I have a problem. Someone has said: “Many want the anointing of God… but they don’t want the crushing that the oil produces.” These words are placed in front of a crushed olive in the background, from which oil drips.
My problem is multidimensional.
First of all, NONE of us want the crush. None! No one in the Bible wanted the crush. Not even Jesus-“Father, let this cup pass from me…but your will be done, not mine,” he said. That’s Jesus! No human being in his right mind wants to be crushed, and in fact, only those who have truly suffered know it. Suffering should never be trivialized or presented as a legalistic qualification to minister to 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 encouragement for them in this?
Second, God does not bring crushing as if it were a sadistic growth forcer. That is the opposite of our God in Jesus, who took the crushing for us according to Isaiah 53. This quote subverts good theology of the cross with something that sounds biblical but isn’t. I have never seen the scriptures treat suffering rudely. There is room for regret and I read empathy and encouragement for those who suffer. That’s why verses like Romans 5:1-5 and James 1:2-4 are always uplifting when we’re hitting rock bottom.
Third, what does this say for victims of abuse and trauma who are sometimes more or less destined to suffer for life? They have had their identities malformed and the restoration takes not only time, and in many cases a lifetime’s work, but regularly drives them to despair that can lead to self-harm and suicide.
Fourth, in our own world of the self, there is such a hunger to find ways of meaning around suffering. It is as if resilience through suffering is as important today as the issue of heaven and hell was in the 1970s and 1980s. It skews our theology, because we have come to idolize the comfortable life.
Fifth, the quote states that getting God’s anointing must be something of a conquest, one that must be hard to win by crushing, for how else can oil come from God’s cup? This not only places God as the ‘crusher’ (supposedly for our own good), which is potentially abusive theology, but it makes faith something to be acquired, i.e. what other purpose does faith have? but receive the anointing of God? Let me just say that, in my opinion, anyone who has faith in Jesus Christ already has the anointing of God. It’s not about us and what we do or don’t do, it’s about Jesus and what he has done. There is a danger that has crept into Christianity, where it is all about what we can get from God. True Christianity is about what God can get out of us as we live for God’s glory. Now the word “smash” can easily be distorted as a good thing and potentially, and more likely, I’m sure, as a justification for abuse.
Let no one dare trivialize suffering. Jesus went to the cross so that we would be freed from supreme suffering: he took care of the eternal judgment of hell for the true believer.
We cannot afford to go crazy with the idea of suffering, because there are too many people who suffer and do not have a simple remedy to alleviate it.
What do we tell the person with chronic pain? With ongoing clinical depression? With sexual abuse trauma? Or someone who faces the end of life as if through loss? What about the person with special needs? The list goes on. Come on Christian, pull yourself together and treat these matters with the utmost respect and empathy.
The olive tree or branch stands as a symbol of peace. Pray for those who are suffering to have peace, don’t tell them to just take your crush!
When we say, “make 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 that people can receive from God is evident through his compassion. And compassion, I find, is formed in the person who knows suffering, who neither glorifies nor despises it, but has endured it or perhaps continues to endure it, and the person who frequently does not endure it but makes an effort.