of the preceding argument, however, Paul integrates the thought into that of the inclusive significance and effect of the death of Jesus Christ.[3] Such a statement makes little sense apart from a reference to the situation of the condemnation and execution of Jesus, in which political authorities made Jesus the sinner and he came under the curse of the law. For God, by means of the human judges, not only made Jesus to be sin but also had him bear in our place, and not merely in that of his Jewish judges or the Jewish people, the penalty that is the proper penalty of sin. The reason for this is that the proper penalty of sin follows from its inner nature, death as the consequence of separation from God.[4] God has gone to great lengths to reconcile humanity with God. Clearly, an exchange has taken place. God made Christ sin in exchange for God making humanity righteous. To paraphrase, God put the sinless Christ in the place of sinners, so that Christ had to bear the judgment of sin instead of them, expressing the theological thought of representation.[5] He suffered for all and triumphed for all.[6] Perhaps Theodoret of Cyrus, a fifth-century bishop, best captured the spirit of this paradox when he wrote, “Christ was called what we are in order to call us to be what he is.” The Protestant theology of the Enlightenment did not take into sufficient account the fundamental significance of the death of Christ for the Pauline thought of the reconciling of the world by God.[7] It seems that the covenant righteousness of God is at issue. Here, Paul finds in those whom God are reconciled to God through the death of Christ a proof of the righteousness of God. The issue is no longer merely the relation of God to Israel, or the divine covenant righteousness to the chosen people. Paul extends to the Gentiles the thought of the covenant righteousness that the saving action of God demonstrates. Involved in divine righteousness is the relation of God to the whole creation. The vocabulary of covenant righteousness in Paul moves forward materially along the lines of the approach of Jesus in terms of the goodness of God as Creator that in the coming of the reign of God shows itself to be a pardoning turning toward humanity.[8] In this situation of condemnation and execution, Jesus, whom through the resurrection God showed to be innocent, bore death as the consequence of our sin, thereby effecting representation in the concrete form of a change of place between the innocent and the guilty. The innocent suffered the penalty of death, which, as the harmful result of sin, is the fate of those in whose place Christ died. The vicarious penal suffering that is vicarious suffering of the wrath of God at sin rests on the fellowship that the Son accepted with all of us as sinners and with our fate as such. This link is the basis on which the death of Jesus can count as expiation for us. Without this vicarious penal suffering, the expiatory function of the death of Jesus is unintelligible, unless we try to understand his death as an equivalent offered to God along the lines of the satisfaction theory of Anselm, which has no basis in the biblical data.[9]
The cross represents a dramatic turn in the relationship of God with the world. The new perspective the cross gives us is that God has taken sin seriously – and has borne responsibility for that sin in the cross. As destructive as sin is, God has accepted the punishment for sin in the cross. We do not have to wonder about whether God is so angry at the human race that the anger would lead God to destroy it. Rather, God loves the world enough to receive the punishment for our sinfulness and to open the way of salvation for us. In terms of our lives, the cross means that we do not have to bear the burden of the past. Rather, we become open to the new possibilities for the future. Becoming a new person, becoming part of a new creation, is what living one’s life in Christ means. Thus, although God has already acted to reconcile humanity with God and with each other, God has given the church the responsibility of telling others what God has done. Another way to view this is that we re-orient our lives away from an anxious focus upon ourselves and toward reconciling life with God and with others. We live in a world torn apart by behavior destructive of self and others. The church itself participates in that division of the world. We need to re-focus our energy upon the reconciling work of God. God has already brought about that reconciliation in Christ. We now have a decision to make. Will we become part of the reconciling work of God in the world?
The practice of peace and reconciliation is among the most vital and artistic of all human actions.[10]Reconciliation runs counter to some themes in popular culture. In pop culture, the sentiment expressed in the prayer above is not always visible. Popular movies have a revenge motif. Carrie (you are not going to make fun of me); Unforgiven (revenge western style); Ransom (Mel Gibson will make someone pay); Cape Fear (bad guy goes to jail, bad guy gets out of jail, bad guy gets revenge with your family); First Wives Club (divorcees who know how to get even); Taken (don't mess with Liam Neeson); just about any Charles Bronson movie.
Paul also hints at a sad reality. As much as Christians can joyfully point back to the reconciliation accomplished in the cross, reconciliation remains a promise and hope that will need to find its fulfillment in the future. Reconciliation is the eschatological goal of the work of God. Our present as part of our temporal experience will not be one of reconciliation and peace. Only sporadically are we at peace with and reconciled with ourselves, let alone with family, friends, communities, and nations. Sometimes, even Christians need to recognize that separation or divorce is the best solution in this world. Reconciliation is the work of God. Human beings cannot make reconciliation happen. To assume this would be to assume that a human being has the power to force the terms of agreement between opposing parties. It may well be a mark of love and maturity to recognize that the best solution in this world is to go separate ways. Paul himself had to part ways with his mentor Barnabas. Jesus told his disciples to shake the dust off their feet and move on if a town rejected them.
We need to sing a song of reconciliation today, because we are hurting from division -- as individuals, as a church, as a nation and as a world. We sing the song if both sides can show reasonable respect for the worth and dignity of the other. If we believe the other has bad intentions, reconciliation is not on the table. Reconciliation happens when we speak open and honest words that, in turn, lead to new and peaceful relationships. We can resolve disputes when we offer and accept forgiveness based on the work that God has done in Christ. Reconciliation happens when we show each other love, mercy and a self-giving grace. We can do this work in our personal relationships, among groups in our congregation, in our increasingly diverse communities, and in the world around us. Reconciliation is a song that should be inescapable in the Christian church, impossible to avoid or ignore. So let us sing it together, keeping it simple and repeating it as frequently as we can.
The song means we will need to remember. We will take time to reflect upon our lives and its events, especially times of separation and alienation. We will need to reassess, taking time to see our lives. We need to reflect upon who we have become. Have we been content with too little? We need to reflect upon reconciling. We need to make peace with the imperfections within us as well as with the people, culture, nation, and world with which our lives so deeply intertwine. We need to reflect upon reuniting. Granted, such reunion may not be possible. Some divisions may not heal this side of the return of Christ. However, if the possibility is still there, we may need to re-establish a broken relationship and re-discover peace with those around us. We cannot be at peace with everyone. We cannot control them. We can do our part to be at pace with others. Joy Williams sums it up well in her hit song,
“Is the face that I see in the mirror the one I want others to see
Do I show in the way that I walk in my life
the love that you’ve given to me?”
Robert Benton's Academy Award-winning 1984 film Places in the Heart stars Sally Field, John Malkovich, Lindsay Crouse, Danny Glover, Ed Harris, and Amy Madigan. The film is a semi-autobiographical story during the depression in Waxahachie, TX. Fields plays a young woman, widowed within the first few minutes of the film, struggling against evil forces in everyday life of central Texas during the 1930s. Forces work to take away the only thing her husband has left her and her two small children - a small cotton farm in Texas. Lynchings, brutality, infidelity, racism, greed, duplicity all of these are woven into the lives of those who make up the tapestry of Benton's story.
The film ends with a communion service (1:44:08 to 1:48:00). The preacher reads the text from I Corinthians 13. At first, the camera shows you a few of the good folk in town. Next, it shows some of the not so good. Then it shows the banker and others who conspired to take away the farm. The camera continues to move with the cups of wine. There is the faithful black farmhand who helped bring in the crop so the widow might pay her mortgage; next to him, the blind boarder. The plate passes to the children, then to their mother. Her husband, who died early in the movie, sits next her. The black boy who killed him sits next him. They commune, and each responds: "the peace of God." All gather at table, to share the bread and cup of salvation. Suddenly this is more than Sunday morning; this is the rule of God, eternity captured in time... clearly, such a scene is no longer a human point of view. The camera has given us a look at life, the way Jesus said God looks at it. God has done something to enable everyone to come home. We are not yet sure how. It will be the work of the Spirit directing people to Christ. Thus, we know it will not be with coercion. We also know it will be with respect for the worth and dignity of each human being. The apostle Paul says it this way: "In Christ, God was reconciling us to himself, not counting our trespasses against us ...."
In II Corinthians 6: 1-2, the apostles are serving God by extending the appeal God is making in Christ. Today, I am wondering about the risks of following Jesus. 1 As we work together with (Συνεργοῦντες cooperate with) God in being ambassadors for Christ,[11] we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. His concern is that his efforts in speaking and their efforts in listening would be in vain. Their failure to stand with Paul is a failure to experience reconciliation with God. 2 For God says, [Isaiah 49:8-9]"At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you." See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! The text applies to this moment in history, as if the servant songs in Isaiah find their fulfillment at this moment.
If you want to progress in life, you will need to take risks. In baseball, you can steal second base with your foot firmly planted on first base.[12] We often hear the advice offered to graduates that they follow their passion, chart their course, march to the beat of their own drummer, find their dream, and find themselves. The American culture of expressive individualism is in harmony with such advice. Yet, most successful people do not look inside and plan a life. Rather, they look outside and find a problem. The problem summons their life calling. We do not form a self and then lead a life. We experience the call of a question or problem, and we construct our life in light of that calling. We keep refining the question or problem that calls us. We keep discovering the nature of the opposition to fulfilling our sense of calling. We keep discovering the obstacles we will need to surmount. Yet, in the nature of the decision and action, we are willing to confront them.[13]
Life is hard. Life is tiring. We make it more difficult and tiring if we make a priority of loving God and making a career. We want to be good Christians and have success. We want to be saints and enjoy the sensations of the sinner. We want to be close to Christ and popular with people. If we adopt such an approach to life, yes, life becomes even more difficult and tiring.[14]
Paul is encouraging his readers to decide and to act. We must not become too timid and squeamish about our actions. Life is an experiment. The more experiments we make the better. Our decisions and actions may have some coarseness to them. We may become a little soiled and battered. We may fail. We may fall. We need to get up again, never be afraid to fall again.[15]
In II Corinthians 6: 3-10, Paul supports the appeal. Paul offers his credentials. Among the most persuasive elements to persuade is the witness of what one has experienced. Here, Paul is encouraging his readers to keep on keeping on. He points to the difficulties he faces. We might experience some temptation to omit this part of discipleship. Yet, we should not assume that people want some version of Christianity lite. Those disputing with Paul subvert the gospel. 3 We are putting no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no one may find fault with our ministry. Rather, Paul describes his team 4as servants of God. Isaiah said the servant of the Lord would encounter trouble, so Paul now reiterates his hardship. He offers this list as a way of defending his ministry and offering an example to others. The passive tense here says he does not seek suffering. Rather, suffering comes upon him. Reading this list in the light of church history and of the suffering church throughout the world today, many faithful servants have had these experiences. Thus, we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, first, in the general suffering, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5 second, in the suffering endured at the hands of people beatings, imprisonments, riots, third, in the suffering of self-discipline, labors, sleepless nights, hunger. 6 They commend themselves with good characteristics and tools they seek to cultivate and display during their ministry. The characteristics are by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, 7 truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8 in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. They commend themselves in the paradoxical nature of suffering for God, the judgment of people overturned by God. Some treat us as impostors, and yet we are true; 9 as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, (or others spread rumors of his death) and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
Many things can destroy a human life. Yet, the difficulties and challenges Paul mentions here do not have the power to destroy his life. Allow me to mention a few things that can destroy your life: Politics without principle, pleasure without conscience, wealth without work, knowledge without character, business without morality, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice. They can all destroy a human life.[16]
Yes, life is hard. Yet, what if I asked, “Compared to what?”[17]
We must not be afraid to act. If we do not like something, we can act to change it. If we cannot change it, we can change our attitude toward it. Too many people simply complain, as if they are victims of the situation.[18] Complaining rarely gets us far. We can complain that thorns are on roses. We can also express gratitude that thorns have roses.[19] We receive a great deal more than we give. We become rich in our approach to life only with gratitude.[20] Although Paul does not express gratitude here, the passage expresses such an attitude. Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.[21]
You have heard the words of Prime Minister Winston Churchill -- Britain's WWII leader -- to "never give in." He said those words to young people when he visited Harrow School in 1941 after they had endured a particularly rough series of Blitzkrieg attacks:
"Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never -- in nothing, great or small, large or petty -- never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."
[1] Barth, Church Dogmatics IV.1 [57.3] 73-78.
[2] Barth, Church Dogmatics IV.1 [59.2] 236.
[3] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 2, 420.
[4] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 2, 425-6.
[5] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 2, 420.
[6] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 2, 427.
[7] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 2, 407.
[8] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume I, 434-5.
[9] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 2, 427.
[10] The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions. --Thich Nhat Hanh.
[11] Barth, Church Dogmatics IV.3 [71.4] 600.
[12] Progress always involves risk; you can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first. —Frederick Wilcox.
[13] David Brooks, writing in The New York Times ("It's Not About You") discusses this as it relates to young people.
"If you sample some of the commencement addresses being broadcast on C-Span these days, you see that many graduates are told to: Follow your passion, chart your own course, march to the beat of your own drummer, follow your dreams and find yourself. This is the litany of expressive individualism, which is still the dominant note in American culture.
"But, of course, this mantra misleads on nearly every front. ... Most successful young people don't look inside and then plan life. They look outside and find a problem, which summons their life. A relative suffers from Alzheimer's and a young woman feels called to help cure that disease. A young man works under a miserable boss and must develop management skills so his department can function. Another young woman finds herself confronted by an opportunity she never thought of in a job category she never imagined. This wasn't in her plans, but this is where she can make her contribution.
"Most people don't form a self and then lead a life. They are called by a problem, and the self is constructed gradually by their calling."
The people, called by a problem, as Brooks puts it, may not know what the problems will be, the nature of the opposition, the obstacles to surmount, but they have decided they are willing to take them on.
[14] I want to love God, but also to make a career. I want to be a good Christian, but also have my successes as a teacher, preacher or speaker. I want to be a saint, but also enjoy the sensations of the sinner. I want to be close to Christ, but also popular and liked by people. No wonder that living becomes a tiring enterprise. —Henri Nouwen.
[15] Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. What if they are a little coarse, and you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice? Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble. —Ralph Waldo Emerson.
[16] Mohandas K. Gandhi, on things that will destroy us: politics without principle, pleasure without conscience, wealth without work, knowledge without character, business without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice.
[17] When I hear somebody sigh, “Life is hard,” I am always tempted to ask, “Compared to what?” — Sydney J. Harris.
[18] If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain. —Maya Angelou.
[19] Some people complain that God put thorns on roses, while others praise God for putting roses on thorns. —Anonymous.
[20] In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich. —Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
[21] —Melody Beattie.
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