Robert Lowery

It is Sunday night, 6 July 2008, and I cannot sleep.  It is not because I am restless but it is because of an overwhelming sense of joy that washed over me a few minutes ago.

For the last fifteen years I have had the privilege of teaching for TCM International at Haus Edelweiss in Heiligenkdreuz, Austria.  TCM is the finest parachurch ministry I know of, period.  It has a clear mission that is biblically and theologically based, relevant for ministry, and culturally relevant.  The staff, faculty, and administration are some of the finest servants of Jesus I have ever met.  But I do not keep returning because of the mission or those servant-leaders.  No, I return because of the students.  They are some of the finest I have ever met.  Let me tell you what happened on Thursday of this week…

It happens often in my classes: I step aside and let my students teach me.  Maybe they teach me by responding to questions I have asked.  Or perhaps they teach when they ask a question I have never considered.  Above all, they teach me by sharing their stories how God has empowered them to be living commentaries on certain passages of Scripture.

This summer I have been teaching a class on eschatology, a subject that some think focus on events associated with what happens right before, during, and after the final coming of Jesus.  But we have seen that eschatology focuses on the Person of Jesus–what God has done, is doing, and will do through him and because of him.  I have been stressing that we must not get caught up in speculation about when Christ is coming, the nature of heaven or hell and other such subjects.  Instead, we must realize that eschatology in general and the book of Revelation in particular remind us that we are called to be faithful disciples committed to making more and better disciples of Jesus until he comes in glory.  Revelaton is a discipleship handbook for those who are committed to carrying out Christ’s Great Commission. 

On Thursday, July 3, a teaching moment, a sacred moment arrived.  I had been talking about what it meant to be a faithful witness and the cost of discipleship.  I had made the point that the only way to be a disciple of Jesus is to live in this world.   I cannot tell you the student’s name and neither will I tell you where he lives, for his own protection.  But let me simply say this:  he lives in a culture that is hostile to the Christian faith, a culture where Christians are harrassed, arrested, imprisoned, and even put to death.   

He told me that sometimes he is arrested for being a preacher.  And then he shared that when he is being interrogated by the police, he answers their questions by telling them the story about Jesus.  As he told me the story, what I noticed was that there was a smile on his face.  It was not the smile of happiness but the smile of pure Christian joy.  Christian joy is that feeling of exultation based on the promises of God, promises that cannot be anything else but true and the promise of Jesus that he will be with us always, no matter where we are.  And I held back the tears late that day. 

But tonight I awoke and my pillow was wet with tears, tears that had been stored up until the right moment.  Right before I fell asleep, I prayed for this student and his wife and another student from the same country.  I woke up and remembered a comment made by Karl Barth in his commentary on Philippians.  I read it when I was a teenager.  Barth observed that “Joy is a defiant ‘Nevertheless!’” 

And this is the joy that I heard in the student’s testimony and saw on his face. 

I had been taught well.  I only hope that I pass the test when called upon to give an answer for the hope that lives within me.