The Victory of Surrender

 China was taken aback, the Japanese had come, China was not prepared for the sheer brutality of it all. One world power (China) had to surrender Nanking to another (the Japanese), and thus began one of the worst atrocities the world has ever known. Years later, the Japanese found themselves between a rock and a hard place. The "Soviet rock" was invading and  pushing back their army, and the "American hard place" was dropping brand new mushroom cloud shaped cruelties like the world had never seen onto their cities. The world power of Japan surrendered control of their nation to the world power most apt to show them mercy, "the hard place". In Europe the same basic thing played out, A France unprepared for Germany surrendered it's nation to them, A Germany caught between a rock and a hard place ceased to exist as a nation for the next 40 plus years. For in this world, surrender is always tied to defeat, and in many cases, shame, oppression, and unimaginable suffering. 

 The Kingdom of Heaven is both mightier than all world kingdoms combined and it shifts paradigms in ways that cannot be fully appreciated by humans. Let's look at the leader of the Kingdom of heaven, a man named Jesus Christ. This man actually was a real human representative from the unseen realm, and he truly demonstrated what Watchman Nee would call "The Normal Christian Life." He reached out with his hands, and made mud that he used for healing, oh, and he was a blue collar worker, he did carpentry until probably age 30. His hands got dirty. He had a mind that was sharp, and divinely inspired, no Pharisee could cope with the "intellectual buzzsaw" of Jesus Christ's mind. They tried many times in many ways, and yet he would never be cornered and always gave the spectators a deep truth to ponder. Then there were all the times he cared. He cared about the shame a groom might experience and quietly made more wine without drawing attention to himself. He cared about his disciples, and calmed a sea, so they would not fear. He came alongside Peter and pulled him up onto the water again. When it would have been easier physically to command the sea to put Peter back in the boat, he came alongside him instead. 

 In typical world fashion, the time came when the powers of Jesus' world coalesced into an uneasy alliance to do away with him. They did not know the power he had to rain terror down on the entire earth from the heavenly hosts, if they had, they would not have tried to defeat him. Since they did not understand this, they looked strictly through an earthly lens, and decided that bringing Jesus to a place of surrender would be the way to get rid of Him. However, Jesus, unbeknownst to them, "flipped the script" and played along. He allowed them to press a crown of thorns into his head, puncturing his brain, and ruining the fineness of his intellect. He allowed them to drive the nails into those outstretched hands, that had so often reached out to help and end suffering, thereby scarring them for eternity. He even allowed them to drive a spear into his side, (that side that he come alongside the suffering, the depressed, and encouraged them so often) creating a wound that also formed a scar for eternity. He was laid in the grave, and he had surrendered all.

 It was the 3rd morning in the grave, Jesus got up and stretched, he felt his side, his hands, his head. Scars, but no pain. He walked out of the grave, and manifested a new power, a power to appear at anytime and anywhere. A power to impart himself inside any human who was willing to receive. It was a far more profound victory than the military kind had ever been, and it had been achieved through the strategy of surrender. So today, we have wondering around this earth so many "little Christs" (Christians) and the only thing that keeps them all from experiencing ultimate victory is their refusal of ultimate surrender. The only thing that keeps the whole world from experiencing world peace, the end of at least the vast majority of if not all suffering, and poverty, and all manner of horrible afflictions is again, ultimate surrender.