Passive Jesus?

I was talking with a friend the other day who was telling me about her recent church series on men. She was trying hard to be charitable, but there were parts that were harder for her to swallow.

At one point the pastor talked about the sin of passivity in men. This struck her as slightly off. "What about Jesus," she offered, "wasn't he passive in going to the cross?"

This has been rolling around in my head for a couple of days and the more I think about it, the more I think I agree with her pastor. Passivity is a core sin of men. And the more I think about it, no, Jesus wasn't passive in going to the cross.

All four gospel writers record Jesus talking about his imminent death. And Jesus is adamant about one thing: "No one takes my life from me." Jesus is going to die on purpose. It is not outside of his control. He is not passive.

Jesus is submissive. He submits to the will of the Father: "would that this cup would pass from me...but not my will but yours be done."

There is a huge difference between passivity and submission. Submission is a deliberate act of power--giving over power for a greater good, a greater purpose. Passivity is limp, apathetic, silent when speaking is required, weak when strength is required. Submission is strength serving the thing greater than itself. It is anything but weak. It is anything but apathetic.

Submission is subversive to all the ways that our fallen world understands power yet upright before both God and people. It is power put to proper use. It is power taking a back seat to relationships. Submission is clear-eyed, determined, long-suffering, on-purpose, to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes. Submission is strength properly exercised.

When Christ calls us, he calls us to come and to die. He calls us to be submitted to his Lordship. We are called to take all our strength and to put it under his authority in order to discover its right and proper use.

All of us, men especially, have a hard time doing this. And so men tend to either exercise power in domineering ways or run from the use of power in passive ways. But Christ calls us to follow his lead in submitting to the Father...and all of this so that we might have life.