Hebrews 10:34, “…you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.”
If we honestly consider what the Spirit is saying to us in these words, it truly is revolutionary.
How do disciples of the slain and risen Lord respond when—because they belong to Christ—their possessions are unjustly plundered? Do they bristle? Do they demand their rights? Do they rage and protest? Do they fight back? Emphatically not. Rather, they “joyfully accept” this plundering.
And why do they act in such a counter-intuitive way? Because they know that they have a better and lasting possession—namely, their union to the risen Christ and all things in Him. So real, so tangible, so deeply treasured is the “better and abiding” inheritance in and of Christ that the disciple is able to “joyfully accept” unjust treatment for the name of Christ in this life. Just as a pauper women who is going to marry the King is not thrown into a tumult when her hut is ransacked as she is on the way to the palace….so too the Church ought not be stirred up to anger when her possessions in this world are taken as she is on her way to final union with Christ.
And “possessions” can be more than physical things. “Rights,” “freedoms,” cultural standing, societal influence, these things too are “possessions.” What does it say about the Bride if, when these things are taken from her, she rants and raves and is up in arms? One thing it may say is that she has lost sight of her true possession—and more—that she has lost sight of the character of the one to whom she belongs.
The Church of Christ is the Body of Christ on the earth, and so she ought not be surprised or angry when she—like her Lord—is “crucified” in various ways. Christian, let us not rage when we are stripped of possessions and nailed to the cross; this is the path of our Lord, this is the place wherein He meets us, and this is the way—as He has shown us in Himself—that leads to resurrection Life. So then, let us—like Him—be “crucified” in love for our “murderers” and so show in our flesh the glory of the slain and living Christ who is the image of God.
