The Desire to Know Christ

“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

Paul’s great desire was to know Christ, to be like Christ. This is the mark of a good disciple. A disciple is one who strains to become like the Master. Desires to know and emulate every good part of the Master.

Truly this is the desire that Christ has for us as Christians, that we want to know him more, that we strain to become like him, that we are wholeheartedly pursuing the lifelong process of sanctification.

Paul talks in Romans about how baptism is like being buried with Christ and raised to walk in newness of life. His analogy makes a clear case for the seeking of Christ’s life through our own lives. While we will never attain such an alignment, it is what we are called to anyway.

How can we know the magnificence of our Lord and Savior without imaging the suffering he bore during the Passion? How can we align our hearts with his unless we recognize at a deep level the immensity of his love sacrifice for all humanity? How can we be true Christ-followers unless we follow him figuratively on the Via Dolorosa?

Is it graphically disturbing to contemplate the suffering of Christ? Of course, which is more the reason for doing so. We get pried out of our comfortable little lives by disturbing imagery, which is a condition necessary to growth of a disciple. A disciple does not learn or change or grow more like the Master in comfort and means and harmony. There is little to stimulate the mind when all is static. But, bring on the imagery of Christ in his final hours before his crucifixion and we begin to understand more about who and why he is. Imagining the death and the resurrection is not just difficult, it is essential.

May I know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings so that I can somehow attain the heart of a good disciple.