Surrender: the Path of Descent
As vines descend into the roots during post-harvest, vinedressers dig up the soil and replenish the vines with fertilizer. The context of descent is through shovelfuls of manure. There is no sugarcoating this.
From creation we see that what was once waste; the stinky, debased, undignified, and flat out nasty parts of life give us the nutrients we need to become the thriving new creation we were meant to be.
But, for most of us - when we encounter the manure; the darkness, hiddenness, and ugliness of death, we do what comes naturally: we plug our nose and want to run away.
We run from suffering and try to escape it.
We fight death and try to overcome it.
But Jesus shows us a different posture than fight or flight in post-harvest descent. As he descends from the harvest of healings, conversions, and spiritual transformation, these begin to die off and during holy week, he descends into the manure.
Let’s consider the fertilizer into which Jesus descended:
He was handed over to death by one of his closest friends.
He was oppressed by political leaders who abused their power.
He suffered grave injustice at the hands of religious leaders.
His closest friends fled during his greatest time of suffering.
Rulers sneered at him.
Soldiers mocked him.
Even criminals hurled insults at him.
He was stripped naked, exposed and assaulted while his mother stood by helplessly watching.
He experienced excruciating pain on the Cross.
He felt the weight of all evil, suffering, and death upon his shoulders.
And finally, he descended into death itself.
In the face of such suffering, He could have fought. He could have fled. But he didn’t. Instead, HE SURRENDED.
Surrender: The Posture of Descent
On the night of his betrayal, we see Jesus wrestling with God in the garden. He struggles to receive the cup of suffering before him and he prays,
“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me…” (Luke 22:42)
Jesus wrestled with God in the midst of sorrow as he anticipated his death. He asks for the Father to take the cup of suffering from him. Here, we see Jesus’ humanity; when we face suffering, we too want a way out, don’t we?
Jesus feels the impulse to run from suffering like the rest of us, but his response is clear: fleeing is not the way. Instead, he surrenders to it with these words, …”yet not my will, but yours be done.” -Luke 22:42
When Jesus says this, he isn’t just choosing to surrender something (his life), he is surrendering to someone. He is surrendering to love himself, the only one worthy of our surrender.
“Surrender involves too much vulnerability to be a responsible action in relation to anything other than unconditional love. Ultimately, of course, this means that absolute surrender can only be offered to Perfect Love. Only God deserves absolute surrender, because only God can offer absolutely dependable love.”
― David G. Benner, Surrender to Love: Discovering the Heart of Christian Spirituality
After the garden, Jesus faced every temptation to take control of his life. He was violently taken by force by the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders. He could have fought back, but he didn’t. Even when Peter cuts off one of the soldiers’ ears, Jesus rebukes him and says, “no more of this” as he heals him.
Jesus is clear: fighting is not the way.
When Jesus was crucified, those watching viewed his surrendered posture as a sign of weakness:
From the religious rulers who sneered at him, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” (John :35)
From the soldiers who mocked him, “If you are king of the Jews, save yourself.”
Even from one of the criminals who hurled insults at him, “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”
Save yourself.
Save yourself
Save yourself.
Notice how those hurling insults at him connect the act of saving himself with his identity as Messiah and King:
Aren’t you the Messiah, God’s Chosen One? Save yourself.
Aren’t you the King of the Jews? Save yourself.
Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself.
To the religious leaders, the Messiah was a King who would re-establish a monarchy for the people of Israel. He would vanquish his enemies and establish the reign of the kingdom of God forever over the whole world.
To the soldiers, a king seizes the throne through power expressed through violent overthrow in order to establish an empire. In Rome, their reference point for a king was Caesar, described in that day as the “savior of the world.”
In this view of reality, suffering is failure; something to be overcome. Something that must be avoided at all costs because it threatens one’s identity and power in the world. This is a posture of control. When enemies oppose you, fight, overcome, and succeed. If you don’t, you’re not really a king, because you have no power.
The insults and mocking invocation for Jesus to save himself exposes their view of salvation. In their mind, a real king and real Messiah doesn’t suffer, but saves through violent force. On the Cross, Jesus redefines what salvation looks like in the Kingdom of God.
Jesus shows us that the Messiah saves not through overcoming suffering with violence, but through surrendering to co-suffering love.
Jesus shows us that a heavenly king does not achieve power and victory through the blood of his own enemies, but through his own blood shed for his enemies. He establishes his reign as King not by the sword, but by the cross.
As Brian Zahnd puts it in Beauty Will Save the World, at the cross, Jesus “Absorbs our hate and hostility, vengeance and violence into his own body and recycles it into love and forgiveness.”
It was love that held him there.
Not duty, not obligation. Love.
Out of love for the Father.
Out of love for you, for me,
Jesus surrenders control of his own life with the words,
“Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!”
And with those words he breathed his last.
Choosing the Path of Surrender
In cross-like moments of descent into suffering, failure, loss, or grief, like Jesus, we may get thrown heap-piles of manure from scoffers, rulers, mockers, and critics (on the outside and in) who will yell, “Save yourself!”
Our identity will be called into question:
Aren’t you supposed to be skilled at this? Why are you failing? Save yourself.
Are you really loveable? Then, why did he leave you? Save yourself.
Why are you struggling with depression if God is supposed to be your healer? Save yourself.
The temptation amidst the scoffers is to do just what they say; save ourselves. To save ourselves is to fight - to overcome our enemies through vengeance, to prove our value in this world through self-fulfillment, excellence and achievement. In the kingdoms of this world, it is these things that make us worthy of love and belonging.
But, on the Cross, Jesus not only saves us from our sin, but He saves us from the ways of the world that lead to destruction by showing us another way. And in so doing, it exposes the ways of the world as bankrupt and faulty.
When Jesus takes the posture of surrender through relational trust with the Father, it exposes the transactional nature of our relationships that are based on control and power.
When Jesus demonstrates a self-sacrificing love to build an eternal kingdom, it illuminates our self-aggrandizement for its temporary results in the kingdoms of this world.
When Jesus radically forgives, it shines a light on our bloodthirsty drive for vengeance.
When Jesus co-suffers in love for his enemies, it reveals just how violent and oppressive our pathways to power often are.
Could it be that when surrendering to love looks like failure and death to the world it is actually the very power of God?
When we take the posture of Christ and surrender to God in the midst of a cross-like moment in our lives - a powerful exchange occurs.
Shame is transfigured into glory.
Suffering is transfigured into joy.
The manure meant to humiliate us is transfigured into fertilizer that nourishes us into the image of Christ. And like the vine descending into dormancy, those nutrients are stored up for a harvest in the next season - even if we can’t see it yet.
Pause for a moment and consider:
How have you recently experienced loss, suffering, rejection, or persecution?
Where have you been tempted to “save yourself” by the ways of the world?
What fears surface as you consider surrendering yourself and this situation to God? Name those to him and ask Him for the grace to entrust yourself into His care.
Prayer: Consider trying this posture prayer as a way of practicing surrender to God. For the full prayer, go here: https://infinitumlife.com/daily-prayer
