I have a problem. Someone has said: “Many want the anointing of God … but they do not want the crushing that produces the oil.” These words are placed in front of a crushed olive in the background, from which oil drips.
My problem is multidimensional.
First, NONE of us want to be crushed. None! No one in the Bible wanted the crush. Not even Jesus – “Father, pass this cup from me … but your will be done, not mine,” he said. That’s Jesus! No human being in their right mind wants to be crushed and, in fact, only those who have truly suffered know this. Suffering should never be trivialized or established as a legalistic qualification for ministry for God. Sure, it rates many, but not all.
Trivializing suffering in this way places those who suffer well as superior in their ability to endure suffering; that superiority is not virtuous, it is pride. How does the person who does not suffer well feel? Is there any encouragement for them in this?
Second, God does not bring the crush as if he were a sadistic growth force. That’s the opposite of our God in Jesus, who took the crush for us according to Isaiah 53. This quote subverts good theology of the cross with something that sounds biblical but is not. I have never seen the scriptures treat suffering in a rude way. There is tolerance for grief and I read empathy and encouragement for suffering. This is why verses like Romans 5: 1-5 and James 1: 2-4 are always uplifting when we are in the background.
Third, what does this say for victims of abuse and trauma who are sometimes more or less forced to suffer for life? They have had their identities badly formed and restoration not only takes time, and in many cases it is a job for life, it regularly drives them into despair that can lead to self-harm and suicide.
Fourth, in our very self world, there is such a hunger to find ways of understanding suffering. It is as if resilience through suffering is as important today as the theme of heaven and hell was in the 1970s and 1980s. It twists our theology, because we have come to idolize the comfortable life.
Fifth, the quote states that obtaining the anointing of God is something of a conquest, which must be difficult to win by crushing, because how else can the oil come from the cup of God? This not only places God as the ‘grinder’ (supposedly for our own good), which is a potentially abusive theology, but makes faith something to be acquired, that is, what other purpose does faith serve but to receive the anointing of God? Let me say that, in my opinion, anyone who has faith in Jesus Christ already have The anointing of God. It’s not about us and what we do or don’t do, it’s about Jesus and what he’s done. There is a danger that has crept into Christianity, where it is about what we can get from God. True Christianity is about what God can get from us as we live for the glory of God. Now the word “crush” can be distorted too easily as a good thing and potentially, and more likely I’m sure, as a justification for abuse.
No one dares to trivialize suffering. Jesus went to the cross so that we could be delivered from ultimate suffering: He took care of the eternal judgment of hell for the true believer.
We cannot afford to be frivolous with the idea of suffering, because there are too many people who suffer and do not have a simple recourse to alleviate it.
What do we say to the person with chronic pain? With ongoing clinical depression? With trauma from sexual abuse? Or someone facing the end of life through loss? What about the person with special needs? The list goes on. Come on, Christian, be in control and treat these matters with the utmost respect and empathy.
The olive tree or branch stands as a symbol of peace. Pray that those who are suffering will have peace, don’t tell them to bear their crush like nothing else!
When we say, “bring the crush, Lord, I want your anointing” we make an idol of our suffering and what we can get from it. Can God use it? Yes. But it only works when we magnify God and no our suffering, ‘the crushing’ and ‘our anointing’.
I find that the most important anointing people can receive from God is evident through his compassion. And I find that compassion is formed in the person who is familiar with suffering, who neither glorifies nor despises it, but has endured or perhaps continues to endure it, and the person who often does not endure it but struggles.